Aston Villa FC was founded in March, 1874. It began as an off-shoot of the nearby Aston Villa Wesleyan Chapel, which was established in 1850. The origin of the name derives from the area that contained a house of that name that was built in the 1700s, a 'villa' being a type of house. 'Aston' is the name of an ancient area which was adjacent to Birmingham and is now part of Birmingham. The house gave its name to the district where the Chapel was built.
For that knowledge, we owe our thanks to the research of the late Mr. G. L. Wilson
of Warwick, formerly of Erdington, Birmingham.
As a note, it's interesting how the 'fact' of the Aston Villa Chapel then became translated into Villa Cross Chapel in many histories (particularly on the internet) as the chapel was in fact close to Villa Cross (which was itself named after the Georgian house). Then, because histories referred to the 'Villa Cross Chapel', people started asking how the name Aston Villa came about!
