Newark Town FC History

Newark Town FC History


Newark Town FC - 150th Anniversary (1868-2018)

The Early Years
The original Newark Town FC was formed in 1868 and was a member of the Midland Counties League where we enjoyed some success.
Records show the Club claimed some notable results in the FA Cup at its Muskham Road ground reaching the second round in 1930-31.
Two players of note in this period were William Ashurst, who represented England and then played for Newark and Syd Bycroft who was sold to Doncaster Rovers in 1936 for the sum of £250!
The club disbanded in the mid-1930s as our ground was subject to a compulsory purchase order to form part of the new cattle market site. Unfortunately, a suitable replacement site was not easily accessible at that time.

The Mid Years
In the 1970s a small group led by Keith Bee reformed Newark Town FC whereby we started playing at Devon Park and entered into one of the Nottingham leagues. This venture was short lived sadly and the name of Newark Town FC again passed into history.

Fortunately, under the leadership of Paul Baggaley, the club was reformed again in 1991 and its first venture was to enter a team in the Notts Imperial Youth League (under 16s).

From 1991 to 1994 a Junior Section became established playing in the Young Elizabethan and Notts Imperial Leagues.

In 1994 the club took the step into Senior Football by entering teams in the Midland Regional Alliance and Grantham & District Leagues.

In 1997 the club was admitted into the Notts Football Alliance which was, at the time, the senior league within the county. During 1998 the club was instrumental in establishing the New Newark Youth Football League.

The hard work and dedication put in by the Club over the years led to us being awarded FA Community Club status in 2018 which resulted in grant aid being available to allow a joint venture with Newark and Sherwood District Council to enhance the facilities at Devon Park as a base for the Junior Section.

The Club manages the Tom Mann Pavilion on the site, not just for football activities, but for a number of other third party events throughout the year.

The Future
Today, the Club now runs teams from under 7s to under 18s in the Junior Section
Development team, Sunday Team and our First Team in the Senior Section.

Our Girls and Ladies section is going from strength to strength and we now have under 9s, 11s, 12s, 13s, 14s & 15s as well as a Ladies First team and newly formed Development team for the 21/22 season. The ladies are sure contenders for the league title next season, after being cut off by Covid-19 before they could play their cup semi final in March 2020.

The Club also offers a Junior Development Centre which runs on a Saturday for ages 4-8 and a popular and rapidly growing, Girls Development Centre for ages 4-11, which runs on a Sunday.

The Club is immensely proud of our long history and now boasts the largest number of signed on players we have ever had.

We embrace our 150 years in the local football arena and look forward to continuing on our journey for years to come.