GO harrogate town f.c.

Harrogate Town FC might not be top of everybody’s list of favourite football clubs but there’s much to be said for going along to watch a match at the Wetherby Road ground [map].

A football club was formed in Harrogate in 1914 and was the founder member of the Yorkshire League. It joined the Midland League in 1921 but returned to its Yorkshire League roots by 1922, where it won the championship in 1927.

It all went down hill in 1931, however, when the club wound up in 1932 and the ground at Wetherby Lane (now known as Weatherby Road) was sold to the Harrogate Corporation.

In 1935 the club decided to reform and this time called themselves Harrogate Hotspurs and played their matches at the Stray. They soon joined the Yorkshire League once more and even returned to their ground at Wetherby Lane.

1948 saw the club take the familiar moniker of Harrogate Town FC and the season started well. 1950 saw the largest attendance ever at Wetherby Lane of 4,280 for the match against Harrogate stalwarts Harrogate Railway Athletic.

This spot of good luck continued through the 1950s and culminated with Harrogate Town being promoted to Yorkshire League Division One in 1960.

Sadly, the 1960s saw Harrogate down on its uppers and the next decade saw the team relegated to divisions two and three before finally staying in division two for much of the 1980s.

Several impressive wins followed including being named Yorkshire League Division Champions and West Riding County Cup winners in 1986.

1990 put Harrogate FC back on top and led to the North Premier League Division One championship. This led to them also being named West Riding County Cup winners in 2003.

2004 saw the football club become founder members of the Nationwide North Football League and surely a promotion is again within the clubs sights?