Waterlows Football Club was 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

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

Founded in 1913, Waterlows was formed as a works team for the employees of the printing company

Waterlow and Sons Waterlow and Sons Limited was a major worldwide engraver of currency, postage stamps, stocks and bond certificates based in London, Watford and Dunstable in England. The company was founded as a family business in 1810. It was acquired in 1961 b ...

. A few years after Waterlows' formation, also known as Waterlows Athletic, the club joined the Bedfordshire County League. They won the league in 1923 and twice more in 1925 and 1926, once it had changed names to the Bedfordshire & District County League. Waterlows entered the

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 ...

for the first time for the 1926–27 season and progressed to the Northamptonshire League for three seasons, before returning to the South Midlands League. In 1930 Waterlows won 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 ...

once again before moving upwards to the stronger

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 ...

and finished third in Division One in that first season. They won Division One in 1932/33 and were promoted to the Premier Division which they won in 1936 and 1938. During the Club's heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, Waterlows won the

Bedfordshire Senior Cup The Bedfordshire Senior Challenge Cup, also known as the ''Beds Senior Cup'' is the county cup of Bedfordshire. According to the current rules of the competition, it is open to all clubs whose affiliation is with the Bedfordshire County FA (BCFA) ...

ten times, but only once did they progress to the 1st Round Proper of the

FA Amateur Cup The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status. History Following the legalisation of professionalism within footba ...

, when in 1937/38 they were narrowly defeated 3-2 by

Kingstonian Kingstonian Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London which currently plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division. The club was founded in 1885 by YMC ...

of 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 ...

. In 1946, Waterlows rejoined the South Midlands League, winning promotion to the Premier Division in 1956. In 1971, Waterlows left the South Midlands League, rejoining in 1977, winning promotion back into the Premier Division at their first season back in the league. In 1985, Waterlows left the South Midlands League for the final time.

Ground

Waterlows played at French's Avenue in Dunstable.

Records

* Beds Senior Cup Winners - 1924, 1925, 1928, 1929, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1939 and 1940 * Beds County League Winners - 1923 * Beds & District County League Winners - 1925 and 1926 * South Midlands League Division One Winners - 1930 and 1961 * Spartan League Premier Division Winners - 1936 and 1938 * Spartan League Division One Winners - 1933 * Best

performance: Fourth qualifying round, 1926–27 * Best

performance: First Round Proper 1937-38 * 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, 1982–83

References

Wilson, Mike (2002) The Spartan Football League Volume 2 1930/31 to 1949/50. Perkins, Bob (2007) South Midlands League Tables 1922-1997. Northamptonshire League tables at Non-League Tables archive at https://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/nlmnet/Regs_2_M/NorL95.html. Defunct football clubs in England Dunstable Waterlow and Sons Works association football teams in England South Midlands League Association football clubs established in 1922 1922 establishments in England Association football clubs disestablished in 1985 1985 disestablishments in England Defunct football clubs in Bedfordshire {{England-footyclub-defunct-stub