Walford Town FC History

Walford Town Football Club History

The first football club that was known in the Walford area was known as Walford Corinthians, founded in 1895.

But without any decent organisation within the club, the club became disbanded in 1898.

In 1900 the Reverend Ismael Gabson noticed that the youth in the area of Walford were in need of organisation and fitness, and felt that they needed a place to call their own and where they could learn sports such as rugby, cricket and association football.

So he set up a hut in a field near Bridge Street where the youth of the area could go and soon enough, Walford Town Football Club were formed.

After a series of friendly matches against other local youth clubs and factory teams, Walford developed a senior side which entered the London League Division Two in time for the start of the 1902/03 season. They finished 8th out of 14 teams.

Walford Town, nicknamed the "Dockers" at the time, initially wore red shirts, with black knickers and socks.

Walford Town gained promotion to the First Division in 1913, and were due to start in August 1914 but the first World War soon put a stop to that when football was stopped and 18 of the 22 members of Walford Town FC went to war, only 5 returned, including Woodstock "Woody" Jodley, who returned from the front minus an arm. This however, never stopped him from playing as a forward.

After the war some football teams were unable to re-form in time for the new football season of 1918/19. This gave Walford Town an opportunity to gain a "promotion of sorts" and entered the Southern League.

In 1920, virtually the entire top division of the Southern League was absorbed by the Football League to become that league's new Third Division. A year later the Third Division was expanded and regionalised. The Third Division clubs from the previous season became the Third Division South, with the addition of the Third Division North.

Walford Town were always a team that managed to finish mid table at best, their highest placing was an 8th placed finish in 1932/33.

In 1936 the club moved from Bridge Street, which was redeveloped to make way for a new railway line.

The club had two local businessmen, Mr William Hibbard and Mr Oliver Ragwell, who put forward enough money to help build a new ground in School Lane, based just on the south side over the canal.

In 1940, the ground was hit by a cluster of bombs during the blitz, and some incendiary bombs burned half of the main stand down but the ground was deemed suitable to play on by 1947.

For the 1958/59 season, the Football Association changed the format so that Southern and Northern teams could play each other, the top eleven teams in both previous Third Division's North and South would form the Third Division, while the teams from both previous divisions that finished below eleventh would form the new Fourth Division.

As Walford finished that final season in Division Three South in 14th position, they were to enter the Fourth Division.

This would also be the season that the clubs colours would change from the red and black hoops that they were well known for, to be changed completely to an all blue kit.

This caused virtual riots in Walford, where the majority of fans refused to acknowledge the change and went their own way to form a breakaway club, Walford Dockers FC, in relation to their original nickname (Watford Dockers played in the Athenian league until they were disbanded in 1968).

Because of this, the chairman of Walford Town, whose decision it was to announce the change of colours, Mr Ken Nafferton, also decreed that the nickname of the club would no longer be "The Dockers", but the "Blues" or "Town".

As time went by and the club's fortunes continued to get to no better, another nickname developed, "The Wallys", and not just because of the name of the town!

2004/05 became the worst season of the club's history when, after winning only 5 of their 46 league matches, Walford Town were relegated during the first season where automatic relegation was given to the last two clubs in the Division (now called League Two since 1992).

The teams to replace them would come from the Conference (now named the National league) and Walford would leave the Football league.

Before 1992 the two bottom teams would have to apply for re-election, where the chairmen of the remaining Football league clubs would vote to keep the club in.

Most of the time this would be accepted easily, and Walford Town had had to apply 6 times in the past to be re-elected, but this season there was no escape.

Walford's first season in the Football Conference was relatively regarded as a success, although promotion was not achieved, they finished fourth and lost in the semi-final play-offs, only one game from the final and a chance of promotion.

Season's after that were not as successful, and 2015/16 saw Walford Town finally slip out of the National league and into the National League South for the first time ever.

If Walford Town were not known for their league prowess, they were certainly not known for their cup exploits either.

In the Amateur Cup, the furthest Walford ever reached was the 2nd round proper  in 1911/12, losing to Walthamstow Avenue 3-0.

The FA Cup saw the same round when they lost to Clapton Orient 8-0 in 1932/33 and Reading 6-2 in 1966/67.

And in the FA Trophy, Walford's best season was in 2008/09 where they reached the dizzy heights of the 3rd round proper, losing against Harrogate Town 2-1.