Club found to be 150 years old updates its crest

A non-league football club marking its 150th anniversary has revealed a new club crest which honours the correct year of its formation.

Harwich & Parkeston FC had believed it had been part of the Essex seaside town since 1877, until last year - when the discovery of reports in old newspapers revealed it had actually been established two years earlier.

Having celebrated the "remarkable" milestone this year, the club has added 1875 to its new badge, which replicated the town's current coat of arms.

The new design aimed "to take the club into a new era", it said, adding there were plans to remove the old crest from its Royal Oak ground.

The club's former crest, which dated from the 1960s, had featured a similar portcullis and ship motif, but with the date of 1877, now known to be incorrect.

The new badge has included the full name of the club, as featured for the first time on a special "1875-2025" commemoration crest this year.

Harwich & Parkeston, who play in the Essex Senior Football League, Premier Division, are the second side in the county to celebrate being 150. Saffron Walden Town reached the milestone in 2022.

There are only a handful of older surviving clubs in the top four leagues of English football including League Two's Notts County (1862) and, in the Premier League, Nottingham Forest (1865) and Aston Villa (1874).

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