YOU read it here first! A fortnight ago, just as the women’s European football championships kicked off, we told how a scrapbook belonging to Lillie Galloway, the founder of the Darlington Quaker Ladies football team in 1927, had been discovered in Newcastle by her great-grand-daughters.

READ MORE: THE DARLINGTON QUAKER LADIES

Under Lillie’s careful stewardship, the Quaker Ladies became one of the best teams in the north with their annual Good Friday grudge match, against Terry’s Chocolate Girls of York, attracting 10,000 spectators – even though women were banned from playing on men’s professional grounds because the Football Association regarded the sight of females kicking a football as “deplorable”.

The Northern Echo: Lillie Galloway, pictured with the scrapbook which is now in the possession of her great-grand-daughters

Lillie Galloway with her scrapbook

The scrapbook has been loaned to the Arthur Wharton Foundation in Widdowfield Street, where local artist Jilly Johnson has painted Lillie into a mural celebrating the stars of women’s football.

It is a great and timely story, and on Thursday, BBC Look North told it by filming at Widdowfield Street.

The Northern Echo: Avril Webster holding a picture of her grandmother Lillie Galloway while standing in front of Lillie on the mural at the Arthur Wharton Foundation in Widdowfield Street

Avril Webster holding a picture of her grandmother Lillie Galloway while standing in front of Lillie on the mural at the Arthur Wharton Foundation in Widdowfield Street

By chance, just as the cameras were rolling, Avril Webster and her husband Sean dropped by from Harrowgate Hill. Avril is Lillie’s grand-daughter. She’d read of Lillie’s exploits in Memories – in fact, her grand-daughter had taken the article into school that day – and had come to see if she could spot her on the mural.

“She was lovely, but she was very much the sort of person who called a spade a spade,” said Avril, who was 21 when Lillie died in 1971. “She was very good with people, very kind, and she said things as they were.

“And she would talk football as much as she could. She was adamant that women should play the game.”

Amazingly, the ban on women playing on men’s grounds lasted until 1971.

The Northern Echo: Lillie Galloway and her husband, James, in his military uniform and three of their four children

Above: Lillie Galloway and her husband, James, in his military uniform and three of their four children. James played a major role in running the Quaker Ladies. Below: Lillie's four sons and their dog

The Northern Echo: Lillie Galloway's four sons, Harry, Fred, Henry and Alfred

The scrapbook shows how the Quaker ladies, who raised more than £3,000 for miners’ and railwaymen’s charities, were unable to fulfil their Good Friday 1939 game against the Chocolate Girls because too many of them had acquired matrimonial duties. However, Lillie said she was determined to rebuild her team only for the Second World War to come along.

The Northern Echo: Lillie Galloway with the ball with her new signing Lydia Clements on the left. On the right is Doris Brown and Florrie Harbron is in the centre. In 1937

Lillie Galloway and the Darlington Quaker Ladies in the mid 1930s

The local history of women’s football after the war is very hazy, but must be stored in people’s memories. The Women’s Football Association was formed in 1969, and one of the first teams in this area was the Cleveland Spartans, started by Middlesbrough FC and initially coached by Mark Proctor and David Hodgson.

Can anyone tell us anymore about this modern history of women’s football – what happened in your youth?