Sittingbourne FC

At the weekend, @SittingbourneFC pulled off a remarkable feat—scoring in the 97th minute to defeat former Championship outfit and current National League heavyweights, Southend United. By contrast, the semi-professional

play in the Isthmian League South East, the 8th tier of English football.

Their victory has taken them into the FA Trophy Quarter-Final, where they will host Aldershot Town, another National League team. And it just so happens that they have a beauty of a badge - so let's pay them a visit ans #GetTheBadgeIn.

We’ll start with the top and the crown. This, along with the gold colouring, alludes to the town’s long connection to royalty. The Manor of Milton, now part of Sittingbourne, has been royal property since the Saxon era. The first Saxon kings of Kent, Hengist and Horsa, built a fort on the site of an abandoned Roman fort, which sat strategically on the creek leading to the Isle of Sheppey and the North Sea.

When William the Conqueror arrived in 1066, he took the lands and gifted them to his brother Odo - the same chap who had the Bayeux Tapestry made.

Next, let’s look at the two sea shells. Many believe they symbolise the area’s coastal location, famous for its oysters. However, the shells may actually reference St James, the Patron Saint of Pilgrims. Sittingbourne sits on the road to Canterbury, a key pilgrimage route even before Thomas Becket’s murder in the cathedral turned the city into the #1 holy spot in England.

Sittingbourne was located on the Watling Road, an ancient route from Dover to London that the Romans paved for efficient travel. The town therefore was an important stop for travellers heading to Canterbury or the continent. Which, as you can see, explains the next bit of the badge...

The red lion comes from the Red Lion Inn in Sittingbourne, one of the oldest way stations between Europe and London. It has hosted Henry V, Henry VII, Cardinal Wolsey, and Henry VIII. It still operates today as far as I can tell.

Now to the green dragon. This is a wyvern, a mythical creature taken from the crest of Philip Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. He was gifted Milton Manor by James I, with whom he shared a close—possibly intimate—relationship. Philip was showered with lands and titles and funded many New World ventures, including the Virginia Company (aka Pochantas) He was also mates with some playwright feller called William Shakespeare, who dedicated his first folio to Philip and his brother William. Philip was known to thump tennis opponents if he lost.

The roll of paper nods to the area’s link with the printing and newspaper trade. Edward Lloyd, owner of the first British newspaper to hit a million readers (Lloyd’s Weekly), was a key figure. He pioneered “penny dreadfuls,” cheap serialised stories, with his most famous creation being Sweeney Todd. Lloyd’s innovation extended to importing esparto grass from Algeria and using it in Sittingbourne to produce cheaper and faster newspapers on a large US-made press.

Now, about the club’s nickname: The Brickies. While none of the badge’s symbols reference this, it nods to Sittingbourne’s key role in the brick-making industry. London’s famous “yellow stock bricks,” used in grand Victorian buildings, were made from Sittingbourne’s brickearth, a type of earth that easily hardens when baked. For added strength, it was mixed with ash from burning London’s rubbish. Ships would carry finsihed Sittingbourne bricks to London and return with refuse to make the ash for the next batch. Sittingbourne built London.

Now that’s some badge.

And with the way they’re playing at the moment, they’re some team.

Up the Brickies!