Burghfield FC start 2022 with a fresh new look

The new Burghfield FC badge.
The new Burghfield FC badge.

Thames Valley Premier League side Burghfield will step out in to the New Year with a new look after revealing the clubs new crest with a significant nod to local history.

The club, which boasts 42 different teams across junior, youth, women’s and men’s football, will use the brand which will feature immediately on the club’s website and social media pages, and then be phased in across the club as kit is updated and replaced.

The badge retains the blue and white club colours – date of establishment – and features Mrs Bland’s School Bell which became a symbol of the Burghfield community in the first half of the 20th Century.

A statement on the Burghfield FC website explains: “Whilst the old badge has been used for many years, it had a feel of being outdated and there is no obvious representation of Burghfield within it. There were also inconsistencies with the versions of crests used, with several different iterations around.

“We believe that our new badge, which features Mrs Bland’s School Bell, will become more recognisable, and drawing inspiration from the history of Burghfield, better represents our local community.”

What’s the relevance of the Mrs Blands School Bell to Burghfield?

The Bland’s (Horatio – a Canadian merchant and Emily Alicia Cherry, the oldest daughter of the Rector of Burghfield, Rev. Henry Curtis Cherry) lived in a large Georgian house – called Culverlands – at Burghfield Hill. Bland owned adjoining land at Burghfield Common and in 1855 he also bought Hartley Grange at Hartley Witney, Hampshire.

In 1861, Horatio commissioned Liverpool architect Walter Scott to design a new red and blue brick gabled house with a slate roof on his land at Burghfield Common. This new home, named Hillfields, is today used as the headquarters of the charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Bland’s wife, Emily, died on a trip to Jerusalem in March 1868. In her memory, Horatio founded Mrs Bland’s School at Burghfield Common. The school bell was a large Japanese temple bell dating back to 1746, that Bland had collected on his travels.

The bell became a symbol of the Burghfield community before it was presented to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 1953.

The designer

Burghfield asked us to acknowledge the clubs player Joe Mallen for his work on designing the new badge: “We would like to say a huge thank you to our Sunday men’s player, Joe Mallen, for all of his work over the past few months in designing and creating our new club crest.

“With 42 different teams across all of our age groups, it is not practical to update and rebrand all kit and equipment immediately. We will begin work on updating these from the end of the current 2021/22 season, however, this will be a phased process that will take place over the next couple of seasons.”

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