Spennymoor Town FC is a football club that was established in the summer of 2005 after the disbandment of Spennymoor United AFC and Evenwood Town FC. The club traces its roots back to 1904 when it was formed by Thomas Grant, a local councillor and businessman. Grant secured the use of the Brewery Field, which was previously utilized by Tudhoe Rugby Club.
Spennymoor United were six times Northern League Champions, four times winners of the old North Eastern League, on 16 occasions Durham Challenge Cup holders.
They reached the FA Cup first round 18 times, twice the second and in 1937 at West Brom in front of a 23,000 crowd, the third. Spennymoor have since faced Wigan Athletic, Tranmere Rovers, Chesterfield & Rotherham United in the same competition.
Spennymoor United also reached the semi-finals of the F.A.Trophy in 1978 (the first North East and the only Northern League side to do so), Won the Northern League Cup five times, JR Cleator Cup, Northern Counties East Premier Division and the UniBond League Cup.
A portfolio of players have played for the club and moved onto the Football League over the years, most in particular Johnny Dixon who captained Aston Villa in their 1957 F.A.Cup Final victory over Manchester United, meanwhile John Collins – the father of comedian Frank Skinner – also played for the club just before the Second World War.
Following the Northern League’s decision not to be part of the pyramid, Spennymoor joined the Northern Counties East League and won the Championship at their second attempt in 1993 for promotion to the UniBond First Division, before promotion was secured on the last day of the season to the UniBond Premier Division with a victory over Ashton United in front of a near 1,000 Brewery Field crowd.
The same season, Spennymoor became the first club from the First division to win the UniBond League Challenge Cup, beating Hyde United 3-1 in the Final at Harrogate Town. Bad news followed at the end of the century when the club lost its main sponsor and faced two disastrous seasons without financial support which told on the field as the club was relegated into the UniBond first division.
The club did, however, bounce back under the leadership of Jamie Pollock to gain promotion back into the Premier division in 2003 and the season after the Moors were in the play offs for entry into the newly formed Nationwide Conference North, but lost to Bradford Park Avenue 3-1.
The Moors social club was burned to the ground in an arson attack on Christmas Day 2003 and from then on the club had no income and, despite the appointment of a new chairman, things got worse. In 2005 the club could not fulfil their fixtures and Spennymoor United AFC were removed from the UniBond League and the club sadly went out of existence after 101 years of senior soccer.
Out of the gloom, people were working hard to get the club back on track and the supporters formed an independent group with the intention of putting a club together as a supporters trust. Evenwood Town, who were also having great difficulties, had ambitions to move to the Brewery Field and both groups submitted their plans to the local council. Following an historic meeting at the Penny Gill in Spennymoor the supporters agreed to stand down and let the Evenwood proposal proceed.
The Northern League and FA approved the plan; that Evenwood Town would take the name of Spennymoor Town FC Ltd and play at the Brewery Field in United’s colours of Black & White stripes in the ANL division 2. Since then the FA have twice declined permission to rename the club Spennymoor United.
