Willie Layton was born in 1874 in Lower Gornal Staffordshire to William and Elizabeth Nee Smith. He was the first born of three sons and 3 daughters. Like other families drawn to the deep mines and new houses of Blackwell, the family moved here between 1885 and 1891, by which date they were in Primrose Hill and William was working in the coal mine.
Willie married Elizabeth Surgey of South Normanton in 1895, and by 1901 they had 3 children, John, Edith and Lillian, and they had moved to Wadsley Bridge in the Hillsborough ward of Sheffield. Lillian had died in 1902 and a second son, Willie junior was born in 1904.
Willie had left the coal mines to become a professional footballer with Sheffield Wednesday, signing with them in 1897, after playing both for Blackwell Colliery and Chesterfield. In it’s football report of November 12th 1895, The Sheffield Daily Telegraph shows that Willie had been in the Sheffield Wednesday Reserve Team on the previous afternoon, the 11th. He had given up his shift on that day so that he was available to play in that match. That decision saved him from the explosion at A Winning Colliery in which seven of his fellow miners lost their lives.
With Wednesday he had 331 appearances during the 12 years he was with them; during that time he played as part of the team that won the First Division title in 1902–03 and 1903–04. He was also in the team that won the FA Cup in 1906–07.
As his footballing career slowed, there was a change of direction and by 1911 Willie was landlord of The Butchers Arms in Whitwell, but a makoor change in direction followed for him and his family.
In 1912 with brother Edward he left England to travel across Australia, where they intended to play for a couple of years. However Willie met someone and appears to have changed direction, marrying bigamously and starting a second family in New South Wales. On the occasion of the unveiling of a plaque to Willie at Blackwell Community Centre in 2024. two of his granddaughters have written a tribute to their grandfather which can be read on the link below, and we thank them for the photos and history of Willie in Australia.
Willie passed away in 1944, aged 68.