Early years: A 49-year-old clergyman and a doctor play

The club was formed at a meeting on October 27, 1893 at the Britannia Inn in Headington, which was then a village. Doctor Hitchings was the main driving force behind the formation of the club, which was initially called simply Headington Football Club (United being added within a few months).

Headington United in 1936, winners of the Senior Cup

Hitchings played for the club a number of times along with the local vicar, the 49-year-old Reverend Scott-Tucker. The earliest games were played at the Quarry Recreation Ground in Margaret Road, but the first of many moves over the following 31 years occurred for 1894-95, when the club entered the City Junior League.

The club was far, far weaker than Oxford City, the club which would dominate Oxfordshire football until the late 1940s. Rapid progress in terms of football in Oxfordshire resulted in the club's elevation to the league which contained the county's leading sides apart from City.

In 1902, the club lost the Oxon Senior Cup Final. The following season, crowd trouble forced the club to play all of its matches after February away from Headington. United won some Junior trophies before joining the Oxon Senior League in 1921. They made their final move to the site of the Manor Ground in 1925.

United played their first Amateur Cup game in 1922 and lost 6-0 to City in that competition in 1925. In the 1930s United became one of the four best sides in the county and won the Oxon Charity Cup in 1931. They played their first FA Cup match in 1931 and beat Banbury Spencer in 1936 to win the Senior Cup. Gaining strength throughout the 1930s, Headington 'walked' the Senior League in 1939.

United were the only civilian team to play in the Senior League throughout the Second World War and moved up to the Spartan League in 1947. Soon afterwards, with Banbury the only semi-professional outfit in the county, Vic Couling urged the committee to get Headington into a semi-professional league.

Around this time, United gained their first ever victories over Oxford City. City were against turning professional and their neighbours from 'up the hill' seized the initiative and turned professional in 1949. Enormous and largely voluntary effort was made by supporters to lay terraces at very short notice for the following season.

History compiled by Andy Howland