The Wearside Football League is a

non-league Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...

football competition based in

northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

. It consists of three divisions which sits at steps 7 to 9 (or levels 11 to 13) of the National League System and is a feeder to the Northern League Division Two. Founded in 1892, the Wearside League's level has fluctuated in its history, though it has typically sat below the Northern League. The league's high point was probably during the 1960s and 70s after several teams from the defunct

North Eastern League The North Eastern League was an association football league for teams in the North East of England. The league was founded in 1906 and was initially successful, with teams defecting from the rival Northern Football Alliance to play. Although so ...

joined it; Wearside League teams won the FA Vase in 1978 and 1981. With the restructuring of the National League System in the early 2000s its place at step 7 became fully established, helped by a merger with the Durham Alliance Combination League in 2017. The league has expanded and contracted its number of divisions over the years, and as of 2021-22 consists of three divisions. Although centred on

Wearside Wearside () is a built-up area in both Tyne and Wear and County Durham, Northern England. It is named after the River Wear which flows through it and traditionally all in the County of Durham. In the 2011 census, its official name was the Sunderl ...

and County Durham, the league has contained teams from

Tyneside Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt. The population of Tyneside as publishe ...

as well, with some geographical overlap with the

Northern Football Alliance The Northern Football Alliance is a football league based in the North East, England. It has four divisions headed by the Premier Division, which sits at step 7 (or level 11) of the National League System. The top club in the Premier Division ...

at the leagues' borders. Teams from Northern

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

and

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

also compete in the league. The league also operates three cup competitions: the Monkwearmouth Charity Cup and the Shipowners' Charity Cup, both of which have been contested since the 1890s, and the League Challenge Cup, which came into being in the 1930s.

History

The Wearside League came into being in 1892 at the instigation of Charles Kirtley, secretary of

Sunderland Swifts Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

. In June 1892, a letter written by Kirtley was published in the ''Sunderland Daily Post'' and ''The Herald'' in which he stated that he had been asked by several club secretaries about the possibility of forming an organisation to play home-and-home matches, so as to find out which was the best amateur team. A similar letter was published in the ''Sunderland Daily Echo''. At a meeting soon afterwards at the Central Coffee Tavern, eleven clubs agreed to form a league, which commenced playing later that year. During the early years of the league most teams were extremely hard-up, and the league's archive records that one early club had no pitch but instead played on the sands by Sunderland Docks, and another had to play with an old

rugby ball A rugby ball is an elongated ellipsoidal ball used in both codes of rugby football. Its measurements and weight are specified by World Rugby and the Rugby League International Federation, the governing bodies for both codes, rugby union and rugby l ...

as they could not afford an

association football ball A football (also known as football ball, soccer ball, or association football ball specifically in the United Kingdom) is the ball used in the sport of association football. The name of the ball varies according to whether the sport is called " ...

. By the 20th century, however, the league was better off and was even able to organise matches to benefit local charities during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After the Great War, the league was dominated for many years by

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

welfare teams – in the 1930s every league title was won by a pit team and the mining clubs continued to dominate right through to the 1970s, although an increasing number began to experience financial difficulties from the 1950s onwards due to shrinking workforces at the mines. In 1964 the

was disbanded and a number of its former teams joined the Wearside League. Around this time the team of the 24th Signal Regiment spent one season in the league but then had to withdraw as most of their players were posted overseas. In 1978 Blue Star became the first Wearside League club to reach the final of the FA Vase, and went on to win the trophy, the start of a run of success which would ultimately see them progress much higher up the non-league ranks. Three years later

Whickham Whickham is a village in Tyne and Wear, North East England. It is in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. The village is on high ground overlooking the River Tyne and south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It was formerly governed under the histor ...

repeated the feat and also soon moved up to higher leagues. More recently, clubs such as Darlington Railway Athletic,

North Shields North Shields () is a town in the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. Since 1974, it has been in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wea ...

Newton Aycliffe Newton Aycliffe is a town in County Durham, England. Founded in 1947 under the New Towns Act of 1946, the town sits about five miles to the north of Darlington and ten miles to the south of Durham. It is the oldest new town in the north of Eng ...

, Ryhope Colliery Welfare and Willington have successfully moved up to the Northern League.

Member clubs for 2022–23 season

First Division * Annfield Plain *Darlington Railway Athletic * Darlington Town * Durham City *Durham Corinthians *Durham United *Farrington Detached *FC Hartlepool *Gateshead Leam Rangers *Norton And Stockton Ancients Youth *Richmond Town * Shildon AFC Reserves *Shotton Colliery *Silksworth Colliery Welfare *South Moor *Windscale *Wolviston Second Division *Belmont United *Billingham Town Reserves *Birtley Town Development *Bishop Auckland Reserves *Coxhoe Athletic *Feryhill Athletic *Hartlepool Pools Youth Seniors *Hetton Town *Hylton Colliery Welfare *Polton *Wearmouth CW *West Auckland Tunns *Wynard Village Third Division *Barnard Castle *Billingham Synthonia Reserves *Chester Le Street United Reserves *Consett Reserves *Deerness Valley *Gateshead Leam Rangers Reserves *Hilda Park *New Durham AFC *Roseberry Park *Sunderland RCA Reserves *Wear United *Wynard Village Reserves

Past champions

This is a list of champions since

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 ...

References

External links

Official League site
{{Football in England table cells 1892 establishments in England Football leagues in England Sports leagues established in 1892 Football in County Durham Football in Tyne and Wear