Some football clubs have nicknames that make complete sense, whilst others can seem a lot more off the beaten track. Everton’s Merseyside neighbours, for example, are known as ‘The Reds’ because they play in an all-red football kit. Whilst Everton are sometimes called ‘The Blues’ for a similar reason, their more official nickname is ‘The Toffees’.
The reason for that is one that dates back more than a hundred years, depending on which version of the story it is that you’re willing to believe. Regardless, it is one of the more fun nicknames boasted by a major side in England.
Warring Shops That Sold Toffee
It might sound a little bit ridiculous in the modern era, but there is a strong suggestion that Everton earned their nickname thanks to the fact that there were two shops close to the football ground Everton played at that both sold toffee. As far back as the 1700s, the Everton suburb of the city of Liverpool was known to produce toffee, with several shops being based in the location. The two main ones, at least as far as the football club were concerned, were Ye Ancient Everton Toffee House and Mother Noblett’s Toffee Shop, both of which were based close to Anfield Stadium.
If you’re reading that and thinking, “But Liverpool play at Anfield”, you would be right. Originally, though, it was St Domingo’s Football Club that played their matches at Anfield, resulting in countless people heading along to watch a match stopping at either Ye Ancient Everton Toffee House or else Mother Noblett’s Toffee Shop in order to get themselves a sweet treat whilst they watched the match play out. In the November of 1879, those responsible for the club decided to rename it after the area in which it was, becoming Everton Football Club as a result.
Winning Over Supporters
In 1892, John Houlding, the owner of Anfield, decided to put up the rent he was asking Everton to pay for the use of his football stadium. For that reason, amongst a number of others, the board behind Everton decided to leave the ground so as to play their matches somewhere else. That ended up being Goodison Park, just the other side of Stanley Park and within view of Anfield. Old Ma Bushell was the woman who ran Ye Ancient Everton Toffee House, selling Everton Toffees to all of those who wanted to buy some. The move to Goodison was seen by her as an opportunity.
There was a big rivalry between Ma Bushell and Mother Noblett’s Toffee Shop, both of whom wanted to come out on top as being the best place to go for toffees in the city. Ma Bushell’s shop had made sense for people to visit when the club played its games at Stanley Park, as well as Priory Road and even Anfield. The move to Goodison, however, meant that it was seen as being just a touch too far for people who were on their way to the match and so she began to lose business. Mother Noblett, meanwhile, had opened a new shop close to Goodison Park, winning additional business.
A Clever Bit of Marketing
Mother Noblett didn’t just offer the same Everton Toffee that Ma Bushell was selling. Instead, she created the Everton Mint, being similar in nature but also vastly different. Whereas Ma Bushell made a traditional-style toffee by boiling together raw sugar with water and adding butter, putting some lemon scent in for good measure, Mother Noblett’s sweet was a mint with a toffee centre. It was covered with a hard sugar shell that was black and white stripes, making it similar to a kit that Everton had played in during the club’s formative years and thereby appealing to supporters.
The two shops were increasingly desperate to win over the supporters who were heading along to Goodison Park. Ma Bushell was aware that both the location of her shop and the fact that Mother Noblett’s Everton Mints looked like an old kit meant that her offering wasn’t as appealing to many. Even so, she didn’t give up. As a result, she got in touch with those responsible for running Everton and offered to give away some of her sweets for free before a match. The idea was simple: she would throw toffees into the crowd, thereby taking advantage of the captive audience there.
Once people had tried her toffees, so the theory went, they would be happy to travel slightly further afield in order to buy them for their own consumption. She brought her granddaughter on board, dressing Jemima Bushell in her best clothes and sending her to the ground along with a wicker basket filled with toffees. This, in turn, led to a now decades-long tradition of a woman dressed in traditional clothing walking around the ground and giving out toffees to the Everton supporters. You can read about the Everton Toffee Lady elsewhere on this site, but it was why Everton became known as the Toffees.
As is often the case with such a story, there are always those who are keen to suggest a different option. Everton have long been the club supported by people from North Wales, with some suggesting that the nickname of the Toffees has actually come about as a bastardisation of the word ‘taffies’. A Taffy was a Welsh person, as described by an English person who was not looking to be particularly complimentary. It is entirely possible that Everton’s association with Wales resulted in other clubs referring to their supporters as ‘Taffies’, which then became the Toffees. That isn’t as much fun though, is it?