Bexhill United FC

Bexhill United, currently sitting mid-table in the Southern Combination League Premier Division (the… 9th(?) tier of English football), have an incredible story to tell. So, let’s jump straight in and #GetTheBadgeIn for the pirates of the Sussex coast.

Let’s begin with the town to provide the context before we deconstruct their new, funky badge and (not so new) nickname. Bexhill-on-Sea sits on the coast of East Sussex, just along from the slightly more famous Hastings. Indeed, the history between the two is strong—during the famous Battle of Hastings, it appears that William the Conqueror’s Normans paid nearby Bexhill a visit and put the place to the torch. But fear not, it was swiftly rebuilt and was eventually handed to supporters of William, who in turn handed it over to the Church. The bishops built a manor house on the site and began a long-standing quarrel with the abbots of neighbouring Battle Abbey over where one’s land stopped and another began—a fantastically British argument.

Fast-forward a bit and we come to the 19th century.

It was the Napoleonic Wars, and Napoleon Bonaparte was trying to suffocate the British economy by blocking trade with Europe (silly bugger—he should have waited until 2016 and we’d have voted to do it ourselves…). But even when that lifted (thanks to some hardy work by the British Army… and the Germans), the good people and sailors of Bexhill spied an opportunity. Under the noses of both British and French authorities, they ferried goods backwards and forwards, avoiding customs duties. Items like tobacco and brandy were among the most commonly smuggled goods.

The operations didn’t always go smoothly. In 1828, a fight broke out at Sidley Green, which today is a small patch of grass next to a pub (over 100 years old—see the 1896 image) and a ‘Premier’ convenience store. Smugglers were confronted by customs officials, known as blockademen, who in turn faced the smugglers’ “batsmen”, forming a line to protect those ferrying contraband further ashore. In the ensuing ‘Battle of Sidley Green’—a clash of muskets, swords and oars—two men died and many more were badly injured. Later, police rounded up ten of the smugglers, who were sentenced to

deportation to New South Wales in Australia.

Other notorious gangs operated along the Sussex coast too—the so-called pirates—working from small bays and coastal inlets, avoiding the men and boats of the customs officials. A similar story can be told in Bournemouth, and this long tradition of fighting the law and piracy in the South of England feels a little underreported. Good scope here for a Peaky Blinders-style show—only at sea, and with Sussex accents.

Later in the century, the town’s direction changed. Under the stewardship of the local noble, the 7^th Earl De La Warr, investment began to pour into the seaside town and it was promoted as a health resort, attracting wealthy Londoners looking to spend their cash. After the coming of the railway in 1848 they soon began arriving by the carriage load. Hotels, restaurants and attractions soon sprang up (including the country’s first ‘mixed’ bathing pool – which I imagine was caused quite the stir). The town went from smuggling to selling swimwear within a generation.

This brings us to the creation of the football club. Several clubs existed—Bexhill Town, Bexhill United, Bexhill Town Athletic—but eventually, in 2002, the modern club we know today came into being after a merger.

Their new badge, dreamt up by a marketing agency contracted for the role, tells the rest of the story quite well. The shield’s shape is taken from the town’s coat of arms. The three lines represent the three regional trophies won by the club and are said to reflect both the angle of the main Polegrove grandstand and the layers of the club’s foundations (although I think they also look a bit wave-like and could easily represent its coastal heritage too). The crossed swords are there to represent their pirate/smuggler past, and in a very neat touch, the handles of those swords are taken from the detailing of the edges of the Polegrove stand itself. Built in the 1920s in a mock-Tudor style, the stand is an absolute beauty. I hope that in any future renovations it is a) the last thing to be removed and b) whatever replaces it keeps its design and character.

The marketing agency also adopted a font and general ‘modernist’ style for the badge in honour of the De La Warr Pavilion, one of the first modernist buildings in Britain and today a modern art gallery.

But this small seaside town’s history has one more, incredible claim to fame. It was the birth place of British motoring. It all began on 19 May 1902, when the 8th Earl De La Warr backed the ‘Great Whitsuntide Motor Races’. Already invested in Dunlop, he had laid out a seafront cycle track in 1896 – presumably to increase sales of bike tyres, which he later converted into a one-kilometre racing circuit. Because it ran across his private land, it conveniently avoided the national 12 mph speed limit.

The event was part of a wider attempt to turn Bexhill into a high-end resort to rival Monte Carlo, and it worked—at least briefly. The first race was won by French driver Léon Serpollet, whose steam-powered car reached 54 mph. Racing continued here until 1907, before the opening of Brooklands shifted the sport’s centre of gravity elsewhere.

So, there you have it. Bexhill United. Battles, Smugglers and Racing.

If you ever wondered why the British game of football is simply so superb—look no further. The fact that a 9th-tier team has the vision, resources, branding, and deep, deep wells of history to draw upon is one of the things that makes English football—and England more broadly—so special.

The Bexhill pirates fly a proud flag.