Gone And Almost Forgotten (Part One)

A new series on clubs who graced the Southern Football League at some stage of their existence, but who later sadly folded.

Obviously, a competition as old as the Southern League (founded in 1894) is going to have member clubs that have gone out of existence.

It`s first sixteen-member clubs were Bromley, Chatham, Chesham, Clapton, Ilford, Luton Town, Maidenhead, Millwall Athletic, New Brompton, Old St Stephen`s, Reading, Royal Ordnance Factories, 2nd Scots Guards, Sheppey United, Swindon Town and Uxbridge.

Of those, apart from the two teams from the Forces, eight clubs - Bromley, Chatham, Clapton, Luton, Reading, Sheppey United, Swindon Town and Uxbridge - all still exist today in more or less their original form.

Of the others, Old St Stephen`s disbanded in 1898, New Brompton changed its name to Gillingham in 1912, Millwall Athletic became simply Millwall in 1903, Maidenhead merged with Maidenhead Norfolkians to become Maidenhead United immediately after the First World War, while Chesham changed its name to Chesham Town in 1899 and then merged with Chesham Generals in 1917 to become the current Chesham United.

Of those clubs, only Chesham are current Southern League members, while Uxbridge left the league in 1899 to play in the Corinthian, Athenian and Isthmian Leagues and didn`t return to the Southern League until 2004!

Sadly, there have been many clubs that have disappeared totally.

Four years after the league`s formation, Brighton United joined up and finished 10th out of 13 in 1898/99 but folded in March 1900, never to be heard of again.

They had `over-reached` themselves financially – something which will be a recurring theme in this piece!

Brighton fielded a team that included nine Scottish players, several of whom had played in the Football League, including Maurice Parry, who went on to enjoy a lengthy career with Liverpool and win 16 caps for Wales.

In 1896, Freemantle FC, based in Southampton, were one of eight clubs who were elected to join an expanded Southern League Second Division and finished third in its first season.

Freemantle failed to take their place in the Southern League Second Division for the 1897/98 season, which caused the promotion of Royal Artillery Portsmouth to fill the vacancy.

But in 1898, following a re-organisation of the league, Freemantle joined the newly formed Division Two South-West and finished the 1898/99 season third in the table (out of six clubs who completed all their fixtures.

At the end of the season, the league reverted to two divisions and most of the South-West division clubs, including Freemantle, left.

Freemantle continued to play in the Hampshire League - a competition they joined as founder members in 1896 - but finally folded in 1905 with debts of around £200!

Bedminster were elected to the Southern League Division One in 1898.

Along with many other clubs of this era, Bedminster (pictured) were members of two leagues at the same time, remaining in the Western League after joining the Southern League.

They had been founder members of the Bristol & District League in 1892 and that league became the Western League three years later.

Bedminster finished eighth and sixth in its two seasons in the Southern League before the club merged into local rivals Bristol City in 1900 and ceased to exist.

Chingford Town joined the Southern League in 1948 and finished 21st (out of 22) and then 24th (out of 24) in the two seasons they were members.

Chingford withdrew from the Southern League partway through the 1950/51 season and the club's first team took over reserve team fixtures in the Metropolitan League before they folded in 1951.

Chingford have since re-emerged in several guises since then, playing in the Spartan South Midlands League for one season in 1997/98 as a founder member and then switched to the new London Intermediate League in 1998 after finishing 13th out of 13 in the SSML.

The original Armitage FC club were formed in 1915 and joined the West Midlands (Regional) League in 1971.

In 1987 they left to join the Staffordshire County League due to financial issues but three years later in 1990 there was a rescue package that saw a rebranding to Armitage 90.

They left the Staffordshire County League to join the Midland Combination in 1991 and the following 1992/93 season saw the club, under a new management team of Danny McMullan and Danny Haynes, go one better by winning the title for the Kings Bromley Lane outfit.

The club dropped the `90` in time for the 1994/95 season to return to the name Armitage FC but for two seasons they endured a dreadful time at the higher level and in 1995 they were relegated to the recently formed Midland Alliance.

This allowed them to regroup and by the start of December, they were top of the league. Then came the news that chairman Sid Osborn was pulling out of the club to take over Leicester United and Armitage were forced to resign from the Alliance and close down.

Less than a year later Leicester United were also closed down by Osborn as I wrote about in the January feature `August 1996 – A Sad Day`.

The original Addlestone club was one the early `naughty boys` of football!

Founded in 1985, playing in the local North West Surrey League, in early 1892 the club was suspended by the Surrey FA for spectator hooliganism!

A step up into the Surrey Senior League came after the First World War and they also entered the FA Amateur Cup for the first time in 1925.

Up until 1964, the club spent a see-saw time split between the Surrey Senior League and its lower local leagues before joining the Spartan League in time for the 64/65 season.

Apart from 65/66 when they dropped down to third-from-bottom and also suffered a 9-0 hammering by Woking in the FA Cup, Addlestone did reasonably well in the Spartan League, finishing second in both 66/67 and 69/70.

In 1971, Addlestone were accepted into the bigger Athenian League, which in those days possessed three divisions.

They were placed in the third tier which, nevertheless, still contained teams of the quality of Edgware Town, Hemel Hempstead Town, Hampton, Worthing and Staines Town, who were champions in Addlestone`s first season in the division.

Promotion was achieved for Addlestone three years later in a now reduced two-division league, finishing second behind Egham Town.

The same season saw Addlestone beat Woking in the final of the Southern Combination Cup – some change from a few years earlier!

The club finished third in the first season in the higher division and retained the Southern Combination Cup beating Egham 2–1.

In 1974/75 and 75/76, Addlestone reached the quarter-finals of the FA Vase.

Epsom & Ewell beat their Surrey rivals 2-0 in 1975 on their way to the final, and the following year, United Counties Leaguers Stamford won 3-0 at Kettering Road and they too ended up reaching Wembley.

At the end of the 1976/77 season, Addlestone were refused entry into the enlarging Isthmian League and so joined the Southern League Division One South for season 1977/78.

After a few seasons of mid-table mediocrity, ahead of the 1980/81 campaign, a new management team of player-manager Dave Donaldson, the former Wimbledon stalwart and his assistant George Talbot and a change of name to Addlestone & Weybridge Town brought some improvements on the field.

Donaldson (pictured) brought in some decent players, such as ex-Chelsea striker Steve Finnieston and players who would go on to feature for George Talbot for many years at the likes of Uxbridge, such as Danny Pipe, Micky Noad, Mark Woods and John Cassidy.

In 1982/82, Addlestone finished 9th and therefore qualified to enter the newly formed Southern Premier Division.

But they found themselves a bit out of their depth amongst clubs like Kidderminster Harriers, Chelmsford City, Welling United and Gloucester City and finished bottom and relegated alongside Poole Town and Waterlooville.

They finished fifth in the Southern Division the season after but the sale of their Liberty Lane ground led to a mid-season crisis within the club and the decision was taken to fold after the 84/85 season, despite finishing a creditable eighth.