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An opportunity to visit what is reputed to be the oldest surviving football ground still in use in England was too good to miss on a glorious Spring evening. I had been meaning to visit the ground for ages, particularly as it's not far from home and moreover as a former pupil of Bolton School, Old Boltonians I suppose are 'my team.'

Old Bolts play at Turton Football Ground, Tower Street, Chapeltown; the ground is located off Tower Street opposite the Chetham Arms and has splendid views across the valley. It's best found by following the A666 north of Bolton towards Darwen and taking a right down Greenarms Road until Chapeltown is reached in two or three miles. There's a nice sign at the entrance with good historical information about the ground and a changing room block. There are two pitches side by side, the nearest one used for first-team games.

I knew that the old Turton FC was one of the leading clubs in Lancashire in the 1870s and early '80s and played important FA Cup ties here and that one of the great founding forces in association football, JJ Bentley is buried in the adjoining church yard.

But there was more information on a splendidly informative sign by the entrance. I have repeated this word for word as it gives clear and concise information and background over the importance of the location: Turton Football Ground: The oldest football ground in England still in use.

The game has been played here in some form since 1856 and in 1871 John Charles Kay of Turton Tower and WT Dixon, the local schoolmaster established a football club for the men of the village, originally playing "Harrow Rules" before adopting Association rules before the start of the 1874-75 season.

The Turton Football Club they founded was one of the original members of the Lancashire Football Association and a major influence on the development of the game. The Club's former captain JJ Bentley went on to become President of the Football League and Vice-President of the Football Association.  He is buried in St Anne's Churchyard next door to the ground.

Football became very strong in Lancashire with teams from Bolton, Blackburn and Darwen prominent.  Some of these, like Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers thrived but many, like Turton, could not compete against them when professional players were introduced in the 1880s. By the time the Football League was introduced in 1888 Turton had dropped out of the list of top teams.

The ground saw FA Cup matches against the likes of Preston North End, Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn Rovers, Nottingham Forest and Everton in the early days.  "Derby" games with Darwen used to draw large crowds and even then matches were sometimes abandoned because of violence between rival supporters.

For many years the ground was also the site of the annual Turton Fair, a major local event which had sideshows as well as dealing in cattle, other animals and agricultural goods.

Turton still have a football team which now play in the West Lancashire League on a ground across the valley in Thomasson Fold.

Old Boltonians took over the ground in 1952 and purchased it when the land was sold in 1970.  They currently have four teams playing at different levels in the Lancashire Amateur League.

Leaders Bury GSOB went into their final league game leading Failsworth Dynamos by 11 points but the Dynamos had four games in hand, with Old Bolts in third. The teams had met in a cup-tie at Bury on Saturday, Bury winning 1-0.

Bury were in some disarray at the 6-30pm start; despite having several subs they started with nine players until two latecomers arrived. It was some time into the game that the referee briefly stopped play to remind home officials that no corner flags were in place. Sensibly the referee played two halves of 40 minutes due to the light. The visitors scored early on, the home side levelled midway through the first half. The drama came at the end, six seconds into added time when a long free-kick was headed on and a Bury striker struck the winner; the visitors' joy was unconfined.

At last I had seen a game at the ground and later I consulted two of Dave Twydell's invaluable Yore Publications; the re-print of the History of the Lancashire Football Association, 1878-1928 and the History of Turton Football Club by WT Dixon (1909).

Chapeltown is a small but distinct village from Turton with its own church and pub and its appearance, with terraces of stone cottages must have changed little since Turton were a force in the game.  It is recorded that as far back as 1856, before there was a recognised Club, "matches were played beneath the shadow of the old church where Turton FC later played."

Turton FC was founded in December 1871 due to the efforts of WT Dixon, the village schoolmaster and John Charles Kay, one of the sons of James Kay, Lord of the Manor in residence at Turton Tower.  Kay Junior had been educated at Harrow School and came back home, in the words of Dixon 'full of athletic fire.'  Initially the Club adopted the Harrow Rules before deciding to adopt the Rules of the London Football Association in 1874, effectively the start of 'soccer' football in Lancashire.

Turton were leading proponents of the London rules and took it upon themselves to ensure that new clubs played accordingly. One of these was Christ Church FC (forerunners of Bolton Wanderers) whose members were initiated into the new code by Mr Dixon who printed and copied out the Rules after correspondence with CW Alcock, then Hon Secretary of the English Football Association.  "Turton became not only the pioneers but the jealous guardians of the right interpretation of the rules," Dixon records.

John James Bentley, third son of a Chapeltown grocer became first-team captain and later Secretary and Treasurer. He captained Turton against Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup-tie at the ground in 1881. Dixon's history recalls that "Turton scored the first goal under the refereeing of a substitute and when the appointed official arrived this goal was not allowed to count.  Had it done, the result might have been a winning, and not a losing, of the tie."

From 1877 onwards Bentley sent in match reports to the local newspapers, writing under the pen name of Free Critic. Never one to do one job when he could do half a dozen he wrote reports for the Football Field (the forerunner to the Buff, one of the earliest Saturday evening football newspapers published by the Bolton Evening News) in which he had actually played or officiated; he was also Secretary to Bolton Wanderers. He also founded an accountancy practice that exists to this day and became a collector of Income Tax. He later moved to Manchester and was closely involved in the famous newspaper Athletic News. He was acting Chairman of Manchester United and became the President of the Football League and Vice-President of the Football Association.

It's worth spending some time in Bolton and Manchester libraries researching those days and reading Bentley's words. They were fascinating times.

Mr Dixon was closely involved in the setting up of the Lancashire FA; he later recorded that "teams from Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers, Everton and other noted Clubs played at Turton, and most of them retired well beaten until the introduction of professionals put the boot on the other leg."

By the early 1880s veiled professionalism had become widespread; in the Chetham Arms after a game at Turton between Turton and Preston North End, Major Sudell, the President of North End volunteered the statement that North End were playing paid men, and other Clubs would have to acknowledge the same. This was the beginning of the end of 'sham-amateurism', as it was known. Many Clubs were thought to be keeping two sets of accounts. In 1885 professionalism was formally legalised in England and this contributed directly to the decline of Turton FC.  In that year, though, the Club made a tour of Scotland, playing Partick Thistle and St Mirren.

Perhaps the most notable game held at Turton was in 1879; a Lancashire challenge game between Manchester & Bolton versus Blackburn & Darwen.  Played in glorious sunshine a large crowd arrived by rail on special excursions laid on especially for the game from Manchester and Blackburn. In all seven English and four Scottish Internationals were on show that day.

Mr Dixon's history ends: "Perhaps in no other village in England has football such a hold on the people who inhabit it, and have cherished association with the past glorious days, when football was played as a sport, and not as a gigantic business, tending to crush the game out of the little village that first gave it birth."  Those words were written in 1898.