Hanley Town Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Hanley Hanley is one of the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent, six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke- ...

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...

, England. They are currently members of the and play at Potteries Park.

History

The original Hanley Town were established in the 19th century, with their first recorded game being in 1882.Club Roots/History
Hanley Town F.C. They joined

the Combination The Combination was a league during the early days of English football. It had two incarnations; the first ran only for the 1888–89 season for teams across Northern England and the Midlands, and was disbanded before completion. The second ...

in 1894, but left the league after a single season and subsequently folded in 1912. The modern club was established in 1966,Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2016) ''Non-League Club Directory 2017'', Tony Williams Publications, p. 455 based on an existing Sunday league pub team named the Trumpet. The new club joined the Longton League for the 1966–67 season, winning it at the first attempt.Honours
Hanley Town F.C. They then moved up to the

Staffordshire County League The Staffordshire County League was an English football competition based in the county of Staffordshire. It existed from at least 1957 until 2005, when it merged with the Midland League to form the new Staffordshire County Senior League, with t ...

, winning Division Two in 1967–68 and then Division One the following season, earning promotion to the Premier Division. Hanley were Premier Division runners-up in their first three seasons in the division, also winning the Premier Cup in 1969–70. They won the league title in 1972–73 and again in 1975–76, after which they joined Division Two of the

Mid-Cheshire League The Cheshire Association Football League is a football competition based in Cheshire, England, which until 2007 was known as the Mid-Cheshire Association Football League. From season 2017–18, the league operates four divisions: the Premier D ...

. They won the Division Two Cup in 1976–77 with a 1–0 win over

Knutsford Knutsford () is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire East district, in Cheshire, England; it is located south-west of Manchester, north-west of Macclesfield and south-east of Warrington. The population of the parish at the 2021 Uni ...

in the final,Club Roots/History Pt3
Hanley Town F.C. and a third-place finish the following season saw them promoted to Division One. They were Division One champions in 1982–83, but after several seasons of mid-table finishes and being refused entry to the

North West Counties League The North West Counties Football League is a football league in the North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, northern Staffordshire, northern ...

in 1988 due to failure to meet the ground grading requirements, they finished bottom of Division One in 1993–94 and dropped into junior football. In 1996 Hanley returned to the Mid-Cheshire League, joining Division Two. However, after two seasons they switched to the

Midland League The Midland Football League, officially known as the Capelli Sport Midland Football League since January 2025 for sponsorship reasons, is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midl ...

and in 2004–05 they were Midland League champions. At the end of the season the league merged with the Staffordshire County League to form the

Staffordshire County Senior League The Staffordshire County Senior League is a Football (soccer), football competition based in Staffordshire, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of the Midland Football League (1994), Midland League (formerly known as the Staffordshire Senio ...

. Hanley were placed in the Premier Division and were the league's inaugural champions in 2005–06 before finishing as runners-up the following season.Staffordshire County Senior League 2005–2012
Non-League Matters Hanley were Premier Division runners-up again in 2010–11, before winning back-to-back titles in 2011–12 and 2012–13, after which they were promoted to Division One of the North West Counties League; the 2012–13 season also saw them win the League Cup, the Staffordshire FA Vase and the Leek Cup. In 2014–15 the club finished fourth and qualified for the promotion play-offs; after a 3–1 win over Holker Old Boys in the semi-finals, they lost 5–3 to AFC Darwen in the final. However, the club were Division One champions the following season, earning promotion to the Premier Division. At the end of the 2020–21 season Hanley were transferred to the Premier Division of the

. They went on to win the Premier Division title in 2021–22, earning promotion to Division One West of the

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern Football League, Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English footba ...

Ground

The modern Hanley Town initially played on a pitch on Victoria Road which was leased from the Copestick & Farrell engineering company.Club Roots/History Pt2
Hanley Town F.C. Changing rooms were built at the site once the club joined the Staffordshire County League. However, the club was forced to leave the Victoria Road ground in 1971 when developers took over the site and moved to Eastwood Hanley's Trentmill Road ground. However, when Eastwood Hanley attempted to increase the rent in 1974, the club relocated to Leek Town's

Harrison Park Harrison Park may refer to: * Harrison Park (Leek), a stadium in Leek, Staffordshire * Harrison Park (New Jersey), a former baseball ground in Harrison, New Jersey * Municipality of Harrison Park, a rural municipality in Manitoba * Harrison Park, ...

. They played there until 1976 when the club moved to its current Potteries Park ground.

Honours

*Midland Football League **Premier Division champions 2021–22 *North West Counties League **Division One champions 2015–16 *Staffordshire County Senior League **Premier Division champions 2005–06, 2011–12, 2012–13 **League Cup winners 2012–13 *Midland League **Champions 2004–05 *Mid-Cheshire League **Division One champions 1981–82 **League Cup winners 1979–80, 1980–81, 1986–87 **Division Two Cup winners 1976–77 *Staffordshire County League **Premier Division champions 1972–73, 1975–76 **Division One champions 1968–69 **Division Two champions 1967–68 **Premier Cup winners 1969–70 *Longton League **Champions 1966–67

Records

*Best

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

performance: Third qualifying round, 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

*Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

performance: First round, 1987–88, 2014–15, 2016–17 *Record attendance: 1,750 vs

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

, friendly match, 13 July 2024

References

External links