Emily Graves spoke with author Peter Lupson about 12 Premier League football clubs that owe their existence to a church

One of the stories that most moves me is the story of how Tottenham Hotspur was formed: some youngsters started off a football club and within a very, very short time - they were only 12 or 13 - yobs used to come across, kick them off the pitch they'd marked out and take it over for themselves; or if they didn't actually take the pitch over they would stand and hurl abuse at these youngsters. Many of them gave up as they couldn't take this, but others went to speak to their Bible class teacher and his name was John Ripsher. They asked him if he would help and he said, "I'll certainly help". He made sure those boys could play on those pitches; he even provided a ball for them, which was quite an expensive item in those days. The thing about this story is it has an unusual twist: those boys were obviously very keen to play football but they let John Ripsher down. For example, he'd arranged for them to use the YMCA building in Tottenham High Road as their headquarters but they broke all the rules of the YMCA. They made a terrible racket when they were playing football down in the basement, they stole berries from the mulberry bushes and they played cards and they were eventually expelled. What's significant about this was that in Victorian times, if people let you down, or if they embarrassed you by your continued association with them, you were frowned upon in society and you were actually committing social suicide. But John Ripsher was a devout Christian and he showed the unconditional love of Jesus to these boys and would not turn his back on them. He went to the vicar of the church and asked if those boys could use another building that was owned by the church as their headquarters and the vicar agreed, on condition that they attended a service in All Hallows Church every Wednesday as a token of their intention to behave. They agreed to this and everything went well for about two years and then the vicar saw some of them playing cards in the back pew in the church and they were immediately expelled. Now once again, John Ripsher had been let down and embarrassed by these boys and there was every reason why he should wash his hands of them and say, "Right you've let me down, it's going to ruin my reputation to continue to be associated with you. That's it". But again he showed them the unconditional love of Jesus. He did not abandon them and he found a new headquarters for them called the Red House Coffee Palace - now to this day that is a major building alongside the White Hart Lane stadium and it's used as offices.

If John Ripsher had washed his hands of those boys, that football club, that famous football club, would not exist today.

Emily: I'm intrigued about the club that you mentioned earlier on that didn't have the right founding date. Tell us about that.

Peter: The club concerned was Swindon Town. They believed that their foundation date was 1881, but I discovered a report by the founder who spoke at a major celebration event in 1911, this is many years later and he was the curate at Christ Church in Swindon when the club was founded: William Baker Pitt. In that report he mentions the foundation date, 1879 and there's even a match report of 1879 so obviously that was conclusive proof and the club has since changed its club badge to reflect that.

Emily: What reaction did you get from the club when you showed this to them?

Peter: Fantastic. I found that all my dealings with the club have been met with wholehearted enthusiasm; they're delighted to find out more about their origins and they've all reacted very positively to anything I've bought to their attention.

Emily: Have many people gone and looked into that much detail into the world of football and its origins in the same way that you have before?

Peter: Football stretches back a long way and football history is being made every day. Club historians have a huge range of information to cover: something like 125 years or more and clearly they can't go into every single aspect of their club's history in huge depth of detail, although many have done a fantastic job.

To some extent it was the origins that have been neglected, because it's the more recent years that have been of interest, because of all the successes the clubs have had and what happened in the very early days is long ago in the distant past.

Some clubs have done some research and some very good club historians have done research into those early days, but what has never come through is an in-depth study of the pioneers, their Christian faith and their impact on their communities. It's been more about dates, early matches and so on and less about the people. It's the people I've been interested in and it's their lives I've wanted to investigate.

Emily: How many well-known clubs today have been set up through people that have been expressing their faith?

Peter: It's 12 that have played in the Premier League. There are others that have not played in the Premier League: Stockport County, Mansfield Town, for instance. But it was decided by my publisher SPCK that we'd focus on the 12 who've played in the Premier League because they would have more widespread interest.

Emily: What inspired you the most when hearing these stories?

Peter Lupson

Peter: It was the unconditional love of the founders and the fact that they associated with people that others would wash their hands of. It wasn't just the fact they associated with them though, but in some cases they were actually committing social suicide because it was seen to be unacceptable, particularly if you were a clergyman, to befriend people who were well beneath you in the social order.