Bishop Auckland - Hertitage Park

Bishop Auckland FC

Heritage Park

Stadium Way

Bishop Auckland

County Durham

DL14 9AE

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Ground Number: 1452

Saturday 2nd August 2025
Bishop Auckland 2-2 Whickham

FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round

BISHOP AUCKLAND FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was established in 1886, although football had been played in Bishop Auckland for fourteen years before that. They adopted the colours of light and dark blue, traditionally associated with Cambridge and Oxford Universities, before becoming one of the ten founding members of the Northern League in 1889. They struggled at first but won their first title in 1899 and would go on to win the title eighteen more times as they enjoyed a 99-year spell in the league, which is the second-oldest in the world.

In 1988, following a 6th-place finish in the Northern League, the club was invited to join the Northern Premier League, and they were a huge hit at the higher level, finishing 2nd in Division 1 behind Colne Dynamoes who only had one more year in existence thanks to a fit of hubris by their owner who shut the club down when refused entry to the Conference a year later. Bishop Auckland themselves would be runners-up to Leek Town in 1997, their highest finish in the pyramid as it was the second step at the time. Relegation came in 2002, and although they were shunted to the NPL Premier in 2004, they still remained in the non-league's third tier following the establishment of the Conference North & South. The club would last one season here before being relegated to the NPL D1 in 2005. This was a period of decline for the club as a bottom-placed finish the following season saw them return to the Northern League. Five difficult seasons followed before the club got back on track. However, it wasn't until 2024 that they won the Northern League for the twentieth time, winning promotion to the NPL D1 East, where they finished in mid-table last season.

Bishop Auckland were one of the country's most successful amateur teams, and they won the FA Amateur an incredible ten times, plus they were runners-up eight times. This included holding the Indian sign over my own team Wycombe Wanderers for many years, including beating them in the 1957 final at Wembley. The club's best FA Cup run came during the 1954/55 season when the Bishops beat Kettering Town, Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town before losing to York City in the 4th Round. More recent escapades include reaching the 2nd Round before losing to Carlisle United in 1981 and Crewe Alexandra in 1990. They took Bury to a replay before losing on penalties in a 1994 1st Round Replay and exited in the 4th Qualifying Round to Stockport County in 2016.

Three FA Trophy Quarter Finals were reached, the last in 2000 when they took Kettering Town to a replay. Wycombe Wanderers gained revenge for their impeccable record against the Chairboys in 1982 in the 3rd Round but would go on to lose to Altrincham in the semi-final, who would go on to lose to Telford United in the Wembley showpiece. The club did not enter the FA Vase until 2006 but it proved to be less of a happy hunting ground as the best Bishop Auckland could manage was losing on penalties to Blyth Town in a 2024 3rd Round tie. Local cup wins include sixteen Durham Challenge Cups and eight Northern League Cups. The club achieved an attendance of 17,000 for a 1952 FA Cup game against Coventry City at their Kingsway ground, where they played up until 2002. After eight years sharing at West Auckland Town, Shildon and Spennymoor Town, the club moved into Heritage Park in 2010. Two years later, they had a capacity crowd of 2,004 for a local derby against Darlington.

Bishop Auckland is a market town situated at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham. It is 12 miles southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surrounds the Bishops of Durham and the establishment of Auckland Castle's predecessor, a hunting lodge, which became the main residence of the Durham Bishops. This is reflected in the first part of the town's name. During the Industrial Revolution, the town grew rapidly as coal mining became its largest industry. Decline in the coal mining industry during the late twentieth century has changed the town's largest sector to manufacturing. The area has a population of around 25,000.

MY VISIT

When the FA Cup ties were announced in early July, I earmarked 17 possible ties, all of which were long-distance journeys. My preference would be to go on public transport and have a nice day out with some pubs and save wear and tear on the car. However, the grounds would either not provide the pub element that I wanted, or were outrageously expensive on public transport. The best day out would be Pilkington, with some decent-looking pubs in St Helens. However, even with split fares and some compromises, the fare still came out at £120.80. An outrageous 31p a mile, which is nearly 10p a mile more than driving alone. So, with Colin going to Cinderford Town v Amersham Town and Dan & Richard otherwise engaged, I turned to Chris and offered him seventeen options. He didn't fancy any of them but was happy for me to drop him off at Crook Town whilst I went to Bishop Auckland. I'd rather not drive on Saturday, and that's the main reason I've not seen Chris in 20 months, coupled with the fact that my early starts kill any chance of all but the most local midweek games.

