Football
After the arrival of the Great Western Railway in Swindon in the 1830s, Swindon's population soared from 1,200 to 19,000. This was divided between the communities of Old and New Swindon, with the majority in New Swindon where the GWR Works were located. Pitt used the formation of a football team to attempt to unite the communities.
Whilst curate of Christ Church, the high church of Swindon, he was recorded as being the captain of Swindon Association Football Club in 1879. Pitt had formed this club to provide recreation for the young men of his parish, part of the diocese of Clifton, which was a theme for the creation of many football clubs founded in this period with 'muscular Christianity' being the vogue. The team played their only recorded match on November 29, 1879 against Rovers F.C.
Pitt recalled the foundation of this club in speech given in September 1911 -
"He thought he might venture to say that he was the father of the Swindon Football Club. It was in the autumn of 1879 that some young fellows belonging to the Swindon factory met with him in the King William Street school to organise a club They decided to call it the Swindon Association Football Club, but they found the name rather a mouthful to shout out, so they changed the name to the Spartans. They played the first game on a field not far away, it being kindly lent by Mr Hooper Deacon, who was always a friend of sport."
Pitt was still a member of the Spartans F.C. team when they played St. Mark's Young Men's Friendly Society on November 12, 1881, after which the two teams merged under the name Swindon Football Club.
Appointed as the rector of Liddington in 1881, Pitt ceased his active involvement in the club, relating in 1911 (then a prebendary) -
"the rev. gentleman mentioned that his removal from Swindon caused his severance with the club"
The team was renamed Swindon Town Football Club in 1883, but confusion as to the official date of establishment remained until 2007. The current club used the date of the 1881 match with St Marks, whilst some fans and researchers insist upon 1879. This led to the club's researcher and retail manager Paul Plowman integrating an "Est. 1879" tag onto the teams kit in 1995 which was removed in 1996.
The club officially recognised the 1879 establishment in 2007 and integrated the date onto the teams badge.
Read more about this topic: William Baker Pitt
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