The night the FA Cup was stolen from a Birmingham shop window

The FA Cup is one of the most well-known sports trophies in the world, seen by millions each football season and shown off by whichever team lifts it after the final.

But, 130 years ago, on a September night, the first incarnation of the cup was stolen and the identity of the criminals was a mystery for decades.

The story began when Aston Villa won the cup final in 1895, beating West Bromwich Albion 1-0, and returned to Birmingham with the trophy.

This first cup had been made for £20, by Sheffield-based silversmiths Martin, Hall & Co, and was known as the “little tin idol”, according to the National Football Museum (NFA).

Villa supporter William Shillcock, a local boot and ball maker, approached the club and asked if he could display the cup in his show window, so fans could see it up close.

But, after a couple of weeks on display, on the 11 September during the middle of the night, the burglars struck.

Finding the trophy gone and with police struggling to find the culprits, a reward of £10 was offered but without any luck – it was never seen again.

That outcome was not a good one for the winners of the cup final, Aston Villa – they were fined £25 by the Football Association (FA) as the prize was lost while it was in their care.

The stolen cup though needed replacing so a firm was sought to produce one.

The selected business, a Birmingham company which had connections to Villa, silversmiths Vaughtons, were commissioned to make the replacement.

The founder’s grandson, Howard Vaughton, had a close connection with the trophy, having won the FA Cup with Villa in 1887 and, by 1895, he was a partner in the firm, the NFA said.

Luckily, three years before, the company had taken a plaster cast of the trophy in order to make a miniature for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The Birmingham-made FA Cup was used until 1910, when it was presented to the President of the FA, Lord Kinnaird and replaced with a trophy made in Bradford.

But what of the stolen cup?

Well, we spin the clock forward to the late 1950s and, in that decade, there came an admission over the theft of the original trophy.

A petty criminal from Birmingham, by then in his 80s, claimed he and two others had stolen the silverware and melted it down to make fake half-crown coins.

He even suggested some of the counterfeit money was spent at a pub run by former Aston Villa player Dennis Hodgetts, who had won the FA Cup with Villa in both 1895 and 1887, said the NFA.

The elderly criminal was said to have wanted to get the theft off his conscience – but his confession to a newspaper journalist could never be proved.