Wolves shirt from 1910 sparks mystery

A dusty attic in a house near the west coast of Canada wouldn't be high on a list of places you'd expect to find an incredibly old and rare artefact in Wolves' history.

But that's exactly where a Wolves shirt dating back 106 years was found – and then brought back to Wolverhampton thanks to an Express & Star appeal for old Wolves shirts.

The shirt will now form a key part of a new book charting the history of Wolves' shirts.

Wolves fan Steve Plant has painstakingly put together the book, which is set to launch in October, featuring more than 200 pages of shirts and the stories behind them.

And now he has accrued a 'real coup' in the form of a shirt – in pristine condition – which he believes dates back to 1910.

Mr Plant takes up the story: "A man from Canada who does house clearances, and has got a bric-a-brac shop and sells this on, found this ancient gold and black shirt while he doing a house clearance.

"At first he thought it was an old ice hockey shirt. But then he spent quite a bit of time researching it and found that it closely resembled Wolves' 1921 FA Cup final shirt.

"He put something out on Facebook and a couple of people who knew about my book spotted it, and put him in touch with me."

The shirt was posted to Wolverhampton. But its origins remain a mystery.

There is a suggestion that it may have belonged to John Brodie, who played a key part in the formation of Wolverhampton Wanderers, with his family believed to have emigrated to Canada.

Mr Plant added: "It's very, very rare and a real coup for the book.

"We're hoping to form the link now as to who owned it. Why would you emigrate to Canada and take that shirt with you, and keep it in such great condition? We've got around 90 per cent of all the shirts Wolves have ever worn – it's all come together in the past 12 months and we're delighted with how the book looks so far.

"I'm essentially compiling an historical document of Wolves' shirts, which hasn't been done before."

The gold and black striped shirt is similar in style to those worn by the team in the 1908 and 1921 FA Cup finals. A match ticket from the 1921 final, in which Wolves lost 1-0 to Tottenham, recently sold for £1,300 at auction. Mr Plant hopes to launch the book at the Wolves Museum and put many of the shirts on show. If anyone can shed any light on the history of the 1910 shirt, or has any other rare Wolves shirts, they can contact Steve on 07973 891 390.