Exeter City Football Club dates back to 1904, when two local soccer sides joined forces – they were Exeter United and St Sidwell’s United. The new club was named Exeter City Football Club, and they made their home at a field at St James Park – a former pig-rearing patch. The Club is now looking to collect and communicate its rich history by recording, preserving and making accessible a wide range of heritage material relating to the football club, its location, players and fans.

The project will involve fans and create a living archive and exhibition to ensure that the community’s memories of the club are not lost. By promoting and collecting the club’s heritage, the project will provide a wide variety of ways in which people of all generations with some club connection can get involved, either as interviewees, donors, volunteers or visitors.

Through digitisation of material and making it available online, people locally, nationally and internationally will be able to access it. Material generated by the project will be also accessible at Devon Record Office.

Key Elements

1. Oral History and Archive Gathering -Video and audio recordings will be made of fans and their families identified through one-to-one interviews and group events. We will then establish an accessible archive.

2. Film – A short film will be made about the history of the club and the lives of fans. Recordings from the oral/video history research and archive footage will be used. It will be screened at the club, at community groups and extracts will be available online.

3. Exhibition – An exhibition will be mounted at the club. The film will be premiered at the exhibition launch. The exhibition will set the stage for the club and fans taking ownership of the project for the medium and long term.

Key Outcomes

• The club will maintain a heritage display at its ground
• The digitised archive material collected will be stored at the Devon Record Office to ensure it is available to the public.
• As much material as possible will be put onto the web
• It is hoped that the enthusiasm and interest generated by this project will inspire further activities and projects to build a more substantial heritage exhibition / museum at the club

For more information visit:

www.ecfcst.org.uk – Exeter City Supporters Trust

www.exetercityfc.premiumtv.co.uk – Exeter City F.C.