Like a lot of clubs formed around the same period, the true circumstances behind the formation of Swindon Town Football Club were a mystery for years - however, new discoveries, made well over a century after the formation of the club, seem to confirm the club's true formation date as 1879.
Until relatively recently, the accepted version of events gave the club's formation date as 1881 - the story being that, after a match between the Spartans of Old Swindon and St. Mark's Young Mens' Friendly Society ended in a 2-2 draw, the two clubs decided to merge, under the name of "The Swindon Football Club". Without any firm evidence to the contrary, the club celebrated their centenary year in 1981 when they invited UEFA Cup holders Ipswich Town to play in a match to mark the occasion. The match was played on 14th August, and 5,011 people turned out to watch Ipswich win by two goals to nil.
However, in the mid-1990's, further research casted doubt over the original date. A match report from the Swindon Advertiser, dated 13th December 1879, showed Reverend William Pitt - captain of the Spartans and the man widely regarded as the founder of Swindon Town FC - playing for a "Swindon Association Football Club" in a 4-0 defeat against Rover FC - in addition to this, match reports from Swindon Advertiser showed that the St. Marks YMFS club continued at least into to the late 1880s, and even faced STFC in the a Wiltshire Cup semi-final in 1888! For a while, the club seemed to accept the new date - with former club statistician Paul Plowman, the man who carried out the research, working as the club's retail manager, the Town's kits in 1995 carried an "Est. 1879" tag - following this though, the club's official stance reverted back to the 1881 date, despite more new evidence proving the earlier formation.
Again, these findings came through Paul Plowman's research - and were unexpectedly found in details of an after dinner speech at the Southern League championship celebrations in 1911. One of the guest speakers that evening was a certain Reverend Pitt - and he spent the evening reminiscing of how he had formed the club in the autumn of 1879, in a meeting held at King William Street School - stating that they "decided to call our club the Swindon Town Football Club", but they found that "was rather a mouthful to shout out, and we afterwards changed the name to the Spartan Club".
An interview in the Football Pink with former local footballer William Crates in March 1929 further documented the beginnings of STFC - the former YMFS player stating that goalkeeper Billy Rose had suggested the idea of a Town football club in 1883, with the first meeting being held in the Fountain Inn. Other recollections of these meetings later recorded in the Swindon Advertiser confirmed that Reverend Pitt had suggested the name of Swindon Town, and that Pitt was installed as the newly-named club's president, with Rose named as club captain. In February the following year, Rose would go on to make his debut for England against Ireland - missing the Town's match against Culham College to appear for his country - joining deputy captain William Bell as the second Town player with international honours, with Bell having first appeared for Wales in 1881.
So, whilst it is clear that the Swindon Town name came into being in 1883, whether that was a newly-formed club or a continuation of the Spartans will likely always remain a matter of conjecture - however, the prominence of Spartans men in the newly-named club suggests that the Spartan Club was at the very least a significant predecessor to STFC. The suggested 1881 merger of the Spartans and the Young Men's Friendly Society is almost certainly a red herring - though YMFS representatives were involved in the discussions concerning the Town club two years later - it is possible that these details got muddled over time. However it came about, the name of "Swindon Town" showed significant foresight, coming seventeen years before the boroughs of Old and New Swindon merged in 1900.
Despite all this, the shirts for the 2004/05 season carried "125th Anniversary" embroidery - until early in that same season, the club finally recognised the earlier formation date for good when the research was published in Peter Lupson's "Thank God For Football" book. When the decision was taken to change the club's emblem for the following campaign, all three of the shortlisted designs were adorned with "1879".
The club's first home was J.E.G. Bradford's field, situated in Old Town - however, the field was hardly ideal - being next to a quarry, the ball would regularly disappear. Worse was to follow though, when a young spectator fell down the quarry - shortly afterwards, the team made the short move to the Globe Field, which was situated under what is now Lansdown Road. "The Globe" public house is the only reference to what was once there.
The club moved again in 1884, this time to The Croft, where they remained for eleven years. The set-up there wasn't exactly convenient - with no facilities near the pitch, the teams changed in the Fountain Inn on Devizes Road, tickets were purchased from a pigeon-hole in the Royal Oak Inn, and the supporters were forced to stand on wooden footboards. Despite this, the club's early successes in the Wiltshire Cup came here, and the Croft was their home for their first season in the Southern League - kicking off with a 4-3 defeat against Reading on 22nd September 1894. Before the season started, the club turned professional - and their first wage bill totalled £10.
It wasn't until the following year that the Town moved to the County Ground, playing where the cricket pitch is situated now, where Swindon Wanderers had played during the 1893/94 season. The Town's official opening game was in September 1895, when they played Nat Whittaker's XI from Uxbridge - their first competitive game coming on October 5th, when they entertained Ilford in a Southern League game. The rent for the whole season cost the club £40.
The move to the current site happened a year later, when Thomas Arkell lent the club £300 to build a stand. The agreement, made in October 1896, meant that the club would repay Arkell £60 per year, whilst being responsible for the maintenance of the stand. The stand was built on the North side of the pitch, where it remained until it was replaced in the early 1970's.
Just one more change remained. Though other sources have suggested that the Town's first colours were white and black, no evidence of this has been found - the first club rules of the Swindon Town club from 1883 stated that "the colour or style of dress shall consist of a red and black striped jersey with a blue sash" (the sash likely used to provide differentiation in the event of a colour clash), and photos of both the Spartans before them, and subsequent team groups suggest that red and black were the colours from the club's inception. The earliest photo of the Spartans shows the team wearing hoops, stripes were adopted at some point either before or when the Swindon Town name was chosen, and by the time the Town joined the Southern League in 1894, the team were wearing red and black quartered shirts. In 1897, it was decided a change was required - the Swindon Advertiser reported the change in the "Snap Shots" column, on the 4th September 1897:
"The new colours of the Swindon Town F.C. are to be green shirts, with white sleeves. Good-bye to the old well known red and black."
The green and white shirts were paired with blue knickers early on, before the blue was switched to white - but problems obtaining the correct dye for the kits soon forced another change. The reserve team had continued to wear red and black, and a permanent change was discussed (and announced in the Swindon Advertiser!) in August 1899, but it wasn't until September 1902 that the switch was finally made. The original shirts were very dark in colour - described as maroon by both journalists and in a fixture card from the period - the Town first turning out in maroon jerseys for their trip to Reading at the end of the month. Despite receiving new shirts, the team seemed reluctant to adopt them, instead preferring to wear white shirts in the warm weather for their next match, the visit of Queens Park Rangers, who themselves were wearing green and white hoops - the referee ordering the Town off the pitch to change into their new kit! The opposite occurred in the final match of the 1903/04 season at West Ham, when it was reported that the referee allowed both teams to wear the same colours in the first half!
Soon though, the now familiar red was adopted (and with it, the nickname of the "Robins") - the Town turning out in red for the opening game of the 1906/07 season against Southampton. Since then, other than occasional changes in short colours (black for two seasons in the 1970s, and an all red strip first appearing in 1991 and on-and-off since), the only time the Town's colours have looked like potentially changing was in 1954, with manager Maurice Lindley lamenting the number of times that the Town had to wear their change colours for away matches. Lindley introduced a green shirt with black trim, which he intended to switch to - the new kit being used for the first time in a home friendly against SK Admira of Vienna, and also in away matches at Bristol City and Northampton. After that, there was no more cause to use a change shirt before the end of the season - a year later, Lindley had been sacked and the change was never implemented.