It has always intrigued me that Tonbridge Angels appeared late starters in the football world, as not being formed until 1947. Did we have a town football team before the Angels? The answer is well yes we did and here is the story of the town's first Tonbridge Football Club.
Association football comes to Tonbridge in 1885
Tonbridge Association Football Club was formed towards the end of 1885. They played their first match against Headcorn and won 1-0 on the 16 January 1886, with the club chairman Mr F L Pattision scoring the winning goal.
The club's first home ground was the Old Cricket Ground, ie, the Angel Ground, which was used during October to March, ie, outside of the cricket season.
The club was set up as amateur team and played a series of friendly matches against all the leading amateur teams in Kent, Sussex, Surrey & London. They played almost twenty years on this basis until 1905. The club played at various venues in Tonbridge during its early years, before finally settling at Racecourse Sportsground.The second XI joined the Tonbridge Football League in 1898, whilst the first XI continued to play friendlies against other amateur teams and competed in various charity cup competitions and county amateur cup competitions.
Junior League Football - 1905-1909
The first XI finally enter the world of League football in 1905, partly on the basis of the club's merging with Tonbridge Excelsior FC and their desire to continue to play local in junior leagues. So between 1905-09 the Club first XI played in the Tunbridge Wells League, whilst the seconds played in the Tonbridge League.1905/06 - Winners of Tunbridge Wells League
1906/07 - Runners up in Tunbridge Wells League
1907/08 - Runners up in Tunbridge Wells League
1908/09 - Fourth in the Tunbridge Wells League
Thirty one years after Tonbridge Football Club was formed in 1885, the club finally built a grandstand on their enclosed ground at the Racecourse Sportsground in January 1926. The grandstand was built to accommodate 250 spectators and signified the ambitious direction the club wanted to go. The grandstand was paid for by the fans and club owners, whilst the stand was vested to the Council, as club only rented the ground. The photograph below is for the new grandstand behind the very successful 1925/26 team, whom had won the Tonbridge Hospital Cup, Tunbridge Wells Charity Cup and the Kent Junior Cup for the third season in a row.
Photo credit - Courier
So by 1933 the Town football club finally stepped up the football ladder and joined the Kent Amateur League. They played in this League for three seasons, but unfortunately halfway through their second season, the costs started to rack up, which started the club's dramatic fall.
The club in providing a better standard of football had incurred additional expenditures, but had not received the support from the Tonbridge public in attending their matches after the first season. By the start of the 1935-36 season, the club was struggling for players and was heavily in debt. Gates dropped to a fifth by compared to the previous season, in part to adverse weather conditions and poor football on show.
The club limped to the end of season 1935-36, effectively bankrupt with untenable debts and nobody willing to come into the club to keep them afloat. The club turned to its one asset, in this grandstand and found a prospective buyer for the grandstand and monies would have substantially reduced their debts. However Tonbridge Urban Council stepped in to prevent the sale of the grandstand. The Council stated that they owned the grandstand, as it stood on their Racecourse Sportsground for which they were the landowners.
What then ensued caused the Tonbridge Football Club to dramatically collapse. As in a letter to Courier in August 1936, the Club Secretary complained that the Club had paid out over £200 in building and maintaining the grandstand and wasn't being allowed by the Council to sell the grandstand that the club had built to clear its debts.
A week later the Grandstand was burnt down and shortly after it was reported in September 1936 that Tonbridge Football Club would be discontinued.
Photo credit - Courier
The club was finally wound up in December 1936, when a small meeting formally agreed to cease the Tonbridge town football club. Ironically the club had just received insurance money following the Grandstand being burnt down, which paid off all the outstanding debts. The remaining funds going to the Tonbridge Cottage Hospital. The club had initially asked for the remaining funds to be spent on providing a central pavilion on the Sportsground for the future sports users of the Racecourse Sportsground to benefit from, but the Council decided against such a facility.
In the following months and years, a Tonbridge town football club was lamented, with the loss of senior football club in the town. The lack of support for the Town football team, the battle of hearts and minds as to which direction to take club, the lack of a real home ground and desire of local players to remain at the junior level rather than play for the Town team at a senior level were cited as causing to club to fold.
The club never really aimed to play any higher than senior amateurs, which ultimately caused their downfall, as they didn't offer the Tonbridge footballing public anything more than one level up from Saturday park football. The club particularly in its early years was very critical of the professional football, pot hunting league clubs and the perception of poor sportsmanship at the higher standard of football. Unfortunately for the club's amateur DNA hindered the club's development, the club never dared to dream big.
So it wasn't a big surprise that when Mr Herbert Portch eleven years later in the autumn 1947 mooted the idea for a semi professional club for the town, with the relaunch of Tonbridge Football Club proved to be so successful. The new club owners aimed big and delivered a completely different and far better football product for the town. The football fans flocked in their thousands for to Angels, on the same Angel Ground, that the original Tonbridge Football Club played their first home fixture in 1886.
