AFC Bournemouth

Let’s #GetTheBadgeIn for Bournemouth (@afcbournemouth). It’s a story of smugglers, sand, and a Sudbury lad.

At first glance, Bournemouth’s badge seems simple: a figure heading a ball with the club colours as the background. No complex coat of arms to decode—just a dude and a ball. But as it turns out, there’s a bunch more to the stories of the Cherries than meets the eye.

The club began in 1898 as Boscombe FC, named after an area of modern-day Bournemouth. They moved into Dean Court (now Vitality Stadium) in 1910, located near a cherry orchard that inspired their nickname. Initially wearing red and white, the Cherries played mostly in the lower leagues, but they had their moments.

One such moment came between 1957 and 1962 when a striker named Dickie Dowsett, who started his career at @AFCSudbury, scored 79 goals for the club. Dowsett became a local legend and even worked in the club’s back office from 1968 to 1983. When Bournemouth rebranded in 1971, switching their colours to AC Milan-inspired red and black, they placed Dowsett heading a ball on their badge. They also became AFC Bournemouth, reportedly to appear first in alphabetical lists.

During the 90s they did have one other incredible player, which should be named, @IpswichTown legend @mattholland8, who was with them initially on loan and then permanently between 94 and 97 before he made the switch to Town.

After a period of struggle, the club hit rock bottom in 2008, entering administration and dropping to League Two. Enter Eddie Howe, who at 31 was the youngest manager in the EFL at that time. Howe achieved three promotions in six years, taking the club to the Premier League by 2015. If Bournemouth hasn’t yet built him a statue, they certainly should.

In 2022, American businessman Bill Foley purchased the club, adding it to his Black Knight Sports empire, which includes Lorient FC, Hibernian (minority stake), and the Las Vegas Golden Knights NHL team.

So, that’s the club and its badge. But what about Bournemouth itself?

Bournemouth, a coastal town, rose to prominence after railway links to London were established in 1870, much like East Anglian resorts such as Southend and Clacton. It quickly gained a pier, hotels, bandstands, and the all glass Winter Gardens concert hall. In 1841, the superbly named Augustus Bozzi Granville wrote a bestselling book about England’s best health spas, praising Bournemouth’s clean air and waters. This sparked a health tourism boom, and that legacy is echoed today in Vitality, the team’s stadium sponsor, who specialise in health insurance and healthy living plans.

But Bournemouth’s most intriguing story involves Lewis Tregonwell, its unofficial founding father. A landowner and Justice of the Peace, Tregonwell built homes in and around modern day Bournemouth in the late 1700s when the area was largely uninhabited. During the Napoleonic Wars, he served in the Dorset Yeomanry, tasked with patrolling the coast to prevent smuggling and watch for a French invasion. By all accounts, he did a splendid job—except for one twist.

Tregonwell had a house built for his butler, Portman’s Lodge, an impressive coastal home. Over a century later, during its demolition, builders uncovered a network of secret rooms and tunnels leading to the beach. Records revealed that Tregonwell and his butler never left the site unattended—one was always present. While some historians suggest these passages were for storing ice, others argue Tregonwell himself was involved in smuggling. The man charged with stopping contraband may have been running a smuggling operation of his own. “Tregonwell the Trafficker” sounds like a TV show waiting to happen—The Cherry Cartel?

So, there you have it: Bournemouth, a tale of smuggling, sand, spas and scoring a lot of goals.