Port Vale 1919-20

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A period of firsts. 1919 was the 1st season back in the English Football League as Port Vale Football Club. Also the 1st at the Old Recreation Ground as a top level side having moved from the Athletic Stadium Cobridge in 1913.

It was the start of a new nickname, the Valiants, coined by Frank Huntbach who is the club’s longest serving Chairman from 1913- 1921 and 1926-1940 and the first season the Vale played competitive football against their local rivals Stoke City.

The signing of forward Bobby Blood from Leek United for £50 helped the team to secure a mid-table finish in the league with 24 goals. The club also enjoyed success winning the Staffordshire Senior Cup and sharing the North Staffordshire Infirmary Cup with Stoke. The game raised £309 for the local hospital.

In 1920 the Shorter family, including director brothers Colley and Guy, acquired the Newport Pottery which was next door to the A.J. Wilkinson works in Newport Lane, Middleport, Burslem. A teenager called Clarice Cliff began work at Wilkinsons as a decorator and after three years she was apprenticed to the respected artist John Butler as a modeler under the decorating management of Jack Walker.

Colley Shorter was so impressed with her work, she was allowed to experiment with old Newport Pottery shapes and produced her new bold geometric designs, so expressive of the Art Deco age. Colley was a consummate salesman and it was he who conceived the idea of personalising the designs with her signature, thus launching one of the 20th century’s design legends.