Walsall FC

Walsall has been a club through the years that has struggled to eclipse its much larger West Midlands neighbours - Birmingham and Wolverhampton sit only a few miles away. However, Walsall boats a long history and a unique role in British history, so it is well worth diving deeper behind that badge - so let's do them the honour - and #GetTheBadgeIn.

Founded in 1888 through the merger of two fierce local rivals – Walsall Town and Walsall Swifts – the new team was originally called Walsall Town Swifts. But by 1895 the name was simplified to Walsall FC. On the pitch, they began in the Second Division of the Football League, where they rubbed shoulders with clubs that would go on to far greater things.

For decades the badge has carried the image of a swift, borrowed from founding club of the same name. At first, the bird faced downwards, but in the 1990s it was redrawn pointing upwards - which is certainly nore optimistic. The club’s colours of red, white, and black frame the design. An earlier badge also featured a saddle alongside the swift, in reference to Walsall’s leather trade and the reason for the nickname: The Saddlers.

Walsall was once one of the great centres of leatherwork in Britain. Saddles, harnesses, buckles, and leather goods made in Walsall were exported worldwide, and to this day the town honours that heritage with the Walsall Leather Museum and the Saddlers Shopping Centre, as well obviously as the team's name.

Walsall played in various locations —The Chuckery, West Bromwich Road Ground, and the Pleck Ground—but they finally settled at Hilary Street, later renamed Fellows Park in the 1930s after chairman H. L. Fellows. They remained there until 1990, when the move to the Bescot Stadium (now the Poundland Bescot) gave the Saddlers a more modern 11,000-capacity home. Surrounded by Villa, Blues, Albion, and Wolves, attendances have always been challenged by the gravitational pull of the bigger Midlands clubs, but Walsall have their own devoted following and fierce local pride.

The town itself has older roots than the football. The name Walsall comes from Walh halh—“valley of the Welsh”—a reference to the Celtic peoples who lived here before the Saxons. By the 13th century it was a market town with a manor house and regular fairs. The Industrial Revolution transformed it, turning a village of 2,000 into a booming town of over 80,000 within two centuries. Leatherwork, quarrying and the manufacturer of all those buckles, chains, and saddles - essential items in a world still mostly powered by horse- made Walsall wealthy. Queen Mary founded a grammar school here in 1554; Queen Elizabeth I visited; and by the 19th century rail and canals tied Walsall into the wider Black Country and Midlands industrial belt.

On the pitch, Walsall have never reached the top flight, but they’ve had their moments. They won promotion to the second tier on several occasions, most recently in 1999, and in the 2014–15 season made it all the way to Wembley for the first time in their history in the Football League Trophy final. Cup upsets are not unknown too, including famous wins over Arsenal in the 1930s.

Walsall may not have the glamour of their neighbours, but the badge carries the history of a proud working town. The Saddlers are a reminder that football doesn’t just belong to the giants—it belongs in far more honest places places like Walsall too. A place where industry, tradition, and resilience have long held the reins.