Kent Football League (1894–1959)

The Kent League was a football league which existed from 1894 until 1959, based in the English county of Kent. Another, unrelated, Kent League was formed in 1966, and is now known as the Southern Counties East Football League.

The league was established by the Kent County Football Association in February 1894.^[1] The initial proposal for a twelve-team league was subsequently changed to a nine-member Division I with the addition of a similar-sized Division II,^[2] with promotion and relegation decided by a play-off between the bottom two clubs in Division I against the two top clubs in Division II.^[3] For the first three seasons of the competition the champions of Division I were awarded the Kent County Challenge Cup, which had previously been presented to the Kent County FA knock-out tournament (Kent Cup) winners. The Division II champions were awarded a new trophy, the Kent County Challenge Shield.^[2] From 1897, after the Kent County Challenge Cup returned to being the trophy for the knock-out tournament (now the Kent Senior Cup), the shield was used as the trophy for the Division I champions.^[4]

The nine clubs who formed the inaugural Division I for the 1894–95 season were Chatham, Sheppey United, Dartford, Gravesend United, Sittingbourne, Ashford United, Folkestone, Maidstone United and the Training Battalion of the Royal Engineers. The latter two replaced Royal Ordnance Factories, who withdrew,^[5] and New Brompton, who withdrew after adopting professionalism.^[6] Division II also commenced with nine clubs: Sevenoaks, Dover, Faversham, Swanscombe, Cray Wanderers, Folkestone Harveians, Chatham Reserves, Sheppey United Reserves and Sittingbourne Reserves. The latter two replaced Bromley and Rochester Defiance who had been originally selected.^[5] The inaugural Division 1 winners were Chatham; the inaugural Division 2 winners were Swanscombe.^[7][8]

For the second season, after the league voted in January 1895 to allow professionalism,^[9] Division I expanded to twelve clubs with the addition of New Brompton (who used it as a supplementary league while also competing in the Southern League), Woolwich Arsenal Reserves and Northfleet. Before the start of the following 1896–97 season, eight clubs left the league (primarily to the Southern League),^[10] and by the commencement of the 1897–98 season the league had only 15 members across its two divisions, leading to the amalgamation of the divisions into a single Division I for the following season.^[11] There were further reductions in members and by 1910 there were only nine members (five of whom left at the end of the season).^[10]

The league was reconstructed for the 1910–11 season under the auspices of the KCFA,^[12] which had relinquished their role on the management committee a decade previously.^[13] Two regional second divisions (East and West) were added, drawing their members from the top clubs of the East Kent and West Kent leagues. As a result, the league expanded to 32 clubs; twelve in Division I, with the Division II East and West divisions having eleven and nine members respectively.^[11] As part of the reconstruction, reserve teams of Kent and South London clubs playing in the Southern League were invited to enter the Kent League. As a consequence of these stronger teams being introduced, between 1911 and 1914 the Division I championship was won by two of these teams – Millwall Reserves on three successive occasions and then Crystal Palace Reserves.^[14]

In March 1923 informal discussions took place concerning a knock-out Kent League Cup competition for the Division I teams.^[15] This came to fruition and in the 1923–24 season Northfleet United were the first winners of the competition. Apart from a five-season hiatus owing to World War I the league structure remained broadly the same until 1928, albeit with a churn of clubs. In 1923 the Division II Western Section became part of the Kent County Amateur League and a new Mid-Kent Section (effectively replacing the Western Section) was added at Division II level;^[16] while the Division II Eastern Section, having had just three members in 1923–24, was suspended for three seasons before being reintroduced for the 1927–28 season, when the league comprised 26 clubs, 14 in Division I with just three in the East Section and nine in the Mid-Kent Section of Division II.^[11]

With the lack of clubs at the Division II level, the two sections were merged into a single division in 1928.^[11] The league continued in this format until its demise in 1959 apart from two seasons between 1935 and 1937 when Division II was temporarily discontinued in preference to it being part of the Kent County Amateur League,^[17] after which it was reinstated.^[18] Both divisions were suspended in September 1939 following the outbreak of World War II: Division I was restarted in 1944–45, but Division II did not return until 1946–47.

In April 1958 Folkestone Town and Dover, two of the larger clubs, indicated their intention to leave the Kent League and join the expanding Southern League,^[19] with Bexleyheath & Welling and Tunbridge Wells United doing the same shortly afterwards. Although, owing to contractual arrangements, the clubs had to play in the Kent League for the 1958–59 season, the number of rebel clubs expanded to eight with the addition of Ashford Town, Margate, Ramsgate Athletic and Sittingbourne.^[20] As a consequence, in December 1958 the Kent County FA stated they were unwilling to continue the Kent League and would be disbandingit after 65 years of existence at the end of the season.^[21]

At the time of disbanding, the league had 18 clubs in both Division I and Division II.^[11] Of the Division I clubs, the eight wantaway teams (who were mostly the top clubs in the final Kent League table) joined Division One of the Southern League; seven clubs joined the new Aetolian League (Snowdown Colliery Welfare, Herne Bay, Chatham Town, Faversham Town, Sheppey United, Whitstable and Deal Town), while Canterbury City joined the Metropolitan League, Betteshanger Colliery Welfare joined the Seanglian League (a lower division of the Aetolian League to which some of the ex-Kent League clubs' reserves teams from Division II had migrated) and Gillingham Reserves joined the Football Combination.

A new Kent League was established seven years later. In the 1966–67 season the Kent Premier League was formed, derived from the Thames & Medway Combination.^[22] The word 'Premier' was dropped the following season. The new league did not attract back the clubs from the Southern League but was taken up by some of the clubs that had formed the Aetolian and Seanglian Leagues. In 2013 the new league was renamed the Southern Counties East Football League.

The champions of the league's divisions and League Cup winners were as follows:^[11]

During the league's history, member clubs included:^[11][10]