Back in the late 1870s Walsall had two football club’s Walsall Town and Walsall Swifts, and for a while the two were fierce rivals. During this rivalry, someone must have sat high in the saddle and said: “This town ain’t big enough for the both of us”, because in 1888 the two became one. They called the new club Walsall Town Swifts FC. The club consisted of five Town players and six Swift, and although the club failed to become founder members of the Football League in 1888, they did gain a place in the Football League Second Division when it formed in 1892. In 1895 the club dropped the Town and Swifts from the name and became just Walsall FC. The swift has remained the club’s symbol and is prominent on the club’s badge. (PIC 1)
Until a few years ago the swift pointed downwards, but now it flies upwards. (PIC 2) I assume the reason for this is because it is a more positive symbol going up rather than down, particularly where football is concerned. However, the club is at the moment in the fourth tier of the football league so the only way is up. The present badge is in the roundel in which a golden swift is soaring towards the AL in Walsall FC, which for some reason is off-centre in the outer. The club play in red, white, and black, and this is reflected in the badge. The previous badge has a more historic bent as far as the town is concerned, as it shows how important it was as an important centre for the leather industry, and this is symbolised by both the club’s nickname of “The Saddlers”, and the leather saddle on the badge which lies flat out behind the swift. (PIC 3) It is also the reason for my rather bad cowboy joke earlier. The club’s name and year formed make up the rest of the badge, which is again made up of the club’s colours of red, black and white.
Before moving to the Bescot Stadium, Walsall played at the Hillary Street ground, which was renamed after then chairman Mr H L Fellows in the 1930s. Fellows Park was home to Walsall until 1990. The Bescot has a capacity of 11,250. Unfortunately, Walsall do not get too many at the ground, and that is probably because they have bigger clubs near them that attract fans wanting to watch Premiership games. Their bigger local rivals are Aston Villa, Birmingham, West Brom and Wolves. Of all these, I think Wolves are the biggest rivals as on Saturday at the Bescot you are asked to stand up if you are not very fond of them. Thanks, to whoever replied to my letter from Walsall FC but did not include their name. Walsall began its journey as many Anglo-Saxon villages do, as an Anglo-Saxon village. The name Walsall is said to derive from the words Walh halh, meaning Celts valley. Celts are usually considered to be from Ireland, Scotland, or Wales, but these lived in England until Saxons from Germany invaded and conquered the Celts who ran away, and who can blame them as the Saxons were pretty hard. For more on Walsall FC go swiftly to www.saddlers.co.uk
