Dear Members of the Kingswood History Society

I hope that you don’t mind me contacting you.

I am researching evidence of football prior to 1860. There is far more of it than hitherto thought. The British Newspaper Archive has brought much to light from c1740 and has already upset the orthodox account of football’s origins.

Having discovered a number of pre-modern references to football in the West Country, I am interested to know of any further references to football in the Kingswood area.

I am prepared to make a donation to your group/organisation if delving and digging is required.

Research to date has indicated that some of the most fruitful primary sources are found in plans and maps (including place and road names), land ownership, tenancy and transfer of ownership documents, ecclesiastical and local petty session hearings, diaries and accounts of local events.

My aim is to uncover what evidence there may be to support the possibility that organised football, with rules, was commonplace in the British Isles several centuries before its accepted birth in the mid-nineteenth century.

Your help would be much appreciated. Each additional fragment of evidence adds weight to the possibility.

Please feel free to contact me on:

Home: 01379 890197 Mobile: 07936 031632

Email: barker655@btinternet.com

Bunny Hollow, Warrens Lane, Botesdale, Diss, Norfolk. IP22 1BW

Yours

Stephen Barker