Medal discovered in the spare room

WHEN Alick Brown decided to clear out the spare room of his house in Endon back in

March, 2001, he didn’t know what he’d find lurking at the back of his cupboard.

Old clothes, broken picture frames, the odd shoe that always turns up – but he never expected to stumble across a Sentinel Cup medal from 1908.

And while he may have found the medal nestled in a box at the back of a drawer, he says he doesn’t know how it got there, but thinks it can only belong to one man.

“I was sorting out a room upstairs and came across it. I suppose I could have seen it before, but if I have, I’ve not thought about it,” said Alick.

“I think it must have belonged to my dad who played for lots of different teams when he was younger. He would have been 20 in 1908.”

The silver medal bears a Birmingham hallmark along with the inscription: Sentinel cup 1908 but, having spent the best part of its life hidden away from view, Alick says he was surprised to find it.

“It’s been in this drawer for years. I was cleaning it out when I found it, but I don’t know what to do with it now,” he said.

It appears Alick’s father, Harry Russell Brown, played in the Sentinel Cup final in 1908 between Newcastle PSA and North Staffs Nomads, which Newcastle won 2-0.

Harry was born in the Potteries in 1888 before moving to Endon in 1900 when his family took over the Black Horse pub.

He played for Hanley Swifts and Port Vale, before moving to Crewe in the early part of the century and even spent 12 months as an amateur with Manchester City, before turning his back on a professional career and returning to play for the Alex.

The family has a proud history of football, and Alick’s grandfather - also called Harry Russell Brown - was the captain of Stoke in 1887, before they became Stoke City.

Alick’s brother, Harry, said: “When our dad played for Manchester City he used to run from Endon to Rudyard, where he would catch the train to Manchester. He would say that was his training.

“When he played for Crewe they were League champions in 1910, 1911 and 1912, and he was featured in the Vale programme after returning from Manchester City.”

The silver medal is almost certainly a runners-up prize, because in the early days of the competition, winners’ medals were gold.

Sentinel cup secretary, Fred Sigley, said: “It is a very prized possession. Medals for cup winners were gold until the war, and in those days the competition was only open to under-21s.”

An historic relic from the grand old days of steam is restored as part of a visitor attraction. A 100-year-old signal box was rescued from its site at Clifton, near Ashbourne, by members of the Churnet Valley Railway. For the previous 10 years it had been stored at their station in Cheddleton. But this week, 20 years ago, it was taken on a two-mile journey to Consall, where it was restored and used to control the new track layout on the line to Froghall.

Below, rural postwoman Linda Malyon hands over the post to Ipstones farmer Mick Reeves.

Above, brothers Alick, left, and Harry Brown with an old Sentinel Cup medal and a Crewe Alex programme.