Great Harwood FC

In the week when one of the current members of The Northern Premier League, North Ferriby United have sadly been liquidated, I’ve delved in to the archives to look at another ex member club of The NPL who also no longer exist.

Great Harwood FC, Having been members of The Lancashire Combination since 1908, Won the Championship and were promoted to the recently formed Northern Premier League for its 2nd season in 1969. They played at The Showground. In their first season Great Harwood fielded quite a few ex pro players, notably ex Blackburn Rovers and England Internationals Bryan Douglas and Ronnie Clayton, along with ex Welsh International Roy Vernon. Ex Preston North End and Northern Ireland International, Centre forward Willie Irvine also turned out for the club.

The club finished 4th from bottom in their 1st season but attracted good crowds reaching almost 2,000 for matches against Wigan Athletic and Macclesfield Town. The following season the finished in exactly the same position but reached the 1st round of the FA Cup, losing 6-2 to Rotherham Utd in front of more than 2,500 at The Showground. They were also involved in the highest scoring match of the season losing 7-5 at home to League Runners up, Stafford Rangers.

In 1969, The Showground hosted it’s record attendance when a crowd of 5,397 were in attendance as Great Harwood took on Manchester United in a Lancashire County cup match. Manchester United included in their ranks, Paddy Crerand, Willie Morgan, Alan Gowling and Carlo Sartori. United ran out 8-1 winners

The club continued to hover just above the relegation zone in The NPL for several seasons, achieving their highest finish of 10th in 1975. At the end of the 10th year of the NPL in 1978 Great. Harwood finished a creditable 15th but resigned from the league due to falling attendances and an increasing wage bill.

With the demise of Great Harwood FC, A local amateur club known as Harwood Wellington took over as residents of The Showground and rebranded themselves as Great Harwood Town FC. The new club were successful in applying for membership of the Lancashire Combination for the start of the 1979 /80 season. In 1982 they won promotion to the North West Counties League. They achieved some success, regularly challenging for promotion and reaching the quarter finals of the FA Vase in 1991.

These were the “Golden Years for Great Harwood Town as they also won back to back promotions and in 1993 The town once again had a club in the Northern Premier League.

The club spent the next ten years competing in the Northern Premier League until in 2001 they were relegated back to the North West Counties League. Their fate in the Counties league wasn’t helped by a fire at The Showground that destroyed the changing rooms forcing them to play some of their games at Accrington Stanley’s Interlink Express Stadium.

18 months after the fire it had become apparent that the club was unable to afford the cost of repairing the changing rooms and restoring the facilities to the required standard. In June 2007 The club resigned from the League. The Showground is now no more, having been redeveloped for housing.

The clubs most famous player would be Matt Derbyshire who started his career at Great Harwood Town before signing for Blackburn Rovers.