Striped Guernseys of the 19th Century

When I was small, children's comics would feature burglars wearing striped jerseys with masks over their eyes. Apparently, back in early Victorian times, an infamous crime was committed as reported from an historical source by Penelope Hemingway in her Knitting Genie blog: "DARING BURGLARY … It appears that the house was forcibly entered by three men, armed with pistols and long pointed knives; one of the men was very broad set, dressed in a Guernsey frock, with stripes across the body… the other two were similarly dressed….” Since that time burglars are often shown as wearing striped guernseys. There is a theory that burglars chose these garments as they allowed them to run faster than the chasing policemen who would have been wearing tailored suits; or was it just that in those days working people only had one set of clothes and guernseys were the working clothes of many labouring men!

I also have been unable to find any mention of an actual striped guernsey in any collection or museum. Maybe no-one thought to save one for later knitters to view, especially as they would only have been discarded when in a badly worn out condition, but I have found photos of such guernseys. When the first formal football clubs were formed 150 years ago, footballers played in their own sports clothes, it was soon realised that it was difficult for both the sportsmen and the spectators to distinguish between the two teams. So Clubs invented themselves uniforms which the players then devised for themselves. Here is a photo of the famous Queens Park Rangers team of the 1870s, one or two wear shirts, and others have knitted guernseys - see far left!

Another famous early club was Sheffield Wednesday and here is their 1878 strip which includes a few hand-knitted striped guernseys:

Look at the drape, the varying stripe arrangements at the shoulders of the two photos. The treatment of neck fronts, shoulder buttons and some disparity in the width of the stripes indicate a hand-made non-standard guernsey. It wasn't long before companies such as Bukta were formed to machine knit these uniforms. Incidentally the knitted form of kit retained its popularity in rugby and football, albeit a more modern and small guage knit, perhaps because knitted fabric is more forgiving of rough handling than woven fabric. I am indebted for much of the above detail to David Moor of Historical Football Kits who would appreciate any old football kit information that you can pass on. His pages also indicate that many football clubs played using recognisable modern rugby rules, while sometimes teams would favour a game we would recognise nowadays as soccer. It was many years before these games were standardised. David wishes me to state that the photos are not his own property.