Rawtenstall Football Club was 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 the

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

, 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) Rossendale was a United King ...

borough of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, 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 foot ...

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 Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

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

Football Association A football association, also known as a football federation, soccer federation, or soccer association, is a governing body for association football. Many of them are members of the sport's regional bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL and the world gov ...

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, 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 law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

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 Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

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 association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

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 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

, 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 an association football knockout tournament involving teams from Lancashire, England. It is a County Cup competition of the Lancashire County Footbal ...

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 level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

, 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 place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

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, A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to ...

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

qualifying rounds Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

, 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 association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

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; it was simultaneously a founder member of the

North-East Lancashire League The North-East Lancashire League was an association football competition for clubs in Lancashire, which ran from 1889 to 1894. History The League was founded on 2 May 1889 at a meeting at the Bridge Inn, Accrington, with 12 original members: * ...

. The first Lancashire League season was a difficult one, the club finishing second from bottom with 7 wins from 24 matches (

Earlestown Earlestown ( ) is a town contiguous with Newton-le-Willows in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. At the 2011 Census the town had a population of 10,830. The towns named is derived from one of its early settlers, Hard ...

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

clubs ( Bury and

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

) finishing above it. In 1894, the North-East league was merged into the

Lancashire Combination The Lancashire Combination was a football league founded in the North West of England in 1891–92. It absorbed the Lancashire League in 1903. In 1968 the Combination lost five of its clubs to the newly formed Northern Premier League. In 1982 i ...

, and Rawtenstall continued as a Combination member; but after the 1896–97 season, despite optimism at the annual board meeting, the club resigned from the competition, and joined the lower status North-East Lancashire Combination. 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 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.

Ground

The club played at the Burnley Road ground, using the White Lion inn for facilities.

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