ONE of the UK’s oldest football clubs, Holt FC, has been revived and welcomed back into the Trowbridge and District League, as the club and parish council work to install new showers.
Holt FC was established in 1864, registering a year after the world’s oldest professional club, Notts County.
The club had to withdraw from the Trowbridge and District League in 2020 because they didn’t have showers – a facility that is required to play in the league. They have since re-joined, playing this season, with the support of the local community and an application made by the parish council for grant funding from the Football Foundation – the funding arm of the Football Association.
“We have a great pavilion but no showers in place because they were decommissioned a long time ago, that’s been our issue that we have had to overcome,” says club secretary, Joy Bloomfield.
“It’s taken us three years to get to this point, three years of working, talking and working out a plan. We talked a lot to the parish council about a year ago and suddenly we all thought there is funding, we could go to the FA for this. We also got told we could start playing in the league with the understanding that we get the showers in during the first year.
Grant is crucial
“We are hoping we get them started before the end of the season. Our fixtures finish in March, so it may be that it’s done just at the end. It is dependent on whether the parish council receives the grant from the Football Foundation. That’s absolutely crucial. If we don’t get the showers, then we will be fundraising like mad in the community. We are all quite positive and we feel this season has been very much about establishing a team.
“As soon as we heard we could rejoin the league it was all action stations; the committee grew, we got some great local sponsorship and opened to players to see who turned up. We have had a positive response and are pleased with how we are doing.
“ The person behind it is the manager, Nigel Tripp. He has managed other clubs in the past, played all his life and his son played. His feeling’s always been that because Holt’s the oldest football club in Wiltshire it should keep going.”
Currently the team is open for men aged 16 plus and Joy said in the next few seasons is about getting others involved. “We are looking at starting a youth team or ladies’ football team. There are facilities for a five-a-side team on the hard surface.”
As well as reviving Holt FC, the committee is gathering archive material about the club over the years. “The more you delve, the more you find,” says Joy. “There are historical reasons to keep the club going and not losing it.
“There have been Holt FC clubs that have come and gone, particularly in the last 25 years. There are some families who are just football through and through; 25 years ago, I can remember watching players and now I am seeing their sons play.
“There was a team that played in the Chippenham league around the millennium, then there was another team that played in 2017 to 2020.
“It’s important to Holt, it’s a great village with good playing facilities and I think football is part of it.”
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