Up the Clarets origin

[Stonehouse]

A Clarets fan on Facebook has posted a list of football clubs nicknames and mentioned that he didn’t think Burnley had been know as the Clarets many years ago ,I said well we used to shout ‘ Up the Clarets ‘ in the mid 50’s but anyone know if we starting getting the nickname as far back as 1910 when we changed colours from green?

[Devils_Advocate]

Our nickname has always been the clarets and was the main reason we eventually changed to wearing a claret coloured strip. I think the nickname dates back to the formation of the club where the inaugural meting was held in the Claret Suite of a local hotel

[Rowls]

Bravo!
Bravo!

[Tribesmen]

The Turfites somehow springs to my mind ?

[Terrier]

Think tribesmen is correct with our nickname prior to the clarets.
Think we started life in green and black and changed to claret and blue copying aston villa

[ClaretPete001]

We became the Clarets because Bob Lord looked into a flaming pie in the middle of a Claret room and the Lord spake thus....

Lord Bob the mighty shall fall at the hands of the meek and the meek shall inherit the earth. Henceforth you will be known as the Clarets. And then the Angel Jibriel entered a Cave and spake 'Ikra Ikra' I have taught what men do not know and I say to you Claret and Blue is the colour for you.

And then Geddy Lee sang 'and the meek shall inherit the earth'...! So, it was true after all.

[Silkyskills1]

When I first went on Turf Moor in the late 1950's into the 1960's our nickname in any football related book or magazine was always 'the Turfites'.

[Buxtonclaret]

Think 'The Clarets' is fairly modern, really.
Remember reading more than once we were the 'Turfites'. But never heard anyone referring to us as them.
In more recent time, the press seem to refer to us as The Clarets.

[Bosscat]

viewtopic.php?t=60898#p1771849

[BigF]

Think tribesmen is correct with our nickname prior to the clarets.
Think we started life in green and black and changed to claret and blue copying Aston villa

I think our original kit was white and sky blue. We had many different kits until 1910 when we decided to copy Aston Villa with Claret and Blue. (As someone mentioned earlier we did have a green kit from about 1900 until 1910)

[Culmclaret]

We also had the nickname the Royalites in the late nineteenth century following Prince Albert Victor’s visit to TM in 1886, following his opening of the hospital.

[Bosscat]

Maybe we should now be "The Kingsmen"

1194040 (1).jpg (27.74 KiB) Viewed 3052 times

[Claretmutt]

I remember a guy outside turf selling
top hat pin badges with turfy toppers
printed on them. That was 1966. Glad that
name didn’t stick.

[Goalkeeper]

Our nickname has always been the clarets and was the main reason we eventually changed to wearing a claret coloured strip. I think the nickname dates back to the formation of the club where the inaugural meting was held in the Claret Suite of a local hotel

Why do you even bother. Just tiresome.

[blatherwickstattoos]

The turfites is really really sh@t. Thank god Aston Villa are the villans and West Ham are the hammers

[elwaclaret]

Maybe we should now be "The Kingsmen"
1194040 (1).jpg

We were known as the “Royalites” after King George V visited the Turf for a game against Bolton (if memory serves for the switch on of the floodlights for our first night game) shortly after he had presented the team with the FA Cup, which itself had been the first reigning monarch to attend a football match…. But it was not the first Royal to do so that was years earlier in 1886, when Turf Moor became the first football ground to be visited by a member of the Royal Family, when Prince Albert Victor attended , by coincidence also against Bolton Wanderers.

[Rowls]

We were known as the “Royalites” after King George V visited the Turf for a game against Bolton (if memory serves for the switch on of the floodlights for our first night game) shortly after he had presented the team with the FA Cup, which itself had been the first reigning monarch to attend a football match…. But it was not the first Royal to do so that was years earlier in 1886, when Turf Moor became the first football ground to be visited by a member of the Royal Family, when Prince Albert Victor attended , by coincidence also against Bolton Wanderers.

Cripes! You must be old.

But on a serious note that’s very interesting and it links up well with the support we enjoy of the current King Charles III

[Pickles]

Turfites are Royalites are really rubbish names.

Maybe next season Burnley will play in actual claret otherwise we might soon have to shout "up the Purples!"

[Tricky Trevor]

Not arguing with anything above but for me Turfites sounds more like the supporters whilst Clarets is the team and supporters.

[IanMcL]

The Turfites somehow springs to my mind ?

I had a football card when a boy beginning of 60s. It had us as The Turfites.

