Bolton was one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888, but when founded in 1874 they were known as Christchurch FC, reverting to Bolton in 1877. Bolton had some early triumphs including the first-ever Wembley FA Cup Final win in 1923. The 1923 cup final was remembered as the White Horse Final. An estimated crowd of an incredible 200,000 packed the stadium with a further 50,000 unable to gain access, that is a quarter of a million people at one game! The white horse stood out as the crowd spilt onto the pitch and the police tried to regain control, including the one on the horse. (PIC 1) You may have seen the footage as Match of The Day show it at the start of their FA cup editions of the program.
Before Bolton changed their badge in 2013, a kindly gentleman replied to my communication begging for any information regarding the badge. Thanks, go to Daniel Reuben, Bolton’s Communications Manager for sending me the club’s corporate guidelines folder which gave me, not only a copy of the badge or corporate logo as it actually is, but also a guideline to the colours that must be used in its reproduction, sizes allowed, supportive typefaces used and its relationship with other brands. All interesting stuff but I don’t feel I need bother you with all that. The guidelines state that: “The Bolton Wanderers marque, (which is a posh way of saying badge, crest, emblem, logo, and brand.) is a powerful visual representation of the values and personality associated with Bolton Wanderers Football Club. It is also a highly valuable asset that needs to be protected, monitored, and controlled at all times”. (PIC 2) Well as you can see they have slightly overstated its magnificence as it consists of BWFC in a circular emblem presumably to represent a ball, which has been taken from an earlier marque, no can’t get used to that word sounds French, it’s a badge. Overlapping is two ribbons. Ribbons can also be found in the hair of girls and on the FA Cup so you make your own minds up about its powerful representation. However, since then Bolton has decided ribbons are more suited to the Bolton Ladies team and have cut them off.
In 2013 Bolton unveiled a new badge. (PIC 3) This is the club’s statement that accompanied the unveiling: “The more modern, cleaner and dynamic design has been created following feedback from supporters, who expressed an overwhelming desire to see the long history of the club reflected in the crest. The new design sees the reintroduction of the Lancashire rose alongside the founding year of the club, 1877, in a reworking of the club’s popular crest from the late 1970s. The existing ribbon-style crest that was introduced following the move to the Reebok Stadium in 1997 will remain in place as the club’s stadium crest”. So, after spending unknown hundreds of thousands of pounds on the reworking of the older crest, exactly how much reworking has been done? A lot of remarking and much less reworking no doubt. Let’s see the older late 1970s crest. (PIC 4) Managerial boards, don’t you just love them. The earlier marque sorry badge has the initials of the club formed in a circle as well as the name in full encircling the badge. That is where we find the reworking, the name Bolton Wanderers has been rubbed out to make the new badge. Under the initials lies a banner with the rose of Lancaster. Oh, and don’t forget also from the club statement: “Official merchandise with the club’s new logo on will be available to buy online and in-store at Bolton Central”. Thank you so much again, Daniel, and I am sorry if I appear a little underwhelmed but I’ve researched a lot of badges and some are very interesting and some hard to get excited about.
Bolton’s nickname is “The Trotters”. It has an interesting pedigree as in days gone by Boltonians were known as Trotters because any visiting strangers to the town would have practical jokes played on them or be fleeced and tricked out of money. This was known as Trotting, hence the name Trotters. I’m saying nothing but be careful when visiting.
The name Bolton is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and means dwelling in an enclosure. This is from the words, bool, meaning dwelling, and tun, enclosure. This to me sounds a lot like living in a prison with the bolt-on, having been done for Trotting. Bolton play at the 28,723 capacity University of Bolton Stadium as it is known today but maybe something else tomorrow, it all depends on sponsorship these days. It was originally built and opened in 1997 as the Reebok Stadium, named after the sportswear firm. Bolton’s original home was Burnden Park and they were there for 102 years before moving to their present location at Burnden Way in 1997. Bolton’s rivals include Manchester City and Utd, Bury, Blackburn and Preston NE. Most hated among these is the universally supported and equally hated Man Utd. For more on Bolton Wanderers trot on down to www.bwfc.co.uk
