Brian Clough - Childhood

Childhood

Born at 11 Valley Road, an interwar council house in Grove Hill, Middlesbrough, Brian Clough was the sixth of nine children of a local sweet shop worker, later sugar boiler and then manager. The eldest, Elizabeth, died in 1927 of septicaemia at the age of four. When talking of his childhood he said he "adored it in all its aspects. If anyone should be grateful for their upbringing, for their mam and dad, I'm that person. I was the kid who came from a little part of paradise." On his upbringing in Middlesbrough, Clough claimed that it was not the nicest place in the world, "But to me it was heaven". "Everything I have done, everything I've achieved, everything that I can think of that has directed and affected my life – apart from the drink – stemmed from my childhood. Maybe it was the constant sight of Mam, with eight children to look after, working from morning until night, working harder than you or I have ever worked."

Although a naturally bright child, in 1946 Clough failed his Eleven-plus exam, and attended Marton Grove Secondary Modern school. He later admitted in his autobiography that he had neglected his lessons in favour of sport, although at school he became head boy. Oddly enough, Clough stated in his autobiography 'Walking on Water' that cricket, rather than football, was his first love as a youngster, and that he'd have much rather scored a test century at Lords than a hat-trick at Wembley. Clough left school in 1950 without any qualifications, to work at ICI and did his national service in the RAF Regiment between 1953 and 1955.