Richard Lindon

By 1849, Lindon, now aged 33, who naturally had regular supplies of boot leather delivered, found himself bombarded by the boys of Rugby School to manufacture footballs for them.

Mrs Rebecca Lindon, (b 1830) besides being the owner of her own employment agency for servants as well as the mother to 17 children, was the official "green" pig's bladder inflator.

India rubber was too tough to inflate by mouth and after seeing an ordinary medical Ear Syringe he produced a larger brass version to blow up his footballs, which he demonstrated, and won medals for, at an exhibition in London.

Around 1854 at Rugby School, the ball was kicked high in the air, dropped down a disused chimney and was lost behind wooden panels for over a century and a half.

This Punt-about ButtonBall holds the remains of one of Richard Lindon's India Rubber inflatable bladders and resembles the shape of the earliest plum rugby ball.