I took a while to drop off after getting home at 10.30 on Saturday. It has worked out well, travel-wise, at £17 each for three games, which makes a mockery of public transport fares. Coupled with the usual exceptionally busy Sunday, it was tiring. I was offered the chance to go early, and had I not been drowsy, I'd have done the Hop game at Louth. Instead, I opted to ride it out and had an hour's nap in the afternoon. Monday was easier, and Tuesday was my day off. All in all, I walked over 17 miles, to Wycombe and back in the morning and to Penn & back in the evening. Penn & Tylers Green was a local derby I had been wanting to attend, and fortunately, the dates worked out. It was a bargain, with a £6 entry fee for a competitive local derby that finished 1-1, a fair result. There was the drama of one floodlight not rising, but a volunteer eventually sorted it out. An enjoyable evening out, the only pain was getting back just before 11 as I'd chosen to walk. The next day was my short shift at work, so I wasn't really tired.

I calculated my football costs for the 19 games I played in the second half of June and July, which totalled £434, or £22.84 per game. By far the bulk of this was travel, which was £326. I'd driven 1,836 miles, and thankfully, I'd had help from other hoppers with petrol for some of these miles. However, a couple of long weekends away had bumped the costs up. I looked to the future, and after much frustration with my European trip, arranged a UK weekend with Colin using public transport, hopefully. As for my European trip, I had tried a couple of times before without luck and spent another frustrating six hours going around in circles. Either the accommodation was scandalously expensive (hello, Ireland), there was a lack of games to make a weekend out of it (hello, Portugal), or the flight prices had skyrocketed (hello, Vienna / Maribor / Zagreb treble). I eventually gave up and decided to have another go on Sunday. It was a hard day at work as ever on Friday, and I spent another two hours trying to work out a trip without luck. I went via Colin to Hertford, parked at the ground and ticked a nice Spoons. The steak pudding was excellent, and it was a productive time with me using Colin's railcard to book our travel for an upcoming trip. I was greedy and had a huge burger with bacon and egg at the ground too. 

Enfield v Wormley Rovers was the start of my FA Cup journey. The visitors took the game to the higher step opponents in the first half and should have been ahead through their impressive number 7. The second half is dull by comparison, Enfield starting to have chances near the end as both teams decided far too late to go for it. The officials tended to favour the defending side, sadly. It was not the worst game I've ever seen, but it's the second time I've seen Enfield play out a stalemate at this stage of the competition. I was back by 10.40 and had a drink and relaxed before bed.

I woke earlier than intended on the day of the game, staying in bed until 7 and getting ready. There were delays on the way to Chris thanks to roadworks and a new traffic calming area in Bierton. I picked him up at 8.50 and we made reasonable time until we got to the A1, where two separate delays added up to 40 minutes. We got to Crook at 1, parked up and headed to the Butcher's Tap. They were quite busy, and coupled with the delay earlier, I was running late. I decided that it might be a good idea to leave going to Bishop Auckland town centre for another time, as I was also running low on petrol. We both had curry, in my case a fish ball stew with chips. This was good and tasty and worth the wait. From there, it was 20 minutes to Sainsbury's, where there was a big queue for petrol due to the elderly being unwilling to use pay at pump, and I had to queue twice due to a faulty pump. I was parked and in the ground by 2.30. A pint in the bar was decent for £4.50 and a programme was good for £2. Sadly, merchandise was quite limited at the ground, though. Overall, the place had a great vibe and I was happy with my match choice.

 

Looking at recent FA Cup form, it has been a thin time for Bishop Auckland in recent years since reaching the 4th Qualifying Round in 2016, with their furthest progress being the 2nd Qualifying Round in 2023, where they lost to South Shields. That same round was Whickham's best progress, with them losing to Chorley at that stage in 2003. They had reached the 1st Qualifying Round more recently. On Wednesday, they had a remarkable league game, coming from 4-0 down to draw 4-4 with Whitley Bay. It was a reasonable start, although Whickham showed their defensive frailty on 21 minutes, the keeper could only parry the ball to Dean Thexton, who followed up from close range. Bishops dominated from there, with Whickham having chances on the break. The Lang Jacks equalised on 41 minutes, Sam Johnson heading home a right-sided corner at the near post. Bishop Auckland had the ball in the net early in the second half but it was ruled our for a foul. The hosts did take the lead on 57 minutes, a free kick was crossed in and parried. However, Paul Van Zandvleit was on hand to follow up with the crowd, confirmed as 397. Bishop Auckland were on top now and headed narrowly wide of the right-hand post on 75 minutes. Whickham equalised on 94 minutes, a penalty converted following a handball. 

THE GROUND 

HERITAGE PARK is a modern venue but one that has plenty of nice touches. The main stand seats a few hundred and is slightly raised. This offers good views and has a nice bar with a decent viewing gallery. Behind the left goal is a covered terrace holding around 500, whilst at the other end is some uncovered seating, a legacy of when Darlington shared there. There is also food at reasonable prices and a limited range of merchandise with a better range online and in the town centre shop. Parking is quite limited and there is a bus stop at the Sainsbury's behind the ground.