When exploring the history of English women’s football in the important context of its league structure’s evolution, we inevitably look to the pioneering clubs who were founder members of The Women’s Football Association National League and who have consistently featured in so many seasons of action. Wolverhampton Wanderers Women are one such club…

THE HISTORY GIRLS

When international players and their professional club team mates celebrate individual and collective triumphs, they often take time to acknowledge and pay tribute to the pioneers who had laid the pathway to the unprecedented boom in women’s football: pioneers like Wolves Women founder members Jane Hill, Jackie Pickup and Jill Spillsbury.

You may not have heard of this football-mad trio, and none of the Lionesses are likely to know their names either. But without them, and many like spirits around the country following the 1971 lifting of the FA’s 50-year women’s football ban, the game would not have grown into such a vibrantly healthy state. 

It was in 1975 that the Wolves-to-be club was formed under its original title of Heathfield Rovers, named as such simply because Heathfield School was just down the road from the park pitch on which the team played its early matches.

Sat around a pub table poring through pictures and press cuttings from those early days, Hill recalled: “It was in 1974 when we first came together, but it had all started a year earlier, when I was 18. I saw an advert in the Express & Star asking if there were any girls interested in playing football – and I definitely was!

“I couldn’t go to the first session, but when I went to the next one the bloke who was organising it had disappeared. He had left the girls with a strip though, so a few of us including Jill and Jackie started playing together regularly. 

“Girls like Jill Shinton and Linda Reynolds, who became important players for us, were also part of that first group but there were only about seven of us to start with so we used to play three or four-a-side matches between ourselves. 

“By 1975 though, we had enough players to enter a league – not that I knew at that point that a women’s football league existed until I saw one mentioned in a Saturday morning TV programme!”


The Midland Women’s Football League consisted mainly of clubs in the Eastern half of the area – and with a varying degree of facilities. “All the away matches were on parks pitches,” noted Spillsbury, “ a lot of them without a blade of grass.

“We once had to change in a barn, on another occasion in somebody’s bedroom and more than once in a mini-bus as we were travelling and with people on the streets staring in at us and wondering what the heck was going on.”

Away days may have been a bit hairy but did not prevent Heathfield from having a fine first season – they won promotion to the league’s top division, won the Vice-President’s Cup and reached the semi-finals of the Midland Ladies’ Cup.

They also enjoyed playing on their new home pitch, basing themselves at the excellent Wednesbury Tube sports ground and in the process changing the club’s name to Wednesbury Tube Ladies.

“Jane and me both worked at the Tube,” said Pickup. “We didn’t (as a club) have enough money to pay for the use of a pitch for matches so the Tube facilities were the ideal solution. The pitch and pavilion we used were first class – so good that they were used for a (Women’s) FA Cup semi-final one season.” 


A second name-change, to Wolverhampton Ladies, took place in 1977 as the team now had their first formal manager in Les Bryan and were faring well in the league while in Cup competitions were taking on stronger opponents – some of them, like Cheshire side Foden’s, too strong.  

“They had five international players in their side and were far too good for us,” remembered Hill, who was in goal that day. “I must have saved at least 20 shots, but they still hammered us 8-1 and could have scored more.”

Salutary days such as that one were few and far between as the team matured and improved, enjoying good FA Cup runs that took them as far as the quarter-finals via long trips to face clubs such as Brighton and Dartford.

They also enjoyed their time off the pitch, forging friendships that are still strong today through fun occasions like Spillsbury’s infamous hen night.

The long throw specialist, whose mighty hurls into the penalty area led to a good number of goals, was also – unbeknownst even to herself – a specialist of an entirely different kind. “We were in a pub and I was challenged to drink a yard of ale,” she said, “and I managed it ok.

“Then one of the men in the pub challenged me to a contest and I beat him. Then they said they were waiting for the bee’s knees of drinkers to come in from his work shift and he’d challenge me – and I beat him as well! I don’t know how I did it and it was a one-off, but it was an unforgettable night for all the girls.”

Back to football and switching to the West Midlands League in the 1988-89 season, Wolverhampton ended their first campaign as Division Two champions. Twelve months later, as Division One runners-up, they were invited to join what was to become the WFA National League in its inaugural season of 1991-92.

It was the first nationwide English league for women’s football and stipulations such as stadium facilities and adequate financial resources had to be met by teams wanting to take part.

Wolverhampton’s response was a watershed moment in the club’s history. “We needed more money than we had to meet all the requirements,” said Hill, “so we contacted Wolves and were offered a meeting with (vice-president) Rachael Heyhoe-Flint and (club chairman) Jonathan Hayward.

“They asked us in that first meeting to come up with a business plan, which we did, and in the next meeting with them we showed them our plans to start Under-12, Under-14 and Intermediate teams to encourage young girls in the area to play football and to strengthen us as a club.


“They gave us £10,000, which we had to spread over several seasons but it meant we could join the new league. We were put into the (second tier) Northern Division and started using Bilston Town as our home ground.”

That initial tie-up with Wolves was followed by another landmark in 1993, not just for the burgeoning club but also for women’s football as a whole with the Football Association taking over the running of the game from the Women’s FA.

As that changeover was taking effect Wolverhampton Ladies were making their final name-change, officially becoming part of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and celebrating by winning the Northern Division in the 1993-94 campaign.

But playing in what was now branded the FA Women’s Premier League, after their hard earned promotion, proved too mighty a task for Wolves. 

Facing line-ups packed with international players – among them Arsenal, Liverpool and Doncaster Belles – a first season finish in the bottom-but-one place was followed with 1995-96’s bottom spot and relegation. 

“It was too early for us to go up,” said Pickup. “The second season especially was very, very difficult. But we had some great experiences over those two seasons, like playing against Arsenal at Highbury. 

“They smashed us, but after the game (England striker) Marieanne Spacey popped her head round our dressing room door and gave us some complimentary remarks which was nice.”

Following that 1995-96 relegation season the club’s fortunes ebbed and flowed, suffering a couple of further relegations but quickly bouncing back on each occasion and eventually reaching the Women’s Super League through promotion from the FAWNL Northern Premier Division to WSL2 in 2026.


Looking ahead to what she hopes will be a bright future for the club which she helped to form and did so much for in its first two decades, Hill said: “It’s great to see the way the game has grown, how the players are getting the recognition they deserve and how so many young girls are playing football.

“Back in our day there were so many girls who couldn’t afford the subs to play for a team or had parents who couldn’t afford to drive them all around the midlands to play in matches. We lost a number of players like that.

“It’s such a different and much better story today; but for all that I wouldn’t swap the time I had in football for the world – I just loved every minute.”


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: With thanks to Wolves Women and Jenny Wilkes for support with imagery.