Hanley 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

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

, England. They are currently members of the and play at Potteries Park.

History

The original Hanley Town were established in the 19th century, with their first recorded game being in 1882.Club Roots/History
Hanley Town F.C. They joined

the Combination The Combination was a league during the early days of English football. It had two incarnations; the first ran only for the 1888–89 season for teams across the Northern England and the Midlands, and was wound up before completion. The second ...

in 1894, but left the league after a single season and subsequently folded in 1912. The modern club was established in 1966,Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2016) ''Non-League Club Directory 2017'', Tony Williams Publications, p455 based on an existing Sunday league pub team named the Trumpet. The new club joined the Longton League for the 1966–67 season, winning it at the first attempt.Honours
Hanley Town F.C. They then moved up to the Staffordshire County League, winning Division Two in 1967–68 and then Division One the following season, earning promotion to the Premier Division. Hanley were Premier Division runners-up in their first three seasons in the division, also winning the Premier Cup in 1969–70. They won the league title in 1972–73 and again in 1975–76, after which they joined Division Two of the

Mid-Cheshire League The Cheshire Association Football League is a football competition based in Cheshire, England, which until 2007 was known as the Mid-Cheshire Association Football League. From season 2017–18, the league operates four divisions: the Premier D ...

. They won the Division Two Cup in 1976–77 with a 1–0 win over

Knutsford Knutsford () is a market town in the borough of Cheshire East, in Cheshire, England. Knutsford is south-west of Manchester, north-west of Macclesfield and 12.5 miles (20 km) south-east of Warrington. The population at the 2011 Census wa ...

in the final,Club Roots/History Pt3
Hanley Town F.C. and a third-place finish the following season saw them promoted to Division One. They were Division One champions in 1982–83, but after several seasons of mid-table finishes and being refused entry to the

North West Counties League The North West Counties Football League is a football league in the North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, northern Staffordshire, northern S ...

in 1988 due to failure to meet the ground grading requirements, they finished bottom of Division One in 1993–94 and dropped into junior football. In 1996 Hanley returned to the Mid-Cheshire League, joining Division Two. However, after two seasons they switched to the

Midland League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History Th ...

and in 2004–05 they were Midland League champions. At the end of the season the league merged with the Staffordshire County League to form the

Staffordshire County Senior League The Staffordshire County Senior League is a football competition based in Staffordshire, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of the Midland League (formerly known as the Staffordshire Senior League) and the Staffordshire County League. T ...

. Hanley were placed in the Premier Division and were the league's inaugural champions in 2005–06 before finishing as runners-up the following season.Staffordshire County Senior League 2005–2012
Non-League Matters Hanley were Premier Division runners-up again in 2010–11, before winning back-to-back titles in 2011–12 and 2012–13, after which they were promoted to Division One of the North West Counties League; the 2012–13 season also saw them win the League Cup, the Staffordshire FA Vase and the Leek Cup. In 2014–15 the club finished fourth and qualified for the promotion play-offs; after a 3–1 win over Holker Old Boys in the semi-finals, they lost 5–3 to AFC Darwen in the final.2014–15 North West Counties League
Football Club History Database However, the club were Division One champions the following season, earning promotion to the Premier Division. At the end of the 2020–21 season Hanley were transferred to the Premier Division of the

. They went on to win the Premier Division title in 2021–22, earning promotion to Division One West of the

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

Ground

The modern Hanley Town initially played on a pitch on Victoria Road which was leased from the Copestick & Farrell engineering company.Club Roots/History Pt2
Hanley Town F.C. Changing rooms were built at the site once the club joined the Staffordshire County League. However, the club was forced to leave the Victoria Road ground in 1971 when developers took over the site and moved to Eastwood Hanley's Trentmill Road ground. However, when Eastwood Hanley attempted to increase the rent in 1974, the club relocated to Leek Town's

Harrison Park Harrison Park may refer to: * Harrison Park (Leek), a stadium in Leek, Staffordshire * Harrison Park (New Jersey), a former baseball ground in Harrison, New Jersey * Municipality of Harrison Park, a rural municipality in Manitoba * Harrison Park ...

. They played there until 1976 when the club moved to its current Potteries Park ground.

Honours

*Midland Football League **Premier Division champions 2021–22 *North West Counties League **Division One champions 2015–16 *Staffordshire County Senior League **Premier Division champions 2005–06, 2011–12, 2012–13 **League Cup winners 2012–13 *Midland League **Champions 2004–05 *Mid-Cheshire League **Division One champions 1981–82 **League Cup winners 1979–80, 1980–81, 1986–87 **Division Two Cup winners 1976–77 *Staffordshire County League **Premier Division champions 1972–73, 1975–76 **Division One champions 1968–69 **Division Two champions 1967–68 **Premier Cup winners 1969–70 *Longton League **Champions 1966–67

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, 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

*Best

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 ...

performance: First round, 1987–88, 2014–15, 2016–17 *Record attendance: 1,000 vs

Chasetown Chasetown is a village in the town of Burntwood in Staffordshire, England. It is split between the civil parishes of Burntwood and Hammerwich. History Chasetown developed in the mid 19th century as a coal mining village. At first the village wa ...

, Staffordshire FA Vase final, 1982

References

External links