PLAYERS CONTRACT 1928

I don't think it was a club house.

I suspect that the manager and players tended to live within walking distance of Plainmoor because they had to walk to work!

Thanks for posting the contract up - fascinating stuff. I am amazed you managed to outbid Lord "Deep Pockets" Budleigh to get it though!

Old Percy was never forgiven by some in Pontypridd for raiding their players.

Much of St Margaret’s Avenue is part of the Westhill estate built by Torquay Council in the 1920s.

Number 46 is one of a block of six towards the Westhill Road end (on the school side); these houses being built in a different style to those around them. Possibly quite new when Percy arrived?

Here we see Percy signing Arthur Chamberlain from Notts County just a few days after the conclusion of Torquay United’s inaugural season in the Football League. That had been none too successful so it was clear the manager was doing his shopping early for the next campaign. Indeed, old Percy was a busy man that summer as he attempted to overhaul the squad. Of the twenty-six players who eventually played during 1928/29, only a handful had appeared during the previous season.

Chamberlain played eleven games during that 1928/29 season before apparently returning home to play for Worksop Town. Netherfield, where he lived, was a small community based around railway works several miles to the east of Nottingham.

In that way Chamberlain - coming from north of Birmingham - would have been a typical Mackrill signing and pretty indicative of who played professional football in those days.

I’ve checked the centenary history and, of those twenty-six who played during 1928/29, the only Devonian appears to be the Torquinian Sid Cann. Of the remainder there were a couple of Bristolians and a Welshman. The other twenty-two were from the Midlands and further north including two Lancastrians, six Yorkshiremen, five from the North East and four Scots. Amongst that lot Arthur Chamberlain would almost have been seen as a southerner.

The pattern was true too for the clubs from which they signed. Several joined from Argyle and other clubs in the southern half of the country. But more a dozen arrived directly from clubs in the north of England with others joining from teams in Scotland and the Midlands.

Just another couple of photos, please repost if needed Dave many thanks