Port Vale, a Midlands club currently in League One, are set to play Premier League Chelsea in the FA Cup. The club are based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.
The Mystery of the Name
Unlike many English professional clubs named after a geographic town, city or district, Port Vale’s name origin is somewhat unique. The club’s name does not appear to bear any relation to a place. There is no defined place called ‘Port Vale’ in the Potteries these days.
The Potteries is an industrial area halfway between Birmingham and Manchester. It is famed for its ceramics and encompassing the towns of Burslem, Hanley, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke.
A Look Back at Port Vale’s History
Documentary evidence from late 19th-century Staffordshire is relatively scarce when it comes to the origins of their name. In their 150-year history, Port Vale have only reached an FA Cup semi-final once. That was way back in 1953-54.
FA Cup Journey
Port Vale are enduring a difficult season and sit bottom of the third tier. They eliminated Sunderland in the previous round. Now, they will visit Premier League Chelsea on Saturday in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
London Club Namesakes: Arsenal and Crystal Palace
Arsenal’s origins are actually south of the River Thames, where the Royal Arsenal once stood in Woolwich, south-east London. It was employees at the arsenal’s Dial Square workshop who first explored the possibility of setting up a football club.
Crystal Palace’s name stems from Sir Joseph Paxton’s vast glass and iron building first erected in central London’s Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition in 1851. It was subsequently rebuilt south of the river on Sydenham Hill. The site effectively became the nation’s greatest pleasure park, hosting the FA Cup final from 1895 to 1914.
The huge glass structure housed the spoils of the British Empire until it burned down in 1936. But, while that corner of south London is now known locally as ‘Crystal Palace’, the area was always more accurately Upper Norwood, Anerley or Upper Sydenham.
Forest Green Rovers, based in the Gloucestershire town of Nailsworth, have dropped into the National League.