Harrogate Railway Athletic 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

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

, North Yorkshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Station View.

History

The club was established in 1935 by employees of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It ope ...

depot in the

Starbeck Starbeck is a village and suburb of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. The population of Starbeck Ward taken at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census was 6,226. It has many facilities, including Starbeck railway station, which serves ...

area of Harrogate.History
Harrogate Railway Athletic F.C. They joined the Harrogate & District League, and as a railways team, they entered the British Railways National Cup, winning it in 1945–46. The club moved up to the

West Yorkshire League The West Yorkshire Association Football League is a football competition based in Yorkshire, England. It was previously known as the Leeds League until the name change in 1939. Although it is named the ''West Yorkshire'' League, clubs from the H ...

, and were runners-up in 1951–52.The West Yorkshire League 1950 and after
Non-League Matters They won the league in 1953–54, and after a third-place finish in 1954–55, the club joined Division Two of the Yorkshire League, with the reserves taking over in the West Yorkshire League. In 1957–58 Harrogate finished third in Division Two, earning promotion to Division One. However, they were relegated at the end of the following season. Another promotion following a third-place finish in 1963–64 was following by another immediate relegation the season after. League restructuring in 1970 saw a Division Three created, which the club were relegated to, and in 1973 they left the league and dropped back into the Harrogate & District League. However, they rejoined Division Three of the Yorkshire League in 1980. When the league merged with 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 ...

in 1982 to form the

Northern Counties East League The Northern Counties East Football League is a semi-professional English football league. It has two divisions – Premier Division and Division One – which stand at the ninth and tenth levels of the English football pyramid respectively. ...

, the club were placed in Division Two North. They won the division in 1983–84 and were promoted to Division One North. League reorganisation in 1985 saw Harrogate placed in Division One, and a fourth-place finish in 1986–87 saw them promoted to the Premier Division, a season in which they also won the League Cup with a 5–0 win over Woolley Miners Welfare. The club were relegated back to Division One after finishing bottom of the Premier Division in 1992–93, but returned to the Premier Division after winning the Division One title in 1998–99. In 2002–03 the club reached the first round of the

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 ...

for the first time. After beating Slough Town 2–1 in the first round, they lost 3–1 at home to

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

in the second round in front of a record crowd of 3,500. The season also saw the club win the league's Presidents Cup with a 7–2 aggregate win over

Bridlington Town Bridlington Town Association Football Club is an association football club based in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They were founded in 1918 and currently play in the . History The club was founded in 1918 as Bridlington Centr ...

.Season 2002/03
Northern Counties East League In 2005–06 the club finished third in the Premier Division, earning promotion to Division One 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 ...

. In 2007 league restructuring saw them placed in Division One North. In 2007–08 Harrogate reached the first round of the FA Cup again, defeating

Droylsden Droylsden is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, east of Manchester and west of Ashton-under-Lyne, with a population at the 2011 Census of 22,689. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, in the mid-19th cen ...

2–0 before losing 3–2 at home to

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third level of the English football league system. The club was formed in 1897 as Mans ...

in the second round. They remained members of Division One North until being relegated back to the Northern Counties East League's Premier Division at the end of the 2015–16 season. In 2018–19 the club finished second-from-bottom of the Premier Division and were relegated to Division One. The 2021–22 season saw them finish fourth in Division One, qualifying for the promotion play-offs. After beating

Brigg Town Brigg Town Football Club CIC is a football club based in Brigg, Lincolnshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Hawthorns. Established in 1864, not only are they are officially the 7th oldest football club in the world, ...

2–1 in the semi-finals, they lost 3–2 to

North Ferriby North Ferriby is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Haltemprice area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. History Humber Estuary "The archaeology of the intertidal wetlands of the Humber Estuary is of internatio ...

in the final. The club were Division One runners-up the following season, before losing 1–0 to Horbury Town in the play-off semi-finals.

Ground

The club bought its Station View ground in the

area of Harrogate with a £1,500 loan from the London and North Eastern Railway, with employees paying it off at 1p per week. Floodlights were erected in 1991 and inaugurated with a friendly match against

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

. The ground currently has a capacity of 3,500, of which 300 is seated and 600 covered.

Honours

*Northern Counties East League **Division One champions 1998–99 **Division Two North champions 1983–84 **League Cup winners 1986–87 **Presidents Cup winners 2002–03 *West Yorkshire League **Champions 1953–54 *British Railways National Cup **Winners 1945–46

Records

*Best

performance: Second round, 2002–03, 2007–08 *Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

performance: Third qualifying round, 2010–11 *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: Fourth round, 1988–89 *Record attendance: 3,500 vs

, FA Cup second round, 2002

References

External links