Rawtenstall Football Club was a football club based in the

Rawtenstall Rawtenstall () is a town in the borough of Rossendale, Lancashire, England. The town lies 15 miles/24 km north of Manchester, 22 miles/35 km east of Preston and 45 miles/70 km south east of the county town of Lancaster. The town is at the cent ...

, in the

Rossendale Rossendale may refer to several places and organizations in Lancashire, England: Places *Rossendale Valley, a river valley *Borough of Rossendale, a local government district *Rossendale (UK Parliament constituency), a former parliamentary constitu ...

borough of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...

, England.

History

The club joined the

Lancashire Football Association The Lancashire County Football Association, also known simply as the Lancashire FA, is the governing body of football within the historical county boundaries of Lancashire, England. They are responsible for the governance and development of foo ...

after the 1881–82 season, and first entered the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

in 1884-85. The club was drawn to play South Shore in the first round. However, the

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

and some of the professional teams in Lancashire had fallen out over the issue of whether to allow players to be paid, and Rawtenstall had joined the nascent

British Football Association The British Football Association was a short lived ruling body for the game of football. It was set up in 1884 in response to the attitude of the Football Association to the issue of professionalism. History Until the employment of professionals ...

, It therefore had to forfeit the tie. It was a bold move for the club, as its chances of prospering against many much bigger professional clubs were slim, but several junior clubs had joined the BFA, and the combined effort and risk of a permanent split reconciled the FA to permitting professionals. The club was therefore able to take more of a part the following season, being drawn against

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

in the first round. Once more football politics delayed the club's debut, the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility fo ...

banning its members from taking part in the FA Cup and the Light Blues having to withdraw. The club's second round tie saw it eliminated in bizarre circumstances. The club was drawn at home to "Bolton Swifts", which was the

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

reserve eleven. For fear of transgressing the FA's rules on player eligibility, Bolton's reserve side took part in the Cup, while the Wanderers indulged in lucrative friendlies. The day of the Cup tie, 21 November 1885, Wanderers played

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River ...

, while the reserves went to Rawtenstall, whose ground had " a great incline and was in a bad state", and turned out to be 10 yards too short to host a Cup tie. After the game ended 3-3, Bolton put in a successful appeal, on the basis that, not only was the pitch too small, but Rawtenstall had played five ineligible professionals. The club's best run in the

Lancashire Senior Cup The Lancashire County Football Association Cup (commonly known as the Lancashire Senior Cup) is a football knockout tournament involving teams from Lancashire, England. It is a County Cup competition of the Lancashire County Football Association ...

came in 1884–85, reaching the quarter-finals (fifth round), where the club earned a startling 2–2 draw with

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

, albeit Rovers being weakened by having three men playing in the North v South representative match the same day; it could even have been a shock win but for a late own goal. Rawtenstall took an early lead in the replay before going down 4–1. Despite the underdogs' heroics, the Blackburn public was not interested in the replay, the crowd being a minuscule 600. In the 1886-87 FA Cup, Rawtenstall held

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Ch ...

to a surprising draw in the first round, but, forced to play the replay at Haslingden Association, went down 7–1. There was some comfort in the combined attendance of the ties being 4,000. The club's last tie in the main draw was a 3–1 defeat at home to

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the south ...

in 1887-88. The following year, the FA brought in

qualifying rounds Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional expe ...

, and a first round defeat to

was the club's final match in the competition. The impact the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

had on clubs outside it is shown by Rawtenstall's gate receipts falling from £200 to £104 for the 1888–89 season.

Local league years

In 1889–90, Rawtenstall was one of the 14 clubs which founded the Lancashire League. The first season was a difficult one, the club finishing second from bottom with 7 wins from 24 matches (

Earlestown Earlestown is a town and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in Merseyside, England. It forms the western part of the wider Newton-le-Willows urban area. At the 2011 Census the ward population was 10,830. History Earlest ...

was expelled for not fulfilling its fixtures), but by 1891–92 the club was finishing 4th, with two future

clubs (

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–1 ...

and

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and ...

) finishing above it. In 1894, the club joined the Lancashire Combination, but after the 1896–97 season, despite optimism at the annual board meeting, the club resigned from the competition, and joined the North-East Lancashire League. This caused serious problems for the club, as the Football Association refused permission for the League to affiliate to the

; as a result, Rawtenstall, affiliated individually to the Lancashire FA, was temporarily unable to play League matches after November 1897. After a 4–0 defeat at

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituenc ...

in April 1898 there is no further record of the club.

Colours

The club's original colours were red and white. By 1885 the club had changed to yellow, black, and red stripes.Charles Alcock Football Annuals 1885–1889

References

{{Reflist Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in Lancashire Association football clubs disestablished in 1898 Association football clubs established in 1879 Rawtenstall