Clee Foundation School Second XI Football Team, 1901–02

Photographer: Arthur Clifford Collis (c.1854–1920), Alexandra Road, Cleethorpes Date: 1901–1902

This large mounted photograph depicts the Second XI football team of the Clee Foundation School during the 1901–02 season, as recorded on the football held by the central player. The boys are posed with a member of staff outside the principal entrance to the school on Clee Road, wearing the distinctive football strip of black-and-white vertically striped jerseys with black shorts, while the central player wears a plain white jersey.

The photograph was taken by Arthur Clifford Collis (c.1854–1920), one of Cleethorpes' best-known professional photographers. Born in Sheffield around 1854, Collis later established his photographic business in Alexandra Road, where he produced numerous portraits and local views before his death in 1920.

The building shown is the Clee Foundation School, which opened on Clee Road on 25 September 1882 as an all-boys grammar school. During its early years it was also known as Clee Grammar School for Boys and Clee Humberstone Foundation School. Following educational reorganisation, it later became Matthew Humberstone Foundation School before forming part of Matthew Humberstone Comprehensive School in 1973. Since 2018, the carefully restored Victorian buildings have been home to Bursar Primary Academy, where the distinctive arched entrance and decorative wrought-iron door hinges seen in this photograph remain instantly recognisable.

The team's distinctive football strip is consistent with the school's later documented football colours.

The large mounted photograph had suffered from extensive foxing, spotting and other age-related deterioration. It has since undergone careful digital conservation to museum archival standards, removing these defects while faithfully preserving its original tonal character and every recorded historical detail.

More than 120 years after it was taken, this photograph remains a remarkable record of Edwardian school life in Cleethorpes. It preserves not only the appearance of one of the school's football teams but also the entrance to one of the town's most important educational buildings. As both a sporting and an architectural record, it provides a rare glimpse into the sporting traditions and educational life of Cleethorpes at the dawn of the twentieth century.

Collection: Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum.