Nantwich Town Launches Online Archive Spanning More Than 140 Years of Club History
The new digital collection brings together decades of match records, photographs and player histories to preserve the story of the Dabbers for future generations.
By Nantwich News
Nantwich Town Football Club's history stretching back more than 140 years has been brought together in a new online archive documenting generations of players, matches and memories.
The DABBERSarchive provides a searchable digital collection covering the club's history from its formation in 1884 to the present day, giving supporters and local historians access to thousands of records, photographs, match reports and player profiles.
The project has been created by former Nantwich Town president and director Michael Chatwin, who is now the club's historian and has spent almost half a century researching its past.
Chatwin began collecting information about Nantwich Town in 1979 and has gradually built up an extensive collection of records covering players, fixtures, results, programmes and other memorabilia connected with the club.
Much of that research has now been transferred into the new digital database, allowing material previously held across individual collections and records to be explored in one place.
The archive already contains extensive information dating from the Second World War onwards, while research is continuing into earlier periods of the club's history. New material will be added as records are located and verified.
Visitors can explore team line-ups, player biographies, historic programme covers, photographs, statistics and match reports from different generations of Nantwich Town football.
More recent seasons include reports and photographs produced by members of the club's media team, helping the archive connect the earliest surviving records with the modern era.
The project also reflects the club's long relationship with the Nantwich community. Historically, many players came from the town and surrounding villages, meaning local families may be able to discover relatives who represented the Dabbers during previous generations.
Supporters are being encouraged to contribute to the ongoing research by helping identify players in old photographs or providing information that could fill gaps in the records.
The archive's homepage also displays the club's latest result and next fixture alongside historic programmes and statistics showing the scale of the collection.
Rather than being treated as a finished record, DABBERSarchive will continue to develop as additional photographs, documents and information are discovered.
The project provides Nantwich Town with a permanent digital record of its footballing heritage while making more than a century of local sporting history accessible to supporters around the world.