Hoddesdon Town Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Hoddesdon Hoddesdon () is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, lying entirely within the London Metropolitan Area and Greater London Urban Area. The area is on the River Lea and the Lee Navigation along with the New River. Hoddesdon is ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England. They are currently members of the and play at Lowfield. The club were the first-ever winners of the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

History

The club was established on 14 April 1879 as Hoddesdon Football Club.A potted history
Hoddesdon Town F.C. In 1885 they were founding members of the

Hertfordshire County Football Association The Hertfordshire County Football Association, also simply known as ''Hertfordshire FA'', is the governing body of football in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The Hertfordshire FA was founded accidentally in 1885 after the existing teams (th ...

and won the inaugural

Herts Senior Cup The Herts Senior Cup, officially titled the Hertfordshire County Football Association Senior Challenge Cup, is the oldest County-based football Cup competition based exclusively in Hertfordshire, England. It was first contested in the 1886-87 se ...

in 1886–87. The club retained the cup the following season and won it again in 1889–90. They were founder members of the East Herts League in 1896, merging with Hoddesdon Wanderers and Broxbourne Club in the same year. In 1903 the club absorbed another club, Rye Park. In 1908 Hoddesdon joined the Eastern Division of the

Hertfordshire Senior County League The Hertfordshire Senior County League is a football competition based in Hertfordshire, England. Founded in 1898, there are currently two divisions at senior level and two divisions at reserve and development level. Sitting at step 7 of the Nat ...

.Hertfordshire County League 1898–1927
Non-League Matters The division was renamed the Central Division for the 1909–10 season, before reverting to its former name the following season. The club finished bottom of the division in 1912–13, but were divisional champions the following season. In the inter-divisional championship play-off, they finished last. In 1920 the club was renamed Hoddesdon Town. They were placed in the North-East Division for the 1921–22 season following league organisation, before the league was reduced to a single division in 1923. Hoddesdon joined Division Two B the

Spartan League The Spartan League was a football league in England covering London and adjacent counties. Established in 1907, it merged with the South Midlands League in 1997 to form the Spartan South Midlands League. History The Spartan League was establish ...

in 1925.Spartan League 1907–1934
Non-League Matters They won the division in 1928–29, but league reorganisation meant no promotion and the club was placed in Division Two East the following season. They were Division Two East runners-up in 1931–32, earning promotion to Division One. The 1935–36 season saw the club win Division One, resulting in promotion to the Premier Division.
Non-League Matters However, they finished second-from-bottom of the Premier Division the following season and were relegated back to Division One. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the club were placed in the Central Division for the 1945–46 season, with a sixth-place finish seeing them earn a place in the Premier Division for the following season. Hoddesdon were relegated after finishing bottom of the table in 1949–50, but were promoted back to the Premier Division at the first attempt. They finished bottom of the table in 1958–59, 1959–60 and 1962–63, but were runners-up in 1964–65 and went on to win the league title in 1970–71,Spartan League 1955–1983
Non-League Matters a season that also saw them win the Spartan League Cup and the Herts Charity Shield. The club were league runners-up in the next three seasons, retaining the League Cup and the Charity Shield in 1971–72. In 1974–75 they were the first-ever winners of the

, beating Epsom & Ewell in its inaugural final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. The club left the Spartan League to the

Athenian League The Athenian League was an English amateur football league for clubs in and around London. The league was originally to be called the Corinthian League,Athenian Football League minutes 1912-1921 (National Football Museum, Preston). but this nam ...

in 1977, but when the league was disbanded in 1984 they were refused entry to the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

as they did not have use of their Lowfield ground all year round, and instead joined the Premier Division of the

South Midlands League The South Midlands League was a association football, football league covering Bedfordshire and some adjoining counties in England. It was founded in 1922 as the Bedfordshire County League and merged with the Spartan League in 1997 to form the ...

. In 1985–86 Hoddesdon won the South Midlands League Challenge Trophy, retaining it the following season and winning it again in 1991–92. The club remained in the Premier Division until 1997 when the league merged with the Spartan League to form the

Spartan South Midlands League The Spartan South Midlands Football League is an English football league covering Hertfordshire, northwest Greater London, central Buckinghamshire and southern Bedfordshire. It is a feeder to the Southern Football League or the Isthmian League, ...

