The Newton Rangers Team shown here, appears to have been a successor to Newton Rovers. This photo taken in the yard of The New Inn at Newton, includes we believe a teenage Willis Edwards, far right on front row. Willis signed with Chesterfield Town in 1919, so dating this picture perhaps 1917-1918.
Willis Edwards was born in Newton in 1903, and from this
early age was destined to play a part in Football history. In 1911 he was living in Bamford Street Newton with father John, mother Sarah and younger sister Phyllis.
Local club Chesterfield signed him up from Newton Rangers and he was started on a wage of 30 shillings a week. The young half back made his first appearance for the club at 16, in a match against Grimsby in 1919.
Leeds United paid Chesterfield £1,500 for his signature in March 1925.
He was never booked or sent off, his manner an illuminating contrast to that of defenders who bit legs for a pastime. His form was excellent despite United continuing to struggle in the first division and he forced his way into the England team at the end of the 1925-26 season. He was called up to play against Wales, the first of a total of 16 caps.
Following his retirement from playing at 40 years of age, Edwards became assistant to trainer Bob Roxburgh, with responsibility for the reserve team. In April 1947, Edwards was asked to take over as manager with a handful of games left that season and set about the task of building a team good enough to win back United’s Division One status as quickly as possible.
He was a benign man with a wonderful playing pedigree, but lacked the brutish drive to dismantle and reconstruct a team that was in such poor shape. Edwards was undoubtedly a strong and gifted footballer and leader on the field but he did not have the necessary strength of character and ruthless streak off the field to succeed and was clearly out of his depth.
His demotion and the traumas of the struggle did not damage Edwards’ love for the club, however, and he remained a loyal member of the backroom team for well over a decade, stretching his association with Leeds to 35 years.
He died in October 1988 in Leeds, aged 85, having spent the last years of his working life employed in a jam factory.
Much of this history is taken verbatim from http://www.mightyleeds.co.uk under the title :
Willis Edwards – Player 1925-43 and Manager 1947-48
Joe Johnson was born in 1882 in Tibshelf to Laban and Mary Johnson whose family of 2 sons and 2 daughters were living at 30 Brook St. Aged 18 Joe was a coal miner but Football took him from Tibshelf Church team to Newton Rovers to Ripley Athletic to Aston Villa and Plymouth; In 1907 Joe was signed by Crystal Palace FC from Plymouth, returning to Tibshelf to marry Nellie Fewkes in 1908.
From Crystal Palace to Coronation Palace…..In 1911 Joe and Nellie were living in Penge, close to Crystal Palace; their records show Joe , or Josh as he was also known, played 295 games as goal keeper for the Palace from 1907/8 season to 1919, when he was sold to Nottingham Forest. At Forest he made 53 appearances in goal over 2 seasons, 1919-21, and on retirement from Forest in the 1920s according to Edgar Storer he was manager if not the owner, at the Coronation Palace Cinema, later renamed The Metro in Hall Lane Newton.
In 1939 Joe was living at 12 Hall Lane, and was a Poultry Farmer, with his hens in fields on the corner by the Metro Cinema.
Thanks to John Gillespie for the press cutting from the Nottingham Evening Post of June 7 1919.
John Douglas Collins, known as Doug was born in Newton in 1945 to Jack and Annie, following on from 2 older sisters Valerie and Sandra.
Doug joined Grimsby Town as midfielder in 1963 and made 103 appearances in the 5 years before moving to Burnley; there he made 187 appearances during 8 seasons. The 1976/7 season found him at Plymouth Argyll, and 1977/8 at Sunderland before trying a season at Tulsa Roughnecks in Oklahoma 1978/9, returning for a season at Rochdale as player-manager.
Beyond old friends in Newton and district, it is in Burnley that Doug seems best remembered. A Burnley fan recalled on the occasion of Doug’s 80th birthday: “In 1968 I watched the Clarets knock out Grimsby 6-0. But the man of the match was the then Grimsby middy Doug Collins- the fans gave him a standing ovation when he went off…Clarets signed him the next week and the rest is history!”
Another Burnley lad remembered: ” Used to walk past his house to school and back, aged about 8 at the time. I once knocked on his door on my way to school with an autograph book to sign, he said to leave it with him and pick it up on way home. I knocked again on my way home to find he’d taken my autograph book to training and got the whole squad to sign it” (Thanks to Burnley FC fb page for the information)
Doug moved to Australia, where he opened businesses and where he is now retired.