History

Horley Town Football Club was founded in 1898 to provide football for the local community. From its early days the aim has not changed, it still provides for healthy competition from boys and girls aged 7 through to senior status. From junior football there has always been a team capable of competing in whatever league it was playing in. The Club progressed from junior football for its first team to intermediate and eventually on to senior status. At senior level the Club was a member of the Surrey Senior League and progressed to the old Spartan League in 1979, from here after winning the league, the Club progressed in 1981 to the old Athenian League.

After a few years in the doldrums the management committee decided, with the full backing of the members to take stock of where the Club was and in 1997 it was decided to go back to junior football in the Crawley and District League, thus allowing a chance to bring on a crop of outstanding youngsters through to the senior team, and the majority of whom are still with the Club today.

A successful year in 2001 saw the first team win the Crawley League and Charity Cup, which led the Management Committee to decide that with the youth set up in place it was now the right time to return to senior football, and were promoted to the Surrey Senior League. From here the Club was then accepted into the Combined Counties League in 2002.

During this time we also moved into our new state of the art ground called The New Defence and it is with thanks to past and present Management Committee members that this has been possible-without all their hard work, behind and in front of the scenes, this could never have been achieved, and is something we can all be proud of.

After the first couple of years finding our feet at this level the team has progressed well and this season under the new management team led by Ali Rennie it has moved on the excellent ground work formed within the youth set up, and committed to producing where possible our own youngsters. The reserves play in the Suburban Football League,  the Youth team play in the Southern Youth League  and the third team play in the Redhill and District League.

2011 saw the start of the new stand behind the far goal and the new car park being built as well. 

  

Sponsor your favourite player's kit for this season. Contact 01293 822000 for details. FULL KIT £40 See noticeboard in bar for player availability.

 

  

HORLEY TOWN

Telephone: 01293-822000

Ground: The New Defence, Court Lodge Road, Horley, Surrey. RH6 8RS

Colours: Claret & Sky Blue/Claret/Claret

  

Horley Town History

In early times the Weald was a densely forested and marshy area unsuitable for agricultural purposes. During Saxon times, the Manor of Horley came under the control of the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter at Chertsey. No mention is made of Horley in the Domesday Book and it is thought to have been included in the northern manor returns. The Manor passed to Henry VIII on the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 and changed hands several times during the next sixty years.

In 1602 it became the property of Christ’s Hospital in London and the original map of the manor is now held at the Guildhall in the City of London. This shows that Horley consisted of three hamlets around a huge open common. One was around the area occupied by St Bartholomew’s Church and the Six Bells public house; another by the River Mole and the third in Horley Row where some of Horley’s oldest buildings can still be seen.

 The Common was enclosed in 1812, new roads were laid and the intervening land was sold. In 1809 and later in 1816, two turnpikes were introduced to allow the operation of regular coach services from London to B"right"on. The railway was laid in 1841 and a station was built in the town. From that position, and from that date, Horley grew at a slow rate until 1950. Since then its population has doubled.

  Horley is a small but busy town of over 20,000 people situated almost half way between London and Brighton on the south coast. It is mainly residential and sits astride both the main line railway and the A23 main road, between the two locations, close by London Gatwick Airport.

Horley lies on what is known as the Weald that consists mainly of heavy clay soil, a few miles south of high chalk Downs. The local area was thought to have been at one time densely forested so early settlers preferred to live on the drier North Downs. They only penetrated the muddy and overgrown Weald during dry summer months to feed their animals and to forage. When Christianity first came to southern England during Saxon times, Horley and its Manor came under the control of the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter at Chertsey, close by the River Thames. The Abbey also controlled many other manors on the North Downs, who in turn had claims on parts of Horley from earlier 

  

From 1812 to Today

By 1812 with a population of a little under 1000, the huge common was enclosed. New roads were planned and the intervening land sold. However, Horley changed little even when two of its planned roads were turnpiked, one in 1809 and the other in 1816, to allow regular stage coach services to operate between London and Brighton. In 1841, the railway was laid across the common and the first Horley station came into operation to serve its population that had by then reached 1500. From that location and from that date, the town of Horley grew steadily to a population of around 8000 by 1940. Whereas agriculture was its main industry prior to World War II, it changed rapidly after to become a dormitory town for London commuters and a place to house the growing workforce, and associated businesses, of Gatwick Airport. From its humble beginnings in 1930 as a recreational airfield, Gatwick first became a continental airport with its own terminal (now listed) building in 1936. Today, it is the UK's second largest airport and before September 2001 it was handling some 30 million passengers a year. Depite the fact that Horley is now mainly a residential town with business services and some light industry alongside Gatwick Airport, it is still situated within pleasant rural surroundings from which it originally evolved. Something its population remains keen to safeguard