Southwick

Southwick FC was a former non-league football club with a long and interesting history as a club based in the town of the same name, which is a western suburb of the city of Brighton & Hove. The club was formed in 1882 and dissolved in 2020.

The Wickers became founder members of the Sussex County League in 1920, and in their first twenty-eight years as members were crowned as league champions on four occasions, as well as finishing as runners up four times. In 1952 the club decided to try their luck in the Metropolitan League, but they returned to the Sussex County League after just three seasons.

Southwick suffered a relegation but soon bounced back, before they lifted a fifth league title in 1968-69. The 1974-75 season saw a further championship along with the club’s only appearance at the first round stage of the FA Cup, where they were defeated 5-0 at Dean Court to AFC Bournemouth.

After finishing league runners up for the ninth time, the Wickers joined the Combined Counties League for the 1984-85 season. Money was thrown at the playing budget as the team won promotion at the first attempt to the Isthmian League after finishing as runners up.

In 1985-86 they went up as champions, and they spent a further couple of seasons at Division One level until the cash ran out with the Old Barn Way ground struggling to meet the grading requirements. The club nearly went bust, but the efforts of George Bailey and Mick Fogden behind the scenes saved the day.

After a relegation in 1991, The Wickers rejoined the Sussex County League for the 1992-93 season as a new Chairman took over and promised great things. Within a decade the club had been promoted and relegated twice, finding themselves in the leagues' second tier. Another demotion came at the culmination of the 2012-13 season.

In 2014-15 Southwick won promotion to the Southern Combination Division One, as the Sussex County League had been renamed under manager John Kilgarriff. The club was reformed with a new company being set up.

The team consolidated their position and made steady progress with Tony Gratwicke and Jeff Piner being appointed as joint managers for the 2017-18 campaign before Curtis Foster took over first team duties for a short while prior to being replaced by Justin Gregory.

Despite finishing bottom of Division One, the club was reprieved from relegation as Ben Shoulders was the next incumbent of the managers job before the vastly experienced Sammy Donnelly was put in charge of team affairs.

The owner of Southwick FC failed to comply with works required at Old Barn Way and handed the venue back to the local council in March 2020. They found many serious licensing breaches, while the tenant had illegally sub-let the venue for personal profit.

The club was evicted and became homeless with debts of around £500,000 against their name. A new Southwick Football Club Community Interest Company was set up by a new team of directors, but they could not use the Southwick FC name without paying off the debts.

Southwick FC was wound up, while a phoenix club, Southwick 1882 FC was established, but had to drop down the pyramid, and were placed in the second tier of the Mid-Sussex League for the 2020-21 season playing at play at Southwick Recreation Ground.

Meanwhile, a dispute broke out which saw Donnelly and many of the players set up another club, AFC Southwick who played a season at Whitehawk FC. In 2023 the ground at Old Barn Way given approval to be redeveloped offering the chance of football returning there.

My visit

Friday 30th November 2008

I arrived in Brighton after a rather hazy and long coach journey from London, no doubt assisted by the slight hangover I was wearing following a night out in the capital with my brother Nick. 

The journey was spent listening to Talksport's Mike 'Porky' Parry proclaiming that the FA had made a brilliant decision in pinpointing Fabio Capello as the man to take the national team forward. I must have been in a bit of a mess, as I believed what I was hearing.

After a walk to Brighton railway station, I caught the train to Fishergate station. A short walk later had me entering the car park to Southwick's Old Barn Way home. The club were to be the first of six I was to visit throughout the day along the West Sussex coast.

I entered the open clubhouse outside the grounds entrance and was given permission to go inside and take some photos.

Old Barn Way was a basic venue and it wasn't hard to figure out how the club struggled to invest in it for them to progress during the boom years. It was basically hemmed in with flat open standing all the way round, apart from a few steps of terracing by the turnstiles and a small cover next to the clubhouse, where the players would enter the pitch from. A stand formerly stood on the far side.

I left and cut along the side of the railway to catch a train from Southwick station to Shoreham, where I would find great difficulties in even finding the grounds entrance!