Port Vale FC

Port Vale FC. They hold the record of being the longest-running professional team to never have played in the top tier. Quite a record. But. They do have a fantastic badge with a fascinating history.

So let's #GetTheBadgeIn, and see what we can learn: Nestled in Burslem, one of Stoke-on-Trent’s historic towns, Port Vale F.C. might just be the only football club in England whose name doesn’t directly tie to a specific place. The name "Port Vale" instead nods to the port towns along the Trent and Mersey Canal. At least - that's the best guess. Other theories are that it started in a house called Port Vale (but then what was the house named after?). Who knows, but I think the (canal) vale of ports theory works well. In the traditionally quartered badge, we find symbols rooted deep in North Staffordshire’s history. (The older badge was a simple Staffordshire knot - much like the one on Tamworth FC's crest).

The orange cross/waffle-looking thing (or fret couped argent - if you're being fancy) – is a reference to the Audley family, who held lands in the area before the Norman Conquest. Though they were clearly excellent survivors - unlike many Anglo-Saxon families in the north they kept their lands (and heads). They resided in nearby Heighley Castle for over 300 years until the Parliamentarians levelled it during the English Civil War. The scythe on the badge? That’s another local family symbol borrowed from the local Tunstall family arms, who in turn are referencing the Sneyd family, who owned swathes of Burslem land, including the area that now bears their name. The scythe connection to the Sneyd family is actually the most British thing ever - the word for a scythe's handle is a sned. The ancient family picked a pun to represent them in battle! And they did go to battle, the Sneyds were at the Battle of Poitiers when the English thrashed the French, and they added a French fleur-de-lys to their crest in honour (this did not make it onto the PVFC badge).

The two vases on the badge symbolise the pottery industry that Stoke-on-Trent is most famous for and pay tribute to Josiah Wedgwood, a local businessman often seen as the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution. Certainly, most high school history departments give him the credit! The two pots each represent one of Wedgwood’s purpose-built "factory towns" on the canal, Burslem and Etruria. Staffordshire loved its factory towns during this time - Cadbury's built Bournville not too far away, for example. While the badge doesn’t feature the canal itself, the Trent and Mersey Canal's influence is woven into Port Vale’s identity. This canal, championed by Wedgwood in the 1760s, connected Staffordshire to Liverpool, reducing transport costs and opening up new markets. Completed in 1777, it fuelled the area’s growth, supporting other local industries like Burton's breweries and Middlewich salt works.

So, a family of nobles able to adapt and thrive despite a foreign invasion, another family that liked a good pun and killing the French - and the man and the industry that was the driving force behind a revolution that took Britain from a miserable European backwater to the greatest Empire ever known. Persistence, Poitiers, and Pottery. Being stubborn, hating the French and creating world-beating industries.

I'd vote for that.

#UpTheVale