Brackley Town FC

I have a new favourite badge. It has everything. It tells the entire story of Britain. In one club we have Medieval, Early Modern, Industrial and Modern history. The story of a nation — in one newly promoted National League side.

I don’t mind admitting that I am a little bit in love with Brackley Town FC.

Halfway between Oxford and Northampton — or, if I was describing this to my wife, “10 minutes north of Bicester Shopping Village” — sits the picturesque town of Brackley.

It grew as a market town back in the day, specialising in wool and lace. Its location made it the perfect halfway spot between Oxford, Coventry and Northampton. Richard I nominated it as one of only five official jousting locations in England — bringing more “match day” crowds (and some heavy cavalry) down the winding country paths that led to Brackley.

So that’s all well and good — but let’s turn our attention to the elements of the football club to continue our story, and let’s do this in chronological order. We start not with the badge, but with the ground: St James.

In 1150 a church-run hospital, known as St James and St John, was established in the town. Hospitals at the time were not paramedics rushing about and lines of pensioners clogging up A&E while grumbling about the ethnicity of the medical staff trying to help them. Instead, they were more like hostels where weary travellers could rest for the night and get a warm meal. St James, of course, is the patron saint of travellers and pilgrims — and Brackley’s hospital was a layover spot for pilgrims from the north heading south, famously to the holy site of St James of Compostela in Spain.

The actual building of this hospital remains, having passed through several noble hands until finally ending up owned by Magdalen College, Oxford (the wealthiest and probably the most famous of all the Oxford colleges). The College used the land in Brackley to set up a school — Magdalen College School, Brackley. Today this is still the town’s main secondary school, operated by an academy trust. It had a chapel and buildings dating back to the Norman era. This is astonishing heritage for a state school. Upon first reading I assumed this must be a costly private affair, but no — this is a school open to all. Incredible history here.

So, the football ground? They play at St James Park, named after the nearby medieval hospital.

That’s Medieval England. Onwards now to one of the most important years in English history: 1485. The Battle of Bosworth and the dawn of the Tudor dynasty.

At the battle Richard III (the fellow found under the car park in 2012) was defeated by Henry Tudor, ending the Wars of the Roses once and for all. Vital to Henry’s victory that day were a pair of brothers — Thomas and William Stanley. They arrived at the battle with a powerful army to support Richard. However, upon seeing the flow of the battle, they paused. And this was to be one of the most consequential decisions in English history.

When their army finally did enter the field of battle, it was on the side of Henry Tudor, not Richard.

Thomas Stanley is famous for having plucked Richard III’s crown from a bush in which it had landed and placing it on Henry Tudor’s head.

The Stanleys: kingmakers. Accordingly, the Stanley family were showered with gifts and lands from the grateful Tudors. Their coat of arms — the three stag heads in a diagonal line — sprouted all over England.

Many generations later a Stanley heiress, Lady Frances Stanley, married the Viscount of Brackley, who merged his coat of arms with hers, quartering it so both were reflected.

This explains one half, or two quarters, of Brackley Town’s badge: the kingmaker Stanley family.

So what of the other half? This brings us forward into the industrial era — and the Egerton family.

Also a powerful family from medieval times, the Egertons had quietly assembled estates and royal patronage by working, usually as lawyers, in the King’s courts. Egertons were some of the most important men in the land under the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. As a result one of the titles they were given was Viscount of Brackley, and their coat of arms — the lion with the three arrowheads — became the symbol of Brackley itself.

But the Egerton story doesn’t stop there. One of their number, Francis Egerton, was about to do something transformational.

The Egertons owned land in Worsley, which today sits outside Salford. Upon this land sat a coal mine. The year was 1761, and coal was quickly becoming a hot commodity — especially in Manchester, as cotton mill owners were beginning to install coal-fired motors to operate their factories. But Egerton had a problem. He found the cost of transporting his coal to Manchester was so high that his profit margins remained tiny.

Egerton struck upon a solution when visiting France. There he witnessed a newly built canal that linked the city of Toulouse with the ocean. Why not do the same in England? Egerton got to work and eventually the Bridgewater Canal — which featured many innovative canal features like bridges and tunnels — was built. It cut by half the cost of transporting his coal.

Egerton was soon rolling in cash and the rest of the country took note. The Bridgewater Canal is famed for ushering in the canal age of England — a vital step in the total industrialisation of the nation. No Egerton, no canal. No canal, no “Great” Britain. The man’s a legend.

It was one of his sons who later married the Stanley girl — bringing the two family coats of arms together, and Brackley’s badge.

The last element of this story is to look closely at modern Brackley today. Because far from being “just” a pretty little town near Oxford, it has nestled within it one of the most exciting and cutting-edge technological establishments on Earth: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. Quite recently the home of Lewis Hamilton.

England’s F1 track at Silverstone is only a short distance away, and Mercedes have made Brackley their home. Only a short walk from where medieval squires fine-tuned and tested the armour and saddles of their jousting knights, motor technicians and designers now sit and build faster and more efficient racing cars.

Brackley, the small town that tells the story of England in one football team’s badge, has come full circle. Or lap.

I love this badge.