Blackpool FC

I love old badges like this one, steeped in heraldry and tradition. Blackpool's is an utter beauty with a tonne to unpack.

So, let's waste no time and #GetTheBadgeIn and see what it can tell us!

Football in the town initially grew out of church teams and school sides, with the club having roots going back to Victoria FC in the 1870s. After splits, disputes, and a decisive meeting at the Stanley Arms Hotel in July 1887, a single club was formed to represent the whole town. By the following year, Blackpool FC were founder members of the Lancashire League.

Their badge is taken from the city's coat of arms, and it tells an astonishing story. Let’s start at the top and work our way down.

The windmills at the very top are a reference to the famous Fylde region around Blackpool. Fylde is old-world speak for field, and the area, with its flat land and high coastal winds, made an ideal location for growing grain and barley, and then using windmills to process it into flour and beer. AFC Fylde, another local team, also included a windmill on their newly redesigned badge a few years ago.

The most famous remaining windmill is Lytham Windmill, which was turned into a museum in the 1980s – funded by public subscription before online “crowd funding” was a thing – local people promoting local pride with their own money. Fantastic to see.

At the centre of the windmill lies the Red Rose of Lancaster – famous from the Wars of the Roses – and also displayed in countless other teams’ badges, perhaps most notably Blackburn Rovers and Man City (and Barnet’s has both the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York in homage to the Battle of Barnet in 1471).

Moving down, we have the fleur-de-lis to the left and the lion rampant (lion stood up) to the right. These are common royal symbols in Britain and appear on the King’s official flag and crest. However, in this instance they have a very specific connection to Blackpool.

The fleur-de-lis is from the Banks family. Henry Banks was a local hotel landlord who, in the early 19th century, bought up large chunks of land and built holiday cottages, helping drive forward and transform Blackpool into a tourist hotspot, catering to the newly emerging middle classes from the rapidly industrialising cities of Manchester and Liverpool. His purchases in 1819 were prescient, as in 1840 the Preston and Wyre Railway connected Blackpool to the main national network – and the boom times began. The Banks are often referred to as the “Father of Blackpool”.

The lion to the right is from another notable family in the development of the town, namely William Henry Cocker (a clock tower bearing his name stands today inside the city’s Stanley Park). Cocker was a local surgeon by trade but saw the vast transformation about to take place at Blackpool. Accordingly, he began partnering with Banks and investing heavily in building new attractions. He was involved in the building and financing of the Victorian Promenade, the aquarium, the menagerie, and the Winter Gardens entertainment complex. He also pushed local authorities to speed up the electrification of Blackpool – enabling its famous Illuminations. Which brings us nicely to…

The symbol in the middle of this badge’s row of three – the electric bolt. A highly unusual feature in a coat of arms. Most of Britain’s coats of arms feature heraldry from ancient noble families that can trace their roots back to William the Conqueror or beyond. In that respect, Blackpool is a thoroughly modern coat of arms.

Blackpool’s experiment with illumination began in 1879 with something called an arc lamp – invented before Edison’s famous lightbulb. Eight were installed atop high poles, allowing visitors to extend their evening walks even during the winter. They became a novel attraction in their own right, but things really took off in 1912. Ahead of a royal visit, 10,000 electric bulbs were installed along the waterfront. Soon, that had stretched to over six miles of lighting that became nationally, and then globally, famous.

The black and orange wavy lines on the lower half of the badge refer, obviously, to the seaside location and its famous orange sunsets. The black in Blackpool supposedly comes from a drainage channel from a local peat bog that would discharge dark brackish water into the sea, forming a “black pool”. The seagull, much like Brighton, is obviously in reference to the seaside’s most famous resident.

So that, in a badge, is Blackpool. Lights, lollies, and leftbacks.

And I think it is a bloody brilliant tale.