Woking FC

Woking Football Club’s badge is an elegant beauty of a badge - it is a direct lift from the borough’s coat of arms and represent a tapestry of English history. Every symbol on the crest tells part of the story of the Royal Manor of Woking and the powerful figures who once held it.

At its heart, and neatly creating the quarters, lies the cross of Edward the Confessor, one of England’s most revered monarchs and the last major Saxon King. Edward’s connection marks Woking as a royal manor in Saxon times the borough motto, Fide et Diligentia — By Faith and Diligence — echoes this spiritual foundation and Edward’s pious outlook. It was however Edward’s death that sparked the succession crisis that led to the Battle of Hastings and the coming of the Norman age.

The bold red and gold colours of the badge were taken from the arms of the Bassett family. This noble family was awarded the manor by King John in the early 13th century. On the death of Aliva Bassett in 1281, Woking passed to her son, Hugh le Despenser, and from his family crest came the frets (the waffle looking criss-cross things) that appear in the second and third quarters of the arms. Their emblem appears in the badge’s second and third quarters. Hugh Despenser the Elder became a close advisor to Edward II, while his son, Hugh the Younger, rose even higher – but the fall was to be worse..

Hugh Despenser the Younger met a gruesome end in 1326 after Queen Isabella and her ally Roger Mortimer invaded England to overthrow her husband, Edward II. Despenser, hated for his greed and cruelty as the king’s favourite, was captured and subjected to one of the most brutal executions of the Middle Ages: he was dragged through the streets, hanged, cut down while still alive, disembowelled, and finally quartered, with his body parts sent around the country as a warning. His father, Hugh the Elder, was also executed. Edward II was forced to abdicate soon after in favour of his young son, Edward III, and he never returned to power, dying in captivity the following year — leaving the Despensers remembered not only for their ambition but for their spectacular and bloody downfall.

Woking’s story then moves into the 15th century, when the manor passed to the Beaufort family. Their fleur-de-lis decorates the first and fourth quarters of the shield. The Beaufort’s were direct descendants of John of Gaunt who in turn was linked to the Plantagenets of the William the Conqueror. It was from within this family that Lady Margaret Beaufort — the mother of Henry VII —helped establish the Tudor dynasty. Woking Palace, built on the banks of the River Wey, became one of Henry VII’s favourite retreats. It was here in 1490 that he signed the Treaty of Woking with Maximilian of Austria, pledging to resist French dominance in Europe. Henry VIII later expanded the palace into a lavish residence, using it regularly for hunting, celebrations, and state business. The Beaufort fleur-de-lis on the badge is therefore a symbol of Woking’s role in the dawn of the Tudor age.

The Beaufort connection also links to Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and one of the most powerful men in 15th-century England. From Edward the Confessor’s cross to the Beaufort fleur-de-lis, the badge carries a weight of royal and religious symbolism that few clubs can match. Woking’s nickname, “The Cards,” stems directly from this heraldic tradition. A shortening of “Cardinals,” it nods both to the scarlet robes of Cardinal Henry Beaufort and to the club’s red shirts.

Only a handful of English football badges carry so many levels of English History within its symbolism – and Woking’s does it in a beautifully symmetrical and modern way – despite being steeped in Medieval history. This town to the South of London has a very deep and hidden history in the affairs of England – and on the pitch their team is battling their up the leagues to tell a new story.