Historical Football Kits

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Bury

Formed 1885

Elected to Division Two 1894

Kit History

Background

Today Bury are a modest club, struggling to survive in the Manchester metropolitan area against competition from big city clubs but once they were among the aristocrats of Lancashire football. Formed in 1885 at a public meeting in the White Horse Hotel in the centre of the town, the club rose to local prominence very quickly. Passed over when the Football League was formed, Bury became founder members of the Lancashire League in 1889. Before a Lancashire Senior Cup match against Everton, the club chairman JT Ingham announced, "We'll give 'em a shakin'. In fact, we are the Shakers." This has remained the club's nickname to this day. They started out wearing chocolate and light blue shirts but by the time Bury joined the League, plain white shirts had been adopted.

In 1894 Bury succesfully applied for a place in the expanded Football League Second Division. After winning all 15 of their home games, they won a test match against Liverpool, who had finished bottom of Division One, to secure promotion in their first season in the League. In 1900 the Shakers won the FA Cup, beating Southern League Southampton 4-0 at Crystal Palace. In 1903, they won the cup again, beating Derby County by 6-0, still a record score for a final. In 1912, Bury were relegated and spent the next 12 years in Division Two. Immediately after the First World War, the club was unable to get hold of their traditional white shirts so turned out in red and white hoops for a couple of seasons. Promoted in 1924, they remained for five seasons in Division One, finishing in in fourth place in 1926, before dropping back into the Second Division and they have never returned to the top flight since.For the next twenty-six years, the Shakers stayed in Division Two, generally in or below mid-table. Then in 1957 came relegation to Division Three (North) where they played for a single season before being placed in Division Three when the regional divisions were scrapped in 1958. In 1961, Bury were crowned Division Three champions and returned to the Second division, where they stayed for six years. With more clubs now promoted and relegated each season, Bury went up and down with bewildering frequency. Relegated to Division Three in 1967, they were back after only one season only to suffer relegation again immediately and in 1971 they dropped into the Fourth Division. 1974 brought promotion back to the Third but six years later they were back in the basement. This pattern continued with Bury moving between the lowest two division until successive promotions in 1996 and 1997 took them up to Nationwide Division One (the old Second Division).

Sadly, in 1999 they slipped back down on goal difference and by 2002 they had dropped back into the lowest division. Bury face a constant struggle to survive, selling on promising players at the expense of building long-term success.

Sources

• (a) Bury FC - Images of Sport (Peter Cullen 1998)
• (b) Gillingham FC - Images of Sport (Roger Triggs 1999)
• (c) Football Focus
• (d) Leyton Orient FC - Images of Sport (Neilson N Kaufman 2001)
• (e) Rotherham United - Images of Sport (Gerry Somerton & Chas Robinson 2000)
• (f) Southend United FC - Images of Sport (Peter Miles & David Goody 2000)
• (g) empics
• (h) Bury FC Official Website
• (i) Pete's Picture Palace
• (j) Mighty Shakers
• (k) Ralph Pomeroy
• (l) The Official History of Bury FC - provided by Greger Lindberg
• (m) David King
• (n) Alick Milne