[Row x]

Not arguing with anything above but for me Turfites sounds more like the supporters whilst Clarets is the team and supporters.

I don't recall us being referred to "the clarets" in the 60s or 70s, but remember there wasn't any social media etc so the only reporting on the club was the reports in the papers, when nicknames weren't used

[Tribesmen]

I remember a guy outside turf selling
top hat pin badges with turfy toppers
printed on them. That was 1966. Glad that
name didn’t stick.

I have that badge somewhere , glad you said it as I was wondering if it was turfie or turfy .

[Bfc]

Some of the responses are totally in accurate. Floodlight switching on after the 1914 cup final?. They were switched on officially for a friendly game v Bstds in the mid fifties and No the Queen wasn’t there. Pre 1900 their was a form of lighting up the field of play, when 50 gallon drums, filled with oil or paraffin were placed around the pitch were set alight. Imagine that today, with health and safety.
As mentioned the Royalites was an adopted nickname, as said, because we were the first team to have a game watched by Royalty. Without delving into some of my club history, I’m not sure if we had been awarded the Kings approval to have the Royal Heraldry-badge sawn into the shirt, for that game, or the Cup Final shirt.
Nicknames of clubs in the 1900 era wasn’t anything like today’s naming. It was more like the hotspurs and wanderers era. I’m just thankful we didn’t carry the Burnley Rovers name into our joining the Football League.

[Commy]

I had a hat with Turfites written on the front.

[mikeS]

It was Prince Albert Victor who was the first Royal to visit the Turf in 1886. He was in Burnley to open the newly built Victoria hospital and took in a friendly game vs Bolton Wanderers in the afternoon.
King George the v was the monarch who attended the 1914 Cup final, presenting the Cup and medals to the Burnley team.
There have been many royal visits to Burnley down the years but to my knowledge no actual King has visited Turf Moor. The Queen visited, meeting Chairman Barry Kilby along with the Duke of Edinburgh and Charles visited as Prince of Wales. But no king. Not yet anyway. Hopefully King Charles will visit in Burnleys year of Culture in 2027.

CE30C9F3-D309-4385-AAB1-CA8F69FF9BEB.jpeg (301.7 KiB) Viewed 2213 times

[sjb]

We were known as the “Royalites” after King George V visited the Turf for a game against Bolton (if memory serves for the switch on of the floodlights for our first night game) shortly after he had presented the team with the FA Cup, which itself had been the first reigning monarch to attend a football match…. But it was not the first Royal to do so that was years earlier in 1886, when Turf Moor became the first football ground to be visited by a member of the Royal Family, when Prince Albert Victor attended , by coincidence also against Bolton Wanderers.

The first half of this is absolute rubbish. Bfc & MikeS are accurate.

[SlidingTackle]

Clearly 'Up the Clarets' was a well established thing when I first started going to Turf Moor at the beginning of the 1970s - the book of the same name by the Rev. David Wiseman (a season by season history) was first published in 1973, and obviously, as a commercial venture, wouldn't have had the name if it wasn't in popular usage by then.

Maybe though, the book gave it more traction? However, I'd like to think 'Up the Clarets' was much used phrase long before this - back when we were at the pinnacle of our illustrious history in the late 1950s and 1960s?

[turfytopper]

A Clarets fan on Facebook has posted a list of football clubs nicknames and mentioned that he didn’t think Burnley had been know as the Clarets many years ago ,I said well we used to shout ‘ Up the Clarets ‘ in the mid 50’s but anyone know if we starting getting the nickname as far back as 1910 when we changed colours from green?

Your post does not reflect the post on Fbook? The original post gave a list of clubs nicknames from decades ago. Burnley was listed as "Turfites". The post from the Clarets fan suggested that The Clarets may not have been adopted "THE CLARETS" until the early 70's...though he clearly said he wasn't certain and that he was happy to be corrected.

[turfytopper]

Clearly 'Up the Clarets' was a well established thing when I first started going to Turf Moor at the beginning of the 1970s - the book of the same name by the Rev. David Wiseman (a season by season history) was first published in 1973, and obviously, as a commercial venture, wouldn't have had the name if it wasn't in popular usage by then.

Maybe though, the book gave it more traction? However, I'd like to think 'Up the Clarets' was much used phrase long before this - back when we were at the pinnacle of our illustrious history in the late 1950s and 1960s?

I own the book and am certain that it gave traction to "The Clarets". I will happily check through my programmes from the 60's and see if "The Clarets" is referenced anywhere. That said I'm sure people "Up The Clarets" was an established term of the day...as was Up the Reds and up the Blues.

