Hartley Wintney – The Row

With over one hundred years of history and a real inclusive feel, Hartley Wintney is a football club we should feel proud to call our local team. CommunityAd delved into the side’s long history before arranging an interview with a representative of the club for our next issue of your community magazine.

Hartley Wintney Football Club was founded in 1897. The club’s nickname of ‘The Row’ comes from Hartley Row, a former hamlet within Hartley Wintney in North Hampshire. The club crest incorporates several elements tracing the village back to the 13th century when it was known as Hertleye Wynteneye, meaning “the clearing in the forest where the deer graze by Winta’s island”, hence the tree and stag motifs.

In the late 1940s and into the 50s playing in the Basingstoke League, the club was successful despite having to play on a farm field with just a small wooden shed; this was Causeway Farm adjacent to the village’s golf and cricket clubs. Amongst the villagers who ran the club was its outstanding secretary, Fred Cook, who did every job that needed doing. Fred Cook’s handwritten minutes of meetings covering seasons 1948 to 1964 were discovered after his death and make fascinating reading, including the change of the club colours from blue squares to tangerine in July 1956.

The club moved to its present ground in Green Lane – The Memorial Ground – in 1953. A pavilion was erected and the team continued to play in the Basingstoke League, and later in the Aldershot League.

Since the club has gone from strength to strength investing in youth along the way, in recent years those who follow The Row have had a lot to cheer about. Following an impressive campaign in 2015 – 2016 season which ended with Hartley Wintney being crowned champions of the CCL Premier, sadly promotion didn’t followdue to change to the grading system.

Faced with huge challenges on and off the pitch – to achieve back-to-back title wins and put in place the necessary ground improvements to take advantage of any second opportunity for promotion – the 2016-17 season was perhaps the club’s best yet, topping the Combined Counties League Premier Division for the entire season, reaching the semi-finals of the Hampshire senior county cup and the final of the Aldershot Senior Cup, and securing the required ground grading to allow the club to take its place in The Evo-Stik (Southern) League South; the first time in its history that the club has made it to Step 4 of the English football pyramid. To top off a wonderful 2016-17 season, our young Youth team won the Hampshire FA Youth Midweek Floodlit Cup, winning on penalties against a strong Aldershot Town U18.

Hartley Wintney FC has come a long way, from ‘village side’ in every sense of the term, to today’s 7 days a week, modern football club. Under longstanding Club Chairman, Luke Mullen, the football club has established a clear line of progression for young players with the establishment of an U18 Youth setup, currently playing in the Allied Counties Youth League, a Reserve team playing in the Suburban League, and an A Team playing in the Aldershot & District Football League.

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