Shropshire Star

Recalling a county legend

Toby Neal meets the neice of a county sporting legend.

Published

Toby Neal meets the neice of a county sporting legend.

As young Shropshire girl Sheila Mansell lifted the FA Cup, there was a cry of "Kiss it!"

So she did.

Sheila was not just any little girl. She was the niece of Johnny Hancocks of Wolves and England, one of the greatest football players Shropshire has ever produced.

Her childhood memories of the exact occasion when the cup came to Shropshire are not clear, but she thinks it must have been after Billy Wright's legendary Wolves side won the cup in 1949.

These days that young girl is 70-year-old Mrs Sheila Del-Manso, and she recalls: "When they won the cup, they brought it up to St Georges. I think it was at the cricket ground. All the players were there, and the cup. I can remember going with my mum and I held the cup.

"We all sat down to tea with all the footballers - Billy Wright, Jimmy Mullen, The Cat - Bert Williams, and I think Ron Flowers was there.

"All this went over my head because I was too young. I'm sure it was the FA Cup and I was allowed to hold it. They said to me 'kiss it'. I did!"

Despite the glittering success of her uncle - Sheila's mother Dorothy was Johnny's elder sister - Sheila thinks there are factors which may have stopped him going on to yet greater things.

"He played for England. Only three times. He could not travel. This held him back terribly. On the bus he would be sick."

And his ability to "network" socially was affected by his mother's offbeat housekeeping regime.

"They lived at 7 Holyhead Road, Oakengates, and that's where Johnny was born. My mother sold it when my grandmother died. It's all been modernised now. It's next to the Pear Tree at Oakengates.

"Johnny was held back because he could never bring any of the 'big' people home to 7 Holyhead Road because of my grandma, Jane.

"If you put a carpet down she would take it up and hide it under the bed because it had to be kept. So there would be newspaper on the floor.

"Stan Cullis the manager wanted to come. My mum got the parlour sorted out and beautiful. After they had gone granny whipped all the carpets out and put them under the bed.

"When my grandma died we went upstairs and there was about 40lbs of sugar under the bed. There were about 30 boxes of chocolates under the bed. My granddad had worked very hard to buy my grandma a fur coat. When my mother took it out of the wardrobe it had only ever been worn once and it fell to pieces because it had never been out of the wardrobe. It was so sad.

"My grandmother was very clean, but such a funny lady. You must never put anything on the floor on show. You must hide it. That broke Johnny's heart. He could never bring anybody home."

It was while at Wrockwardine Wood secondary modern school that Sheila, who lived then at 4 Moss Row, Wrockwardine Wood, became aware of her uncle's celebrity status.

"There were teachers there called Mr Treherne and Mr Pickering. They found out about my uncle - they were football mad.

"I seemed to get a bit of preferential treatment, which at the time I did not like because I was very shy. I tried to hide the fact that he was my uncle.

"Johnny used to come home when he was not playing football when they had the break. He and myself would take a ball on the back at my grandma's house and we would play football up there on the banks."

Then Johnny would take them to Sidoli's cafe in Oakengates.

"We would walk in, my mother, Johnny and myself. We would sit down and it was not long before the cafe was full with people asking for his autograph."

Johnny was famous for his tiny feet. His shoe size is given variously in accounts as size two or size three.

But Sheila says these are wrong.

"His mother took a size one shoe. My mum took a size two - she had to have her shoes made at the Co-op. Johnny took a size four."

Despite his small feet and small stature, he had a powerful shot.

"I think he is the only man who kicked a ball through the net once and it went straight through, leaving a hole."

He seems to have been born for football. Sheila's mother would tell that as a child, after he was put to bed, they would hear "Goal, yeah!" and his dad would go up and find him kicking - young Johnny would be playing football in his sleep.

Johnny Hancocks died in 1994.

"My mother died four years ago. She and Johnny were so close. He would call her 'our Do' (rhymes with go). She always called him Jack. I don't know why. It was 'our Jack'.

"When Johnny was in hospital the last time, and he had a massive stroke and we knew he would not get better, we would see him, my mother, my aunt Sarah and myself, at the Princess Royal. He was unconscious.

"My mother went to him, bent over him and said 'Hurry up, you have got to get better because you have to come to Do's for some ice cream.'

"A tear ran down his cheek. He could hear her. We came away and he died that night. They were very close."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.