[turfytopper]

I have that badge somewhere , glad you said it as I was wondering if it was turfie or turfy .

It stuck with me lol

[Pickles]

Have we ever been called the Bulls? Considering the name of the pub the club was founded in

[Spike]

I have that badge somewhere , glad you said it as I was wondering if it was turfie or turfy .

Turfy Topper was the mascot

[elwaclaret]

Some of the responses are totally in accurate. Floodlight switching on after the 1914 cup final?. They were switched on officially for a friendly game v Bstds in the mid fifties and No the Queen wasn’t there. Pre 1900 their was a form of lighting up the field of play, when 50 gallon drums, filled with oil or paraffin were placed around the pitch were set alight. Imagine that today, with health and safety.
As mentioned the Royalites was an adopted nickname, as said, because we were the first team to have a game watched by Royalty. Without delving into some of my club history, I’m not sure if we had been awarded the Kings approval to have the Royal Heraldry-badge sawn into the shirt, for that game, or the Cup Final shirt.
Nicknames of clubs in the 1900 era wasn’t anything like today’s naming. It was more like the hotspurs and wanderers era. I’m just thankful we didn’t carry the Burnley Rovers name into our joining the Football League.

I may be in error about King Goeorge’s visit, it is beyond the period of my research (MA history paper up to 1890). But the Prince’s visit mentioned is accurate.

We were called Rovers because in our pre-history we had roved around Burnley playing games on rented grounds, usually having a home for a season or two before moving (several times in Worsthorne). It was our third stop at Turf Moor, named after land on General Scarlett’s race track of that name that Turf Moor became our permanent home.

[elwaclaret]

Apologies, King George’s visit was 1913 and was to Gawthorpe Hall rather than the Turf.

https://lancashiremuseumsstories.wordpr ... e-in-1913/

[elwaclaret]

With regards to my research we could easily have been Burnley Albion as the original club was formed with the opening of a new shed at Albion weaving mill, with the purpose of encouraging out of work weavers from east Lancashire towns to bring their weaving skills to the town. The football team was organised at a pub then opposite the mill (have names in my research). My M-Res Paper was concerned with the rise of the Lancashire FA into the formation of the Football League. With regards Burnley’s pre-history most of it is waiting for me to do something with and still sat in piles of primary sources (along with many other side projects that resulted from my academic studies).

[Stonehouse]

Your post does not reflect the post on Fbook? The original post gave a list of clubs nicknames from decades ago. Burnley was listed as "Turfites". The post from the Clarets fan suggested that The Clarets may not have been adopted "THE CLARETS" until the early 70's...though he clearly said he wasn't certain and that he was happy to be corrected.

Think I must have confused you with my post ,one of the comments was that he’d always known Burnley as the Clarets and a discussion started about that.

[Bfc]

elwaclaret, before we permanently moved to Turf Moor, we played our games at Calder Vale. I have tried to find the exact site of the playing field through different methods, but was never able to pin it down.
Burnley Cricket Club had taken note of the income generated from football crowds watching the football games. They approached the team with an offer a piece of ground attached to the cricket pitch and give the team a new football strip. With that offer they upped sticks and moved to play at the cricket club. What the team found out when the pitch had been marked out, was it being a lot smaller than the expected size. The Cricket Club committee soon realised that instead of spectators paying for entry, they just stood on Brunshaw Rd and watched the game for nothing. Later they put tarpaulin sheets up to stop the spectators on Brunshaw Rd having free viewing. The team still weren’t happy with the pitch and returned to play at Calder Vale. I have never known the team play their games in Worsthorne. They maybe played friendlies against them, but not as a resident team of the Village. As far as the Roving around areas, led to the name Rovers, I take that with a pinch of salt. Turf Moor was a named area around the site of the Fire Station on Belvedere Rd, where in the early days, peat was extracted. There was large auction sale of lands and buildings which formed part of the Thursby Estate around 1923, which included Burnley Football and Cricket grounds, which I have a copy of details of the size of the area for sale. All I’ve just typed, is from memory, without looking through books to research my comments and I think it will be accurate.

[Bfc]

Re the Albion Mill and the chance we could have been named Burnley Albion. We couldn’t have been. The Albion Mill wasn’t built until 1890, 2 years after we had joined the Football League.

