Darwen Ladies Football Team 001

The photograph shows Darwen Ladies Football team c. 1922. The two players marked on the back row had a trial match for England. Their names where Fish and Seddon.rnIn 1895 two women’s football teams, representing the North and the South met at Barley Bank football ground, Darwen . A report says “they took the field in `blouses and knickers and caps` and did not look by any means as outrageous as had been expected.” It adds “as to football, a more miserable exhibition we have never witnessed.” Two ladies teams played again at Darwen the following year and once again the reporter was not impressed. He said that the main feature was “the utter absence of any thing like an exhibition of real football.”