Historical Football Kits

• Club
• Background
• Kits
• Sources

Halifax Town

Formed 1911. Wound up May 2008.

Founder member of Division Three (North). Relegated to the Vauxhall Conference 1993.
Promoted to Nationwide Division Three 1998. Relegated to the Nationwide Conference 2002.

Kit History

Background

Halifax’s formation by Dr Muir and Jock McClelland in 1911 was the last in a series of ventures that brought professional association football to the rugby league heartland of West Yorkshire. Since the turn of the twentieth century, Leeds City, Huddersfield Town, Hull City and the two Bradford clubs had been created. Halifax have always struggled to compete against their more powerful neighbours in both codes.

In 1921 Halifax were playing in the Midland League and were elected to the new northern section of the Football League. They had to seek re-election in their first season and in 1930 but came close to promotion when they finished as runners-up in 1935.

After the Second World War “the Shaymen” (derived from the name of their ground, The Shay) had to go through the re-election process three times in four seasons. A change of colours in 1952 made no difference and in 1953 they were facing the re-election ballot once again. In 1957-58 they managed to finish in the top half of the table for the first time since the war and as a result were placed in the Third Division for the following season, following the abolition of the old regional divisions.

They held on to their place until 1963 when they were relegated to the Fourth Division. Re-elected yet again in 1965, Halifax won their first ever promotion in 1969. During the 1970s, in an effort to improve their fortunes, Halifax experimented with orange and blue In 1976 the club was relegated back to the Fourth Division and over the next ten seasons they had to seek re-election no fewer than five times. During the 1980s and 1990s the team turned out in a variety of striped tops, recalling their original shirts but their fortunes on ther pitch did not improve. In 1993 the inevitable occurred although by now the election system had been replaced by automatic promotion and relegation between the League and Conference. Finishing bottom, Halifax lost their League place and spent five seasons in the Conference before winning the championship in 1998.

In 2002 The Shaymen dropped back into the Conference for the second time and in May 2006 they came within ten minutes of returning to the Football League in the play-off final, losing out to Hereford United. In March 2008, the club went into administration after their former chairman, Raymond Moreland, took out a winding up order over an unpaid debt of £8,000. A consortium of local business people agreed to meet day to day running costs with a view to buying the club but an offer to pay creditors 2.5p in the pound was dismissed as derisory. Negotiations continued and the outlook seemed improved when, on the final day of the season, Halifax managed to retain their place in the National Conference despite being docked ten points for entering administration. Days later, however, it was revealed that the club owed over £800,000 to the Inland Revenue: negotiations collapsed and on 12 May the club was formally wound up.

Sources

• (a) Club Colours (Bob Bickerton 1998)
• (b) Football Focus
• (c) Football Cards
• (d) York City FC - Images of Sport (David Batters)
• (e) empics
• (f) Aldershot Has It Website
• (g) Classic Kits
• (h) Halifax Town Official Website
• (i) Programmes for Sale
• (j) The Football Encyclopaedia (Associated Sporting Press 1934) Information provided by Arthur Fergus
• (k) Alliance to Conference (John Harman 2005)
• (l) Ralph Pomeroy
• (m) Pete's Picture Palace
• (n) Richard Catton
• (o) David King
• (p) Football League Review provided by Simon Monks
• (q) Alick Milne
• (r) Robert Gray
• (s) Matthew Pearson
• (t) Martin SHAYMAN
• (u) Mark Alton
• (v) Pete Wyatt