Club History

Knaresborough Town Football Club.

Page last updated 14 September 2011

The History Of Knaresborough Town
Football Club.

The date of the formation of the club is not known, but the club was certainly in existence at the start of the century. In the period from 1909 to 1911, the club was a member of the Northern League with the likes of Bishop Auckland, Scarborough and York City. Having resigned from the Northern League, the club reverted to the York & District League.
In the early 1920s they were members of the West Yorkshire Amateur League but rejoined the York & District League for the 1923-24 season.
During the next fifteen years the club, as Knaresborough Town, was one of the strongest teams in the area. In 1933-34 it won the York & District League, the Faber Cup, the Whitworth Cup and the Harrogate Charity Cup - a clean sweep of all the competitions entered in an unbeaten season.
The club was folded upon the start of World War Two, and with the return of peacetime reformed under the name of Knaresborough as there were certain monetary problems. Soon afterwards, the name reverted to Knaresborough Town.
During the next twenty-five years the club spent time in the West Yorkshire League and the Harrogate League, moving grounds to the present Manse Lane in the late 1950s.
In 1972 they resigned from the West Yorkshire League to become members of the newly formed Premier Division of the Harrogate League.
In 1993-94, the club was accepted back into the West Yorkshire League and capped the first season by winning the Premier Division League Cup Final 3-1 against Sherburn White Rose at Ossett Albion. A year later, the reserves joined the league and the first team had its best run in the County Challenge Cup before losing 1-0 to Storthes Hall in the semi-final at Farsley Celtic.
The Whitworth Cup was won in 1995 and the Hulme Cup in 1999 & 2004. The Reserves had success with League and Cup wins in the West Yorkshire League, doing the double in Division Four in 1994-95 and followed that by winning the Divison Three title the following year to gain promotion into divison two. It was after this season that the Premier Alliance Divison (now called Alliance Divison One) was formed for the reserve sides of the Premier Division teams.
The Reserves have won the Premier Alliance Division League Cup in 1998-99 and again in 2003-04.
Under the management of Rob Pearson and Colin Lacey the Club won the Whitworth Cup in 2005-06.
Brian Davey brought it back to Knaresborough in 2007-08 and finished a creditable third in the West Yorkshire League Premier Division. In Brian’s words his objective was to improve on that position the following season and he certainly stood by those words, winning the West Yorkshire League Premier Division Title in 2008-09.
It was during the season 2008-09 that the club moved out of the old clubhouse building which had served as changing rooms before it was turned into a clubhouse in 1992 and into the new one. This was the season that hopfully has launched Knaresborough off on its journey to new and exciting times
Knaresborough Town football club has regularly issued programmes for first team matches since 1993. It is also thought that the club may have produced occasional issues prior to that time though no copies remain in the hands of the club.
We are also trying to trace details of the club’s history and would welcome any information regarding teams, players, league tables etc from any period prior to 1993. Also if anyone has any old programmes, medals or press cuttings, the club would lik to take copies of them for their archives. If you have any information to help us with our archives please contact ianpickles@knaresboroughtown.com.
Click here to veiw the club honours page.
To view more information about Knaresborough Town AFC on Wikipedia click here (opens a new window).

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Knaresborough Town Sponsors.

A.K. Developments, Glaze Aid, New Guard Coatings Ltd, CLM Project Management. P M Accountancy, Nationwide Security, Taplanes Showering Solutions, J Blakey and Son, Charlie Fisher, Gas Alarms Systems Ltd, H Glover Electrical, Neil Smith Building Services, John Steven Electrical, Soccer Shop, Tony Brown Electrical, Chain Lane Fisheries, Ray Wise Decorators, Harrogate Gas, Bailey Skip Hire,
F & H Smith Plumbing and Heating, Manse Masterdor, Calverts Carpets.