A treasure trove of evocative memorabilia celebrating the history of Stevenage FC and much more from the town's footballing past has been given a huge overhaul and relaunch.

The Stevenage Football Archive has been in existence since 2019 and covers all iterations and predecessors of the current Stevenage FC - Town, Athletic and Borough - as well as information on the League One club too.

But the website has now been completely redesigned and rebuilt from the ground up and where the previous site gave the opportunity to access digitised programmes, the new-look offering does so much more.

Now there are match reports, videos and statistics as well as a virtual online museum.

Webmaster Chris Day said: "At launch, it’s got details for 1,336 matches, 1,169 match reports, 508 digitised programmes and more than 600 player pages.

"These are all constantly being added to and fans can keep updated on new additions by searching for Stevenage Football Archive on Facebook or @StevenageFA on X."

Among the highlights of the online museum are team photos dating back to the 1890s, a history of Broadhall Way, digitised handbooks from the 60s, fanzines from the 1990s and 2000s, and old scrapbooks from the 50s and 60s.

The website can be viewed at www.stevenagefootballarchive.co.uk

For Day, a Boro fan for more than 20 years, this has been a real labour of love.

He said: "From the first time my dad took me to a game back in 2003, I’ve always collected the programmes.

"And my interest in the history was really sparked when Lloyd Briscoe started including it in his programme articles a few years ago – they opened my eyes to the pre-Boro history.

"From there, I had the idea of digitising programmes – not everyone wants to fork out for their own collection but lots of people enjoy having a flick through them now and then, bringing back some of their old memories.

"It was that idea that grew into the website."

He also wants it to work alongside other Stevenage websites, believing the archive can add colour and an alternative view to what is already out there.

He said: "I wanted to offer something a bit different to BoroGuide, which is the best Boro website going and has a complete statistical record that won’t ever be bettered.

"This site is about Boro, but it’s also about the whole history of football in Stevenage going all the way back to the first organised game in 1884 and it’s about being a virtual, online museum.

“You can go on and take a look through that museum where there’s videos, some scrapbooks donated by Terry Ince who played for Stevenage Town in the 50s and 60s.

"There’s digitised fanzines, there’s some brilliant old photos of the Lamex.

“You can also look back at old players and compare stats – everything can be filtered so you can look at all the Stevenage teams, or just one of them.

"That could be the current Stevenage FC, or it could be clubs from the past like Stevenage Town and Stevenage Athletic.

“Every match has a page too, which will show you the line-ups, the programme, a match report, and highlights if there’s some online, as well as player stats and the table as it looked on that day.

“At the moment, the site has all of the Stevenage FC data back to 2008, plus a few seasons of Stevenage Town and Stevenage Athletic data.

“It’s been slow going recently – adding new seasons means I have to dig through old papers at the British Library, and they’ve been inaccessible for almost a year after a cyber-attack – but everything’s in place now to just keep going further back, keep adding to the site.

“I want everybody who played for Stevenage Town and Stevenage Athletic, and their families, to be able to see their records, how many appearances they made and goals they scored.

“BoroGuide does a similar job for Stevenage FC, and that’s what I’m aiming for with the previous clubs.

“It’s one of the big advantages of the new site. My old site wasn’t really capable of doing anything with stats, but the new one calculates it all automatically."

And while Day, no relation to the Boro goalkeeper of the same name, will be taking regular trips into the capital to help add to the layers of detail, he would like fans to get involved.

He said: "The site relies, really, on the generosity of others in letting me see their old memorabilia. It just wouldn’t have been possible without the help of many, many people who have contributed.

“I’m always delighted to hear from people who have old programmes, photos, videos, newspaper clippings and so on that they’re happy for me to have a look at.

“If anyone reading this wants to get in touch, they can contact me at stevenagefootballarchive@gmail.com."

Day added: "I'd like to thank Ken and Barbara Follett, who have generously agreed to sponsor the new website."

Broadhall Way was used as a car park when The Rolling Stones played Knebworth in 1976.Broadhall Way was used as a car park when The Rolling Stones played Knebworth in 1976. (Image: Archant)

Brief historical background to football in Stevenage

- First ever organised game of football in Stevenage was Saturday, 18th October 1884 – Biggleswade beat Stevenage 5-2

- Stevenage Town founded in 1894 – were the town’s senior club for almost the entire period until 1968, when they ran into financial difficulties. They had turned professional in 1963

- In the early twentieth century, Town’s main ground was London Road – roughly where the bus interchange is now. They moved to Broadhall Way in 1961.

- 1968-1976, Stevenage Athletic were the town’s senior team, playing at Broadhall Way

- Financial difficulties again in 1976 – they collapsed, Stevenage Borough were formed

- Played at King George Playing Fields as a youth team until 1980, when they became a senior team back at Broadhall Way