Bob Stevenson

The Barrhead Hammer and More

And it had been so for the two seasons of the club's existence, it formed in 1895 in one of the shipyards where the River Lea flows into the Thames, the foundation later described by Syd King, former Thames Iron Works player and first West Ham Manager as follows:

"In the summer of 1895, when the clanging of "hammers" was heard on the banks of Father Thames and the great warships were rearing their heads above the Victoria Dock Road, a few enthusiasts, with the love of football within them, were talking about the grand old game and the formation of a club for the workers of the Thames Iron Works Limited. There were platers and riveters in the Limited who had chased the big ball in the north country. There were men among them who had learned to give the subtle pass and to urge the leather goalwards. No thought of professionalism, I may say, was ever contemplated by the founders. They meant to run their club on amateur lines and their first principal was to choose their team from men in the works."

And on foundation its captain had too been a Scot, Bob Stevenson. Eight years McEachrane's elder he had been born in Barrhead and first come down to London to join Arsenal, then, of course, over the river in Woolwich, in 1894. A right-half he had begun his football with Third Lanark unlike his elder brother, John, a full-back, who had spent eight seasons with Arthurlie from 1880, during that time a Scotland trialist, before going South in 1888 to join Accrington for five more. And, although Bob would captain The Gunners in his almost year at The Manor Ground in March 1895 he was invited to cross the river definitively to join new Est London club, Castle Swifts aka Old Castle Swifts.

It was a club formed perhaps as something of a retirement gift for the workers at his Lea-mouth repair yard, many of whom were Scots brought down to work there by the owner Donald Currie, the Castle Line and then Union-Castle Line shipping magnate. Greenock-born but London resident he had turned sixty five in 1890 and maybe at sixty-seven was thinking of stepping back. In fact the first Castle Swifts year is a blend a clear blend of Scots and local Londoners, that is before better players, presumably with the financial backing of Currie himself, were brought in, several from Millwall and Scots, as the club in November 1894 went professional.

But from that point things went badly wrong very quickly, presumably as external support was not increased. By March 1895, was bankrupt and that looked to be the end of matters. Stevenson even returned to Scotland but was soon called back by local business-man, Arnold Hills. He was the owner of Thames Ironworks across Lea-mouth, saw a ready-made opportunity to create his own works side, took over the Castle Swifts ground and gathered and built a team from what he had, what he knew and what he could find. A number of the Castle Swift players simply stepped across. Bob Stevenson was called back as the club's first captain until Scotland drew him back again in 1897. He would join Arthurlie. Charlie Dove was local. George Gresham was brought in from his home-town club, Gainsborough Trinity. Roddy McEachrane was later attracted down, whether for the work or the football is unclear, as in 1898 the club turned openly professional. It stepped up into the Southern League, was promoted at the first time of asking, survived by finishing fourteenth of seventeenth and winning relgation test-matches, at which point with some financial adjustments to the Hills businesses in the summer it was officially wound up but actually and seamlessly morphed, on the same Memorial grounds, to the still Irons club we know today.