Harold Hill of Blackwell, Chesterfield, Mansfield Town, Notts County and Sheffield Wednesday
Harold was born in 1899 to John and Mary Hill, and in 1901 they were living at 127 Primrose Hill, next door to Billy Foulkes cousin Thomas. Also there were his 2 elder brothers John and Samuel, a baby sister Edith and his maternal grandfather John Williams.
By 1911 the family had increased with the additions of Gladys, Annie, Arthur and Ernest. Harold was still at school aged 12, but aged 14 to 18, Harold was playing amateur football with Birdholme Rovers, followed by a season with New Hucknall Colliery, and went professional with a move to Notts County for 6 seasons, followed by Sheffield Wednesday for 5 seasons. Harold enjoyed an unusually long playing history with 3 seasons at Scarborough from 1929, one with Chesterfield in 1932 and one with Mansfield Town in 1933, before a season with Sutton Town and Blackwell Colliery. And he wasn’t often kept on the bench with 275 appearances and 94 goals as shown in this record below from https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Harold_Hill_(footballer)
Harold ensured Notts County moved into the 1st Division, on the last day of the 1922/3 season.
The situation on the morning of 5th May 1923 was that 3 teams were leading the 2nd Division table on 51
points, West Ham, Leicester and Notts County. West Ham were leading on goal average, followed by Leicester and then County. Leicester lost at home to Bury, and at West Ham, Notts County won 1-0 against the home team, Harold Hill being the star of the day!
By 1939 Harold had moved back to coal mining, and was living on Cambridge St with wife Florence and family.
Harold’s son Harold Jnr, born 1920, was aslo a well known footballer in Blackwell; this cutting from the Sheffield Green ‘Un Sports Newspaper tells of his captaining the Blackwell Welfare FC in a match against Gedling Colliery, and making his mark in what is described as ” A TERRIFIC GAME!”.
