Bartholomew football map 1971

Once upon a time I had a football map of England and Wales produced by Bartholomew. I vaguely remembered how it depicted the strips of the Football League clubs as well as their badges and those of many non-league clubs, some rather more obscure than others. More recently, in a fit of nostalgia, I’ve found myself searching for this now forty-year old map in second hand bookshops. Then last week, seeking something else, I found a copy on ebay. It was mine for just 50p.

Everything about the map – strips, cover price and narrative history - points to 1971. To call it a football history map is something of a misnomer because, apart from an outline chart of key dates (a pretty unremarkable feature), it’s really a portrait of how the Football League stood at the time. In this sense it’s interesting how Football League representation in some parts of the country appears remarkably unchanged. Look at the south west corner for instance. Yes, Exeter and Torquay have left and re-entered the league in those forty years, but the sole long-term change is the replacement of Newport County by Yeovil Town (not forgetting the arrival of Hereford if you extend the zone northwards). By contrast look at the north of the country and, in particular, the north west coastline with the inclusion of Barrow, Workington and Southport.

I’ve only included a few chunks of the map just as I’ve only included a selection of the 159 depicted club badges ranging from Aldershot to Yorkshire Amateur (many of which appear to have been chosen in a rather arbitrary fashion). A feature of many of the badges is their “traditional” nature and how they often relate to the host town’s coat of arms: