Hanwell Town: Why the century-old west London football club has gone viral

The club was formed by workers from Newcastle over 100 years ago, and a social media boom has led to them receiving thousands of new supporters online
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A football team based in west London is enjoying being thrown into the limelight in recent weeks.

Hanwell Town FC have gone viral thanks to the support from Newcastle United fans on social media.

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This is because the club, which plays in the Isthmian League in the seventh and eighth tier of English football, was founded by Newcastle fans over 100 years ago.

Elsa Jones, who is head of marketing at the club, told LondonWorld about a recent surge in social media support, how the club was formed and what the links are with Newcastle United.

She said: “We were formed 100 years ago by railway workers who were Newcastle United fans working in the area.

“They adopted the black and white stripes and that’s continued 102 years later.

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“So we were nicknamed ‘The Geordies’ and we’ve carried that through.

“Our club historian was looking through the local history of the club and they weren’t all just railway workers. Some were working on the waterways and sewage system, it’s quite interesting.”

It has been a roller coaster few years for the club with the pandemic having a big impact on the club’s finances.

Hanwell Town supporters watching their side in actionHanwell Town supporters watching their side in action
Hanwell Town supporters watching their side in action

Elsa said: “Financially we struggled through Covid but we’re slowly getting back on track.

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“On the pitch, new joint managers Chris Moore and Wayne Carter took over four years ago, we have since won the Middlesex senior cup - first time in our history.

“And we’re definitely competing for promotion to step three.

“Before Mooro and Carts we had Ray Duffy who is a club legend, having played and managed nearly 1000 games.”

The aim for the club this season is to finish in the top five of their division, which would seal a place in the playoffs.

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The club has had a huge wave of support on it’s social media pages, and Elsa explained why and how this happened.

“It all started from a tweet of the top five teams in our league that had gained the most followers. That was us, Basingstoke, Bracknell, Thatcham, whoever else... I just re-tweeted it and said, ‘I wonder how many of these 5,000 are Newcastle United fans’.

Russell Simpson (left) with his friend, his dad who came down from Darlington and Nathan from Stocksfield who all attend matches Russell Simpson (left) with his friend, his dad who came down from Darlington and Nathan from Stocksfield who all attend matches
Russell Simpson (left) with his friend, his dad who came down from Darlington and Nathan from Stocksfield who all attend matches

“That started it off really. People were asking why Newcastle fans so after that we put up a graphic we made a few months ago explaining why we are nicknamed The Geordies, that sparked it up a little bit more.

“We had 1,000 new followers and couldn’t believe it and that kicked it off even more.

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“At that time we were the fifth most followed in the league of Twitter followers, then people were asking who we needed to beat next.

“That went on and we had 9,000 followers and it kept going. We wiped the floor with all of them [in the Twitter follower league].”

The support was overwhelming for Elsa and the club, as she added: “We couldn’t believe it, the influx of new followers came from such a small tweet.

“Next thing we know we have over 8,000 new followers. Club shop orders have flown too - it’s kept us very busy.”

To find out more about when the club play, visit their website