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Kidderminster Harriers

Formed 1886

Promoted to Division Three 2000. Relegated to the Conference 2005.

Kit History

Background

The club traces its roots back to a rugby and athletics club formed in 1877. After a merger with Clarence rugby club in 1880 the name Kidderminster Harriers and Football Club was adopted but it was not until 1886 that the rugby code was dropped in favour of the association rules.

In 1889, The Harriers and their local rivals, Kidderminster Olympic, became founder members of the Birmingham & District League attracting over 7,000 people to their derby games. In 1891 the two clubs amalgamated to form the professional Kidderminster FC. The new team was admitted to the Midland League and entered the FA Cup for the first time but they had overreached themselves financially and resigned at the end of the season when Kidderminster FC was wound up.

In 1892 Kidderminster Harriers were re-formed as an amateur club and re-entered the Birmingham & District League. Although they had little success on the pitch the Harriers did court the occasional controversy. England internationalist Jesse Pannington played once for them before resolving his differences with West Bromwich Albion in 1910 and in 1924-25 Stanley Fazackerly and George Getwood, both prominent Wolves players in dispute with their club, signed up. In 1927 the club secretary, Pat Davis, admitted offering a bribe of 10/- (£0.50) to the players of Burton Town to throw the last game of the season. The match was drawn and Davis escaped with a temporary ban.

During this era the club used the arms of Kidderminster Borough Council as their official crest but this was never worn on their shirts.

In 1938 the Harriers won the Birmingham League for the first time and the following season stepped up to the Southern League. They played only two matches before football was suspended for the duration of the Second World War. After struggling at the higher level in the post-war period, Kidderminster resigned in 1960 and rejoined the Birmingham League.

Details of the clubs colours before 1967 are very sketchy and no photographic evidence has been found prior to the early 1950s so early entries are to some extent provisional.

Between 1964 and 1972 the team won the West Midland League four times as well as eight county cup competitions at senior level and in 1972-73 they rejoined the Southern League.

In 1983, the Harriers finished as runners-up behind AP Leamington who thereby earned the right to be promoted to the Alliance Premier League. Leamington’s ground, however, was not up to standard and Kidderminster were awarded their place instead. To mark their promotion a crest, of sorts, was introduced, consisting of the club's name embroidered in stylised form.

Having reached the highest level of non-league football rather fortuitously, the club now established themselves as one of the strongest in the country outside the Football League. They twice reached the Welsh Cup final and won the FA Trophy in 1987. The halved shirts and black shorts worn when the club was formed were reinstated in 1986. In the FA Trophy final that season against Burton Albion they had to switch to white shorts to avoid a clash and these became first choice the following season.

The Harriers were also losing FA Trophy finalists in 1991 and 1995.

In 1994 they beat Birmingham City at St Andrews and Preston North End at home to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup where they were narrowly defeated, 0-1 by West Ham who were then in the Premiership. At the end of the season they were Conference champions but were denied promotion because their Aggborough stadium did not meet League standards.

In 1997 a new crest was introduced consisting of a harrier (a sort of hawk) grasping a football and the letters "KHFC" embroidered around the ball. The version shown here was used when embroidered onto a red background while the version shown for 2008, with the colours reversed out, was used when placed on a white background.

Further improvements at Aggborough were made including a 1,100 all-seat stand and new floodlights. The halved shirts were dropped and in 1999 their long serving manager, Graham Allner left the club to be eventually replaced by former Liverpool and Denmark star, Jan Molby. The Dane's impact was immediate and in 2000, Kidderminster Harriers won the Conference championship for the second time. On this occasion there was no obstacle to their promotion to the (new) Third Division so Harriers became the first Worcestershire club to play in the Football League.

After finishing comfortably in mid-table between 2001 and 2004, Harriers slipped up in 2004-05, finishing six points adrift in 23rd position and they were relegated back to the Conference.

Sources

• (a) Kidderminster Harriers Official Site
• (b) empics
• (c) Match Programme
• (d) Geoff Charles Collection at the National Library of Wales
• (e) Jonathan Smith
• (f) Ralph Pomeroy
• (k) Alliance to Conference (John Harman 2005)
• (l) Nigel Worton
• (m) Mark Alton
• (n) Richard Faloon
• (o) Stefan Cooper
• (p) Chris Wilson
• (q) Keith Ellis
• (r) Simon Monks
• (s) Edward Dursley
• (t) The Beautiful History of Club Crests, Colours & Nicknames
• (u) bigglesb.com found by Chris Rees
• (v) Alliance to Conference 1979-2004 submitted by Michael Gluck

Crests are the property of Kidderminster Harriers FC.