HAYFIELD Junior Football Club has honoured the memory of former Liverpool and England player Bill Jones, who was born in Whaley Bridge but discovered by a Liverpool scout playing for Hayfield St Matthew’s in the 30s.

Bill Jones, Liverpool star, born in Whaley

Carl Dean, chairman of Hayfield Juniors, enlisted the help of the Whaley Bridge website – which reported Bill’s death aged 89 on Boxing Day – to track down relatives for permission to use Bill’s name on an annual trophy for the young players.

Well over 100 parents, family and young players crammed into Hayfield Primary School hall for presentation night.  First winner of the Bill Jones Memorial Shield for ‘skill and determination’ was Kane Marshall, 10, from New Mills..

Kane Marshall receives trophy from chairman

Carl Dean told how Bill Jones  went right to the top. At 17 he was spotted playing at Hayfield and recommended to Liverpool, signing as a professional in 1938.  After  the war his career took off. Bill played in defence for England and Liverpool, including an FA Cup final

Whaley4Wards

Whaley4Wards is a new community group set up by Whaley Bridge Town Council to  propose, define and implement small to medium size projects across the 4 wards of Whaley Bridge – Furness Vale, Taxal, Yeardsley and  Fernilee. 

The projects will be chosen by consensus, driven by community input, with one of the main goals being that the group gathers momentum  and maintains enthusiasm through success. The key to this in the initial stages is seen to be the careful selection  and focus on projects that are truly achievable in the short term.

The main aim of the projects is to directly benefit the residents and businesses in the four wards of Whaley Bridge, through projects which improve the Town centre and other areas, and which help to revitalize and attract visitors into the area, whilst maintaining and capitalizing on the historical character of the town.

Whilst short term projects are a clear initial goal,  some longer term projects will naturally emerge  and the group intends to accommodate these through consensus and through smaller working groups.

Projects will be implemented through a mixture of direct member participation and engagement of local professional services.

For further details and ways to get involved, please follow the Whaley4Wards link at the top of the home page or click below:

 Whaley4Wards

Whaley4Wards has been set up in response to the recent decision by High Peak Borough Council to withdraw funding from the Whaley Bridge Regeneration Partnership which has been active since 1998 in Whaley Bridge.  Although the Regeneration Partnership focussed mainly on trying to resolve the two large projects in the town, the ‘Second Bridge’ to provide access into Bingswood Industrial estate and the ‘Transhipment Warehouse Development’ project to rejuvinate the Canal basin, it also managed to successfully complete many other much smaller projects throughout Whaley Bridge during its time of existence.  There is considerable ongoing local support for an organization which continues to tackle these smaller projects, and for this reason WBTC have decided to set up Whaley4Wards to focus specifically on these. A seperate group is going to be set up to focus specifically on the Bridge and the TSW, both of which remain an absolute priority for Whaley Bridge Town Council. WBTC believe that by seperating the smaller projects from the larger ones,  there can be much more effective use of resources and time.