This is a brief guide to using the York City Football Club [YCF] collection held here at Explore York Libraries and Archives.

Football team posing at their ground
The York City Football Club team at Bootham Crescent, 1936-1938 [Reference: y942_741_hem_34]

The present York City Football Club was founded in 1922 and is still in existence
today. Originally they played in the Midland League, before later joining the National
League. The club’s first ground was Fulfordgate, on Heslington Lane. In 1932, the club moved to Bootham Crescent, which remained their home until 2021 when the Minstermen moved to the York Community Stadium in Monks Cross, Huntington.

Collection overview

The archive of York City FC offers a fascinating insight into the history and development of the club both on and off the pitch. The collection covers the organisation and management of the club. The collection also offers insight into the club’s footballing acheivements and engagement with the club’s fanbase.

  • YCF/1 – The collection primarily consists of over 2,500 match-day programmes for home and away matches dating from 1922 to 2020. Early programmes consist of team sheets and advertisements for local businesses, but more recent programmes include in-depth information on the opposing team, as well as the history of York City FC, the progress of the youth and reserve teams, fan activities in the city and across the country, and the club’s charitable and community work. Several of the programmes also include inserted match reports published in the York Press and match tickets, which had been collected and organised by the fan who gifted the collection to York City Football Club Foundation.
  • YCF/2 – Fanzines from the period 1983-2010 are also included offering a fans’ view of the club’s performance and management at the time of publication.
  • YCF/3 – Press clippings from local and national newspapers covering the period 1971-2010 include a number of season previews, reviews and souvenir supplements for significant matches such as Cup, Trophy and play-off finals. There is extensive coverage of the 2002 ‘Save City’ campaign launched by York Press and the Supporters’ Trust, as well as coverage of other changes in management.
  • YCF/4 – Arange of ephemera pertaining to the club, principally match tickets and season tickets collected by individual fans represents supporters’ view of the club. Other items within the series include programmes for social events, memorabilia (such as first-day covers and souvenir booklets), and an early share certificate dating to 1923.
  • YCF/5 – Various Club publications, such as souvenir programmes for testimonial matches and Supporters’ Club Yearbooks give us an impression of the activities and ephemera of life as a supporter of York City on and off the pitch.

Our archive collections can be searched and browsed on the archive catalogue: https://archives.exploreyork.org.uk/index.php/

You can find more information on how to search the archive catalogue on the ‘How to Search’ webpage: https://archives.exploreyork.org.uk/how-to-search

To book an appointment to access our archive collections and find details of our opening times and how to book an appointment, please refer to our ‘Visiting us’ webpage: https://exploreyork.org.uk/archives/visiting-us/

Library resources
  • Batters, Dave. York City Football Club, Stroud : Tempus Publishing Ltd, 2000 [Shelf mark: Y796.334 SPO/796.334(Y)]
  • Batters, David. York City : The Complete Record, 1922-2008, Derby : DB, 2012 Shelf mark: Y796.334]
  • Bowser, Paul. Bootham Crescent: A Second Home. The History and Home Grounds of York City Football Club, Part 1: 1922-1960. York, York Publishing Services, 2019 [Shelf mark: 796.334(Y)]

Our local history and special collections can be searched and browsed using our library catalogue: https://catalogue.exploreyork.org.uk/client/en_GB/default/

Online resources from Explore York

Other research guides & resources