[Juan Tanamera]

I don't recall us being referred to "the clarets" in the 60s or 70s, but remember there wasn't any social media etc so the only reporting on the club was the reports in the papers, when nicknames weren't used

When I was at secondary (high) school 1965 to 70 I used to work summers on our local farm run by two brothers and they used to sing "Up The Claret's, Up The Claret's, Up The Claret and The Blues"

[elwaclaret]

elwaclaret, before we permanently moved to Turf Moor, we played our games at Calder Vale. I have tried to find the exact site of the playing field through different methods, but was never able to pin it down.
Burnley Cricket Club had taken note of the income generated from football crowds watching the football games. They approached the team with an offer a piece of ground attached to the cricket pitch and give the team a new football strip. With that offer they upped sticks and moved to play at the cricket club. What the team found out when the pitch had been marked out, was it being a lot smaller than the expected size. The Cricket Club committee soon realised that instead of spectators paying for entry, they just stood on Brunshaw Rd and watched the game for nothing. Later they put tarpaulin sheets up to stop the spectators on Brunshaw Rd having free viewing. The team still weren’t happy with the pitch and returned to play at Calder Vale. I have never known the team play their games in Worsthorne. They maybe played friendlies against them, but not as a resident team of the Village. As far as the Roving around areas, led to the name Rovers, I take that with a pinch of salt. Turf Moor was a named area around the site of the Fire Station on Belvedere Rd, where in the early days, peat was extracted. There was large auction sale of lands and buildings which formed part of the Thursby Estate around 1923, which included Burnley Football and Cricket grounds, which I have a copy of details of the size of the area for sale. All I’ve just typed, is from memory, without looking through books to research my comments and I think it will be accurate.

Indeed they played at Calder Vale. What was played was a hybrid game known as football… the rugby code had not yet been formally established at the time the Lancashire FA adopted “London Rules”. I am unwilling to speculate on sequencing or dates for Burnley’s moves around the town, but once I organise the research I would be able to. As I say all my research is based on primary sources from archives (contemporary documents) and comes from the same sources as my work marked for my masters degree; which deals with the ins and out of Association football’s development up to the birth of the Football League. My academic paper on this has been passed by recognised academic football historians (marking is not just done by your University but sent to 4 nationally recognised academic experts in the specific field of study for marking, before a paper is passed). As I said, what I’m talking about is the pre-history of the club… before the final move to Turf Moor, which is comparatively fairly well documented in secondary sources (eg books). Most of my research is new and by necessity (the level of qualification) is from Primary sources and not from previously published material (secondary).

[elwaclaret]

Re the Albion Mill and the chance we could have been named Burnley Albion. We couldn’t have been. The Albion Mill wasn’t built until 1890, 2 years after we had joined the Football League.

There was an earlier mill of the same name, which was a series of weaving sheds, the new mill consolidated weaving and spinning under one roof… I have also done quite a lot of work on the Cotton famine, which was going to be my paper, but there were not enough experts available nationally to mediate it; hence I moved onto the football paper. Leading Peterloo expert Prof. Robert Poole was keen that I do the Cotton famine paper as it is a sadly neglected academic study, another project I am yet to revisit, but have all the source material awaiting attention.

[Bfc]

elwaclaret, if I can help you fill in any research gaps you may have in our history. Leave an E mail address and I will contact you back.

[elwaclaret]

elwaclaret, if I can help you fill in any research gaps you may have in our history. Leave an E mail address and I will contact you back.

I’d love to compare notes, but I’ll be honest that I have three projects on the go currently, two that will be going to the proof readers as soon as my dad is released from hospital (the Trent Affair - an American Civil War spat where a British mail ship was captured by the US that nearly brought Britain to war against the States) and a Historic fiction (based on deep research into the Satanti Celtic tribe that was allied to the Bragantes that had its home in East Lancs). But once they’re running I’d love to collaborate, it makes it a lot easier to keep going.

[Bfc]

Whenever you’re ready, but in the meantime if you do think of something. Get in touch and good luck with everything else, you’ve got going on around you.

[elwaclaret]

Whenever you’re ready, but in the meantime if you do think of something. Get in touch and good luck with everything else, you’ve got going on around you.

Cheers Bfc will do. Could do with a little luck, my 90yo Dad’s been coming home for the past two weeks, but is still on the dementia ward due to lack of home carers to settle him in. I’m there everyday for the last three months as the one time I missed my 78 yo mum passed out in the car park from exhaustion trying to get home and was robbed as she lay unconscious in the hospital carpark. So, everything as been on hold since.
Just been looking which email would be best… I set one up for each project, so I’ll set one up and post it to you.