Please note: The museum will be closed on Wednesday 27 March 2024 for a private event.

Research

Arnold Kirke-Smith's England shirt, 1872

Arnold Kirke-Smith’s England shirt, 1872

The National Football Museum holds the finest and most significant football collection in the world. We are committed to researching our collection and related subjects to explain how and why football has become the most popular sport in the world. This is mainly achieved through a partnership with the University of Central Lancashire that established the International Football Institute in 2003.

We work closely with a committed group of Academic Supporters from all over the world and in partnership on research projects with the International Centre for Sport History and Culture at De Montfort University, Leicester.

RESEARCH VISITORS

The Collections & Research Centre, at Deepdale, Preston, houses the National Football Museum’s archive and we welcome all research visitors, both academic and non-academic. The Centre is open on Tuesdays, occasionally on other days, and appointments can be made by contacting one of the Collections team by email (collections@nationalfootballmuseum.com) or by telephoning the museum. A summary list of the main archives held by the museum is below but this is by no means exhaustive.

Please note: There is a £5 charge for the use of digital photography for research purposes.

Books and archives held at the National Football Museum Collections and Research Centre, Preston.

1. The Football League Collection
• Players’ registration books 1890 to 1992 (records the player’s name, date of registration and games played but not goals scored, for all Football League clubs)

• Gate books 1925-26 to 1990-91. Records the official attendance plus percentages to the government and FL, and policing costs in later years

• Transfer lists 1912-13 to 1961-62 for every Football League club (four seasons missing)

2. The FA Collection
• FA minute books 1886 to 1977. Contains information on Laws changes, annual accounts, International selection, Cup draws, players suspensions etc
• Lists of professional players registered with the FA, 1894 to 1920

3. The Preston North End Collection
• Directors minute books 1913 to 1973
• Annual reports 1894 to 1992 (four missing)
• Other minute books 1920s & 1930s (Finance, Executive and Selection)
• AGM minutes 1906 to 1975
• Gate books showing numbers of fans who came through every turnstile with cost of admission, for every game played at Deepdale, 1926 to 1976
• Shareholders lists 1893 to 1950
• Share transfers 1938 to 1993
• Teams sheets, including officials marks 1929 to 1977, with a few earlier seasons
• Players watched reports 1925 to 1937
• Wages books 1921 to 1967
• Cash books. Various from 1893 to 1970s
• Ground plans of Deepdale stadium
• Insurance policies
• Lancashire Combination & Central League minutes: some pre-WW1 seasons

4. The Bury FC Collection
• Director’s minute books 1887 to 1983
• Match receipts 1892 to 1971
• Seasons records 1923 to 1947
• Wage books 1891 to 1948
• Correspondence 1938 to 1943

5. The Littlewoods Pools Collection
• Pools coupons, 1930s to 1990s
• Pools winners photographs and press cuttings 1940s to 1990s
• Photographs of Company events (Miss Littlewood competition, outing to Blackpool, retirements etc)
• In-house company magazine (Littlewoods Review) 1946 to 1965
• Miscellaneous books on how to win the Pools

6. Handbooks
• FA Handbooks: selection from 1960s to 2000s
• English Schools FA handbooks 1989 to 1998
• Football League Handbooks 1922 to 1999 with a few missing. Digital copies of some earlier ones.
• Premier League handbooks 1992 to 1999

7. Annuals & Yearbooks
• Rothmans/Sky Sports yearbook, 1970 to present
• The Football Annual (ed. Charles Alcock) 1871 to 1873, 1876 10 1886, 1888 to 1889, 1892 10 1894
• Gamages Football Annual 1909 to 1930
• Athletic News Annual 1891 to 1948
• Sunday Chronicle Football Annual 1949 to 1955
• Empire News & Sunday Chronicle/ News of the World 1956 10 1995
• News Chronicle 1930 to 1939, 1947 to 1962
• Nottingham Post Football Guide 1948 to 1975 and a few earlier (1910, 1923, 1925, 1934)
• Nottingham Journal Football Guide 1923 to 1932, 1935 to 1937, 1939
• Playfair Annual 1948 to 1968
• Lancashire Daily Post handbooks 1914 to 1938
• Sports Argus 1960 to 1967
• Sheffield Telegraph 1949 to 1955
• Racing & Football outlook 1951 to 1972
• Odd copies of other annuals: eg Lengs, Findons, Littlewoods, Empire News, Daily News & Leader, Topical Times etc
• FA Yearbook 1949 to 2000

8. Magazines
• FA News 1957 to 1974
• The Football Referee 1940s to 2000s with a few earlier
• Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly 1951 to 1967
• Shoot 1969 to 1996
• When Saturday Comes 1988 to present
• Four Four Two 1994 to 2001
• Match of the Day 1998 to present
• Football 1974 to 1982
• 90 minutes 1990 to 1992
• Football Today 1987 to 1990
• Match Weekly 1979 to 1980
• Football Star 1965 to 1970
• FIFA magazine 1983 to 1995
• FIFA News 1967 to 1983
• FIFA Bulletins: selection from 1954 to 1964 (15 in total)

9. Schoolboy’s annuals
• Charles Buchan’s Soccer Gift Book: 1954 to 1967, 1969, 1971
• FA Book for Boys: 1948, 1950, 1952, 1955 to 1960, 1966 to 1969
• Shoot annual: 1979, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1991
• Topical Times Football annual: 1960 to 1966, 1970 to 1972, 1974, 1977 to 1978, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1990
• Boys Book of Soccer: 1951 to 1967
• Roy of the Rovers: 1979 to 1982, 1988 to 1989, 1990 t0 1992
• The International Football Book: numbers 1-5, 9-16, 21-22
• Many other annuals in smaller numbers

10. Fanzines
The Manchester Metropolitan University Collection, consisting of about 600 different club fanzines

11. Newspapers
• Athletics News original newspapers 1875 to 1884 (bound copies)
• Sporting Chronicle and Athletic News 1948 to 1949, 1951 to 1953 (bound copies)
• Bells Life in London 1862 to 1867 (bound copies)

12. Books
Library of over 2000 books on football including early books such as Famous footballers of 1895, The Book of Football 1908, autobiographies, club histories….etc

13. Programmes
• Examples of post war programmes for most football clubs
• Bound reproduction copies of the programme “The Chelsea Chronicle”, 1906 to 1915

14. “Kicking & Screaming” archive
DVD copies of over 200 hours of interviews with players and fans, produced by the BBC in 1994 as a unique oral history of the game.