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THE 137-year old origins of Premier League football in Liverpool have been uncovered by The Museum of Liverpool’s archaeology team.

Remains of the Queen’s Head Hotel, the historic venue where St Domingo’s Football Club became Everton Football Club in November 1879, has been uncovered for the first time in almost half-a-century.

The Museum of Liverpool’s archaeology team, led by Dr Liz Stewart and Dr Mark Adams, have uncovered the site of the hotel, demolished between 1969 and 1972.

What’s more, archaeologists have unearthed artefacts and fragments originally attached to the pub – including one find which has resonated with modern football fans.

Dr Stewart explains: “Archaeologists usually deal with broken fragments, and can spend hours doing three-dimensional jigsaws to put things back together, but one find from the Queen’s Head is complete: a small stoneware jar.

“This is consistent with a 19th century date, but they were produced well into the 20th century.

“Members of the Everton F.C. Heritage Society wax lyrical about this being the ink-pot in which the pen was dipped to sign the agreement for the name-change.

“We’ll never be able to prove it one way or the other, but it’s a good story!”

The Queen’s Head Hotel was where members of St Domingo’s Football Club, a church team who proved so popular they attracted interest from potential players outside the parish, agreed to change their name to Everton Football Club.

The pub landlord’s son, John W. Clarke, was the first secretary of the club, and their meetings were held at the pub in those formative years when they first played in Stanley Park.

Liverpool Museum’s excavations, almost three metres below the current land surface, unearthed the original western wall of the Hotel, between the pub and its neighbouring house.

Alongside it is what initially appears to be a brick floor, but is later considered to be support for floor joists.

It seems that when the buildings were demolished along the street, their foundations were left in place, and a considerable amount of material remained on site, to be covered by topsoil and landscaped into the park.

Dr Stewart added: “Some of the other finds are highly evocative of a 19th century pub: decorative tiles which would have adorned the walls and given a luxurious feel; glass bottles in which drinks would have been stored and served; and oyster shells.

“All tell the story of people relaxing in cosy surroundings with a drink and a snack.”

Digging on the site began last summer after detailed investigative work to identify the site, led by former Echo Sports Editor Ken Rogers.

The pub, on the now demolished Village Street, was a stone’s throw from the famous tower which has been incorporated in Everton’s club crest since 1938, and the site of the old Toffee Shop, from which the club takes its nickname.

The pub building, one in a terraced row, would have been at the heart of old Everton Village until wholesale redevelopment in the 1960s reshaped that area of Liverpool.

The Queen’s Head was constructed around 1830, and first appears on Gage’s Plan of Liverpool in 1836.

It almost certainly started life as an ordinary domestic house.

A photograph taken in the 1960s shows a plain looking building almost indistinguishable from the houses next door to it. However, a map published in 1847 names it as the ‘Queen’s Head’ and it was probably one of a rash of pubs opened following the Beer Act of 1830.

Officially this was “an Act to permit the general Sale of Beer and Cyder by Retail in England”. This legislation enabled any rate-payer to open a Beer House in return for a one-off payment of two guineas and aimed to reduce the impact of the gin palaces on working-class drinking habits.

The building may only have had one room on the ground floor, but maps also show that there was also a paved area in front which might have been used.

Research by Ken Rogers revealed that the Queen’s Head’s last landlord was Edwin Pike who closed it in 1895 in the face of increasingly strict legislation on pubs.

The property lay empty for two years until, in 1897, it began to deal in milk instead of beer.

Mrs A Sutton, described as a Cow Keeper, moved in with her animals and started one of many urban dairies supplying fresh milk locally.

The dairy continued to operate, under the name Holmes Dairy until around 1960.

Everton later adopted the still-flourishing Sandon Hotel as a base when the club moved to Anfield.

But their original base, the Queen’s Head Hotel, has now been brought back to life … thanks to the work of Liverpool Museum’s archaeological team.

From St Domingo's to Everton

The Sunday School of St Domingo’s Church was opened in May 29, 1870 on Breckfield Road North, coincidentally the same year that Stanley Park opened its gates for the first time.

But football, at least the Association version rather than the more prevalent rugby rules, was not widely played in England at that time.

Under the lively leadership of the Rev Ben Chambers, the young men of the church formed a cricket club.

In 1878 Thomas Keates, author of Everton’s Jubilee History in 1928, tells us they added a St Domingo Football Club to the organisation.

What little is known about St Domingo’s has been gleaned from Keates’ history and the 1894 club handbook.

The team played in the south-east corner of Stanley Park.

In 1878 this was opposite Stanley House, the residence of Everton’s first club president, John Houlding.

According to Keates, the play of St Domingo, at first, was of a very crude character. “they kicked the ball about in an every man for himself scramble for possession.”

It seems that the early games were nothing more than glorified kick abouts, which makes the discovery by local historian Steve Flanagan of a brief St Domingo match report from October 1879 so significant.

The Blues (or blue and white stripes as they were originally) triumphed 1-0 against Everton Church on October 18, 1879.

For a match report to have made the pages of the Daily Courier, albeit 33 fleeting words, suggests St Domingo’s stature in the area was already growing.

It was only later on that they formed sides capable of playing “the modern scientific game,” and finally played matches against their sacerdotal neighbours – St Peter’s, St Mary’s, St Benedict’s and the United Church clubs.

Even in these formative months, St Domingo proved to be the best side in the area, so much so that outsiders began to drift towards the club.

Tom Evans, Tom Marriott, Billy Gibson, G Bell, Mike Higgins and W H Parry joined from the United Church, and C Lindsay, W M Wilson, J Cartwright and A E Welsh from St Peter’s.

With links to St Domingo Church receding, it was decided to introduce a name change.

Everton was adopted at a meeting in November 1879 at the Queen’s Head Hotel, and the new club’s first match was against St Peter’s on December 20, 1879.

They won 6-0 and the rest, as they say, is history ...