Club found to be 150 years old updates its crest

A football club is two years older than it first thought and the correct date now features on its badge.

Two teams face off on the football pitch. One in plain white, and one in striped shirts. It is a black and white image. Huge crowds are in the stand in the background.
Harwich & Parkeston FC has celebrated its special anniversary this year [Harwich & Parkeston FC]

A non-league football club marking its 150th anniversary has revealed a new club crest which honours the correct year of its formation.

Harwich & Parkeston FC had believed it had been part of the Essex seaside town since 1877, until last year - when the discovery of reports in old newspapers revealed it had actually been established two years earlier.

Having celebrated the "remarkable" milestone this year, the club has added 1875 to its new badge, which replicated the town's current coat of arms.

The new design aimed "to take the club into a new era", it said, adding there were plans to remove the old crest from its Royal Oak ground.

A football club crest featuring a yellow portcullis on a red background, topped by a knight's helmet in black, surrounded by red and gold leaves. On top of the helmet is a ship with a white sail. Beneath the crest, on three scrolls, are the words
The club's new crest features a portcullis, which was in the first Harwich coat of arms in the 17th Century [Harwich & Parkeston FC]

The club's former crest, which dated from the 1960s, had featured a similar portcullis and ship motif, but with the date of 1877, now known to be incorrect.

The new badge has included the full name of the club, as featured for the first time on a special "1875-2025" commemoration crest this year.

Harwich & Parkeston, who play in the Essex Senior Football League, Premier Division, are the second side in the county to celebrate being 150. Saffron Walden Town reached the milestone in 2022.

There are only a handful of older surviving clubs in the top four leagues of English football including League Two's Notts County (1862) and, in the Premier League, Nottingham Forest (1865) and Aston Villa (1874).

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Category: General Sports