Kent League - 1909-1912
With success at the junior level of football, the club sought to move to senior level of football and made move up to the next level in September 1909 when they joined the Kent League. However the step up playing standard proved a difficult challenge for the club, as finishing bottom or second bottom during their three seasons. Whilst the club spent money improving the ground, including the enclosing ground on the Racecourse Sportsground, the club withdrew from the Kent League in 1912 citing floods, coal strike, lack of interest from supporters and very few home games resulting in financial drawback.1909/10 - Last place in Division Two West of the Kent League
1910/11 - Fifth in Division Two West of the Kent League
1911/12 - Last place in Division Two West of the Kent League
Return to Junior League - 1912-1933
The club then spent the next twenty years playing in Tunbridge Wells & Sevenoaks junior leagues, as well as spending the odd season going back to its roots as a amateur team just playing friendlies. As the club held the importance of fair play and sportsmanship in very high esteem. The ethos of amateur football versus league football seemed to pull at the club's heartstrings at various times. However the club was particularly successful winning all the various junior leagues, cup competitions as well as Kent Junior cup finals in the mid 1920s, when they regularly got over thousand spectators for their cup matches.1912/13 - Winners of Sevenoaks League, as well as Tunbridge Wells League
1913/14 - Competed in both the Sevenoaks League and Tunbridge Wells League
1919/20 - Eighth in the Sevenoaks League
1920/21 - Twelfth in the Sevenoaks League
1921/22 - Fourth in the Tunbridge Wells League
1922/23 - Winners of the Sevenoaks League
1923/24 - Fourth in the Sevenoaks League
1924/25 - Runners up in the Tunbridge Wells League
1925/26 - Playing matches against other amateur clubs
Photo credit - Courier
However due to severe gales in the autumn months of 1928 and 1929, the grandstand got blown over and severely damaged respectively. The grandstand was on both occasions repaired and re-opened.
1926/27 - Third in the Tunbridge Wells League
1927/28 - Fourth in the Tunbridge Wells League
1928/29 - Runners up in the Tunbridge Wells League
1929/30 - Runners up in the Tunbridge Wells League
1930/31 - Sixth in the Tunbridge Wells League
1931/32 - Fifth in the Tunbridge Wells League
1932/33 - Runners up in the Tunbridge Wells League
Kent Amateur League 1933 -1936
Whilst the club's football team was originally not considered good enough to play at a senior level, the club continued to gradually improve on the pitch. By the early 1930s, everything started to fall in place, with the club in the black, a decent team and ground fit for purpose.So by 1933 the Town football club finally stepped up the football ladder and joined the Kent Amateur League. They played in this League for three seasons, but unfortunately halfway through their second season, the costs started to rack up, which started the club's dramatic fall.
1933/34 - Thirteenth in the Western Division One of the Kent Amateur League
1934/35 - Ninth in the Western Premier Division of the Kent Amateur League
1935/36 - Tenth in the Western Premier Division of the Kent Amateur League
The club in providing a better standard of football had incurred additional expenditures, but had not received the support from the Tonbridge public in attending their matches after the first season. By the start of the 1935-36 season, the club was struggling for players and was heavily in debt. Gates dropped to a fifth by compared to the previous season, in part to adverse weather conditions and poor football on show.
The club limped to the end of season 1935-36, effectively bankrupt with untenable debts and nobody willing to come into the club to keep them afloat. The club turned to its one asset, in this grandstand and found a prospective buyer for the grandstand and monies would have substantially reduced their debts. However Tonbridge Urban Council stepped in to prevent the sale of the grandstand. The Council stated that they owned the grandstand, as it stood on their Racecourse Sportsground for which they were the landowners.
What then ensued caused the Tonbridge Football Club to dramatically collapse. As in a letter to Courier in August 1936, the Club Secretary complained that the Club had paid out over £200 in building and maintaining the grandstand and wasn't being allowed by the Council to sell the grandstand that the club had built to clear its debts.
A week later the Grandstand was burnt down and shortly after it was reported in September 1936 that Tonbridge Football Club would be discontinued.
The club was finally wound up in December 1936, when a small meeting formally agreed to cease the Tonbridge town football club. Ironically the club had just received insurance money following the Grandstand being burnt down, which paid off all the outstanding debts. The remaining funds going to the Tonbridge Cottage Hospital. The club had initially asked for the remaining funds to be spent on providing a central pavilion on the Sportsground for the future sports users of the Racecourse Sportsground to benefit from, but the Council decided against such a facility.
In the following months and years, a Tonbridge town football club was lamented, with the loss of senior football club in the town. The lack of support for the Town football team, the battle of hearts and minds as to which direction to take club, the lack of a real home ground and desire of local players to remain at the junior level rather than play for the Town team at a senior level were cited as causing to club to fold.
The club never really aimed to play any higher than senior amateurs, which ultimately caused their downfall, as they didn't offer the Tonbridge footballing public anything more than one level up from Saturday park football. The club particularly in its early years was very critical of the professional football, pot hunting league clubs and the perception of poor sportsmanship at the higher standard of football. Unfortunately for the club's amateur DNA hindered the club's development, the club never dared to dream big.
So it wasn't a big surprise that when Mr Herbert Portch eleven years later in the autumn 1947 mooted the idea for a semi professional club for the town, with the relaunch of Tonbridge Football Club proved to be so successful. The new club owners aimed big and delivered a completely different and far better football product for the town. The football fans flocked in their thousands for to Angels, on the same Angel Ground, that the original Tonbridge Football Club played their first home fixture in 1886.
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