Peter Mark Heritage (born 8 November 1960) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

. Born in

Bexhill-on-Sea Bexhill-on-Sea (often shortened to Bexhill) is a seaside town and civil parish situated in the county of East Sussex in South East England. An ancient town and part of the local government district of Rother, Bexhill is home to a number of arc ...

, he played for Hastings Town, Gillingham,

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

and

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

between 1989 and 1993.

Club career

Early career

Heritage started his career as a centre back at Albion United (now Little Common) in the Sussex County League before moving to Bexhill Town and later in 1979 to Hastings Town. At the start of the 1980–81 season he joined Tonbridge Angels before rejoining Bexhill later in the season. He became a striker in the 1981–82 season, scoring 10 goals and was top scorer in the 1982–83 season with 32 goals, then moving back to Hastings Town staying until 1989 when Hythe Town paid £4,000 for him and his team mate, Terry White.

Professional career

In August 1989, Gillingham paid Hythe Town around £30,000 for Heritage and he became a

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

player for the first time just before his 29th birthday. He was nicknamed Hagar by the Gills supporters after '' The Sun'' newspaper strip, ''

Hägar the Horrible ''Hägar the Horrible'' is the title and main character of an American comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It first appeared in February 1973 and was an immediate success. Since Browne's retirem ...

''. Scoring 11 goals in 66 appearances, he was loaned to

in January 1991 and a permanent transfer was made in March 1991 for £20,000 Heritage made 68 first team appearances for Hereford and scored 10 goals and in July 1992 was signed by

. Scoring twice in 36 games he was loaned to Hastings Town in January 1993 before being released from Doncaster, the last he played in the Football League.

Non-League

Heritage briefly joined Woking in August 1993 but after 3 appearances returned back to Hastings Town for the rest of the season, moving next door to

St Leonards St Leonards may refer to: Places Australia *St Leonards, New South Wales **St Leonards railway station *St Leonards, Tasmania, suburb of Launceston *St Leonards, Victoria Canada *St. Leonard's, Newfoundland and Labrador New Zealand * St L ...

for the 1994–95 season. In December 1995 Heritage was signed for £1,500 to

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...

where he played 19 games scoring 4 goals but was released in the summer or 1996 and rejoining Sidley United. Heritage helped Sidley, who were playing in Division Two of the

Sussex County Football League The Macron Southern Combination Football League is a football league broadly covering the counties of East Sussex, West Sussex, Surrey and South West London, England. The league consists of eight divisions – three for first teams (Premier Di ...

, gain promotion in 1999 to Division One and two seasons later as champions of Division One. Heritage stayed at Sidley as a player until 2005, although he was dual-registered with St Leonards during the 2001–02 season and had a brief stint in the

Southern Football League The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English fo ...

. Heritage left the club during the 2004–05 season. He made a return to football in the 2007–08 season with Bexhill United where his son Aaron was also a goalkeeper, playing in Division Three of the

he helped secure Bexhill's promotion to Division Two and helped win the Division Three Challenge Cup.

Management and coaching

Whilst at Sidley United, Heritage became joint manager in 2001 after their double winning season, a role he held until 2005 when he left. Whilst at Bexhill United, a few years later, he became player-manager for the last two games of the 2008–09 season before being made assistant manager to Glyn White for the 2009–10 season. In January 2014, Heritage became a coach at Eastbourne Town, who were playing in the Premier Division of the

Southern Combination Football League The Macron Southern Combination Football League is a football league broadly covering the counties of East Sussex, West Sussex, Surrey and South West London, England. The league consists of eight divisions – three for first teams (Premier ...

. In 2019 he moved to Hastings United to help with the coaching there.

References

1960 births Living people English footballers Gillingham F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Hastings United F.C. players Little Common F.C. players Bexhill United F.C. players Tonbridge Angels F.C. players Hythe Town F.C. players Margate F.C. players St. Leonards F.C. players Association football forwards {{england-footy-forward-1960s-stub