, with Hoddesdon placed in the Premier Division North for a transitional season; a fifth-place finish in the league's first season saw them earn a place in the Premier Division the following season; the season also saw them win the Premier Division Plate. In 2004–05 Hoddesdon finished bottom of the Premier Division and were relegated to Division One. A third-place finish in

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

saw them promoted back to the Premier Division. In 2016–17 they won the Premier Division Cup, defeating

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

1–0 in the final. At the end of the 2017–18 season, Hoddesdon were transferred to the

Essex Senior League The Essex Senior Football League is an English men's football league. It contains clubs from the Essex FA, Hertfordshire FA, London FA, Middlesex FA and the Amateur Football Alliance. It is a feeder league to Division One North of the Isthm ...

. They won the league's Len Cordell Memorial Plate in 2020–21, defeating Woodford Town 3–0 in the final.

Ground

The club is thought to have initially played at Mansers Field, although by 1882 they had moved to Lowfield. Lowfield had previously been home to a cricket club, which continue to play there.Celebrating 116 years at Lowfield
Hoddesdon Town F.C. The ground was originally an arable field owned by Robert Barclay, who donated the land and was involved in setting up the cricket club in 1879. The site was purchased by a trust in 1924, before being taken over the urban district council, with ownership later transferring to

Broxbourne Borough Council Broxbourne is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Hoddesdon, in the Broxbourne district, in Hertfordshire, England, north of London, with a population of 15,303 at the 2011 Census.Broxbourne Town population 2011 It is ...

. Between 1952 and 1954 the club played at Essex Road as the Lowfield site was being levelled to allow for separate cricket and football pitches. Floodlights were installed in 1973 and inaugurated with a friendly match with

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

on 7 March, a game that attracted a record crowd of 3,500. The football pitch was moved further south in the early 1980s to prevent overlapping with the cricket oval, with floodlight pylons having to be moved and the original 100-seat stand now being at one end of the pitch rather than on the halfway line; in 1996 it was discovered to contain significant amounts of asbestos and was condemned.Peter Miles (1997) ''The Non-League Football Grounds of Hertfordshire'', p13 A new stand was opened the same year and seats from

Burnden Park Burnden Park was the home of English football club Bolton Wanderers who played home games there between 1895 and 1997. As well as hosting the 1901 FA Cup Final replay, it was the scene in 1946 of one of the greatest disasters in English footba ...

were installed the following year. A 100-capacity covered stand was opened in 2014 and another 50-seat stand was installed in 2016.Table-topping Hoddesdon Town's promotion hopes could be in pieces despite stadium work
Hertfordshire Mercury, 21 Marcy 2016

Honours

*FA Vase **Winners 1974–75 *Spartan South Midlands League **Premier Division Plate winners 1997–98 **Premier Division Cup winners 2016–17 *Essex Senior League **Len Cordell Memorial Plate winners 2020-21 *Spartan League **Champions 1970–71, 1971–72 **Division One champions 1935–36 **Division Two B champions 1927–28 **League Cup winners 1970–71 *South Midlands League **Challenge Trophy winners 1985–86, 1986–87, 1991–92 *Herts Senior Cup **Winners 1886–87, 1887–88, 1889–90 *Herts Charity Shield **Winners 1947–48, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1978–79, 2003–04 *Herts Senior Centenary Trophy **Winners 1986–87, 2007–08, 2008–09 *South Midlands Floodlight Cup **Winners 1989–90, 2001–02

Records

*Best

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

performance: Third qualifying round, 1931–32, 1969–70, 2015–16 *Best

performance: Winners, 1974–75 *Record attendance: 3,500 vs

, friendly match, 7 March 1973

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 51, 45, 30.38, N, 0, 00, 59.64, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Football clubs in England Football clubs in Hertfordshire 1879 establishments in England Association football clubs established in 1879 Hoddesdon Hertfordshire Senior County League Spartan League Athenian League South Midlands League Spartan South Midlands Football League Essex Senior Football League