Crewe Alexandra FC

Everyone who ever used to watch Soccer AM as a kid knows Crewe's nickname – The Railwaymen. (Didn't they used to shout "Choo Choo" or something every time they appeared?)

So, even for those not from the North-West, we all know that Crewe Alexandra is the home of the railways. Without the railways, Crewe would likely still be little more than a small Cheshire village. In 1831, before the iron tracks rolled in, the settlement had just 70 residents.

By 1837, the Grand Junction Railway, looking for a connection hub between Britain's two major industrial regions - The Midlands and North-West, had planted a station in fields near Crewe Hall. Large locomotive works followed in 1843. Out of this industrial forge grew a railway colony—terraces for workers, workshops, chapels, and a sports field, Queen’s Park, donated by the railway company for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Crewe became synonymous with steam, iron, and engineering precision.

Crewe Alexandra Football Club itself was born in 1877, an offshoot of the Alexandra Cricket Club, founded by workers at the locomotive works. The name came from the park they played in – Alexandra Recreation Ground – which was named in tribute to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, then Princess of Wales and wife of the future Edward VII (eldest son of Queen Victoria and the man who gave his name to the Edwardian Era). I feel there needs to be an annual pre-season friendly against a Danish team in honour of this legacy.

For decades, Crewe’s badge carried its legacy embroidered proudly: a white lion gripping a six-spoked wheel. Each spoke symbolised one of the six main trainlines that converged at Crewe station, making the town the iron hub of Britain. That six-spoked wheel was dropped in a recent modernisation. Why? Who knows. What we do know is that something so uniquely Crewe, so deeply tied to the town’s history, should be brought back.

The badge’s lion is not random either. It comes directly from the coat of arms of the Crewe family – historic landowners of Cheshire, seated at Crewe Hall. The family traces its roots to the Domesday Book (recorded as “Creu”), its name derived from the Old Welsh criu – a fish weir. Among their prominent figures were Sir Ranulph Crewe, Speaker of the House of Commons and Lord Chief Justice, and Nathaniel, Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham and benefactor.

It would be remiss not to mention the legacy of Crewe’s ladies’ team – which continued under difficult circumstances even after the FA banned women from playing the professional game. Crewe Alexandra Ladies also provided the platform for a trailblazer: Kerry Davis, the first Black woman to play for England. Born in Stoke-on-Trent to Jamaican and English parents, she debuted for the Lionesses in 1982 and became a prolific striker, scoring goals at Wembley and representing her country at the 1984 Euros and the 1995 World Cup.

But the English game was not ready to support a player of her talent. Davis had to spend much of her career in Italy, where the women’s game was taken more seriously, winning titles with clubs like Lazio. Her achievements were finally recognised when she was inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame in 2022.

If the 19th century made Crewe, the 21st has threatened to undo it. HS2, the high-speed rail project, once promised to restore Crewe to the centre of Britain’s transport revolution. Investment, jobs, prestige – all seemed destined to return. But the plans fell through. The dream of Crewe as a 21st-century rail hub was shelved, leaving behind frustration and a sense of betrayal in a town built on iron.

Crewe Alexandra are one of the oldest names in English football – all (rail)roads lead to, and out of, Crewe. It is time Crewe embraced its legacy of being at the heart of the British network – and rebuilt outwards – to expand its influence once more.