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Norton Athleitc Football Club is an English football club based in Norton Subcourse, Norfolk. They are nicknamed ‘The Millers’, because the neighbouring village of Thurlton houses a windmill. The club is affiliated to the Norfolk County FA and are currently members of the Anglian Combination Division One. They play at The Highfield.

Norton Athletic F.C.

Nickname	The Millers
Founded	1920
League	Anglian Combination Division One
Home ground	The Highfield
Colours	Royal Blue and Yellow
President	Michael Fitzroy
Chairman	Nigel Hudson
Manager	Ben Burcham and Benji Smith
Secretary	Scott Yarham
Main sponsor	READ Bros Ltd
Norton2025

There’s evidence to suggest that Norton formed well before 1920! It appears to be that many teams ‘formed’ in 1920, largely due to the creation of the county FAs in 1920, perhaps to give those returning from the 1st World War something to burn all of their excess energy on?

Either way there’s records that certainly go back to 1909 or even 1887! We’re certainly a hundred years from Norton becoming an official club and registered with the County FA.

In the Eastern Daily Press on the 4th October 1909, in the “Other Matches” underneath all the individual league results it lists Norton and Thurlton as beating Freethope 3-1 away. Then another game on the 1st November beating Ditchingham Reserves at home 3-1 (Norfolk News this time) and on 29th December 1909 losing 2-0 away to Freethorpe again in the EDP. Then 15th Jan 1910 winning 3-0 against arch rivals Loddon Reserves (Norfolk News again).

The oldest record found appears to be 1887, 11th September in the Yarmouth Independant “…done by taking players from the obscurity of small clubs and playing them is a more enlightened sphere of Norton Football. I hope the melt will be the same in Perkins’ case, and I see no reason why it should not be”

Norton Athleitc are based at The Highfield Ground in Norton Subcourse.

The club has played on five pitches around Norton and Thurlton. Three, including the present pitch were on Loddon Road near Highfield Farm. One on Thompson’s Meadow along Norton Street and one behind College Road.

In about 1950 the present pitch down at The Highfield had some work done on it and a temporary pitch was used on the other side of the hedge.

The College Road pitch also came into use at this time. The minutes of the 1970/71 AGM show that at that time the club was considering playing in Norwich for a season while the present pitch was levelled, however this never happened.

There’s been four different eras to the the Norton changing rooms at The Highfield.

The first being referred to as ‘an old artifact’ or the ‘club’s dressing pavilion’ from 1921-1967. This was then replaced by proper brick changing rooms built in 1967 at a cost of over £1,500. It included 2 changing rooms, refreshment room, shower and washroom and ‘the usual facilities’. The newspaper article in the EDP on the 20th March 1967 highlighted

“A Population 300 but 250 helped out” referring to the overwhelming support from the local village providing half the funds. The other half coming from a local government grant, which would only be provided as long as Norton had a ‘long lease of the land’. Thanks to Sir Edmund Bacon they were able to have a long term agreement for 1 shilling per year. Norwich City manager Lol Morgan kindly agreed to send a City XI to mark the opening on Wednesday 26th April 1967 6pm.

“Suffice to say that while Norton’s resources are necessarily limited, their aspirations are boundless”

The 3rd changing rooms were a temporary facility provided by a local landlord and manager Les Cooke.

The recent changing room pavilion was opened on Sunday 2nd October 2016 by Suzie Fowler-Watt from Look East.

As of March 2016, the total available project funds were £97,000 (including £50,000 FF Football stadia improvement fund, £16,000 FA 11v11 fund, £12,000 Norton club funds, £5,000 Geoffrey Watling Charity and £6,000 from South Norfolk Council).

The plans were Submitted originally in April 2013 and approved, but then resubmitted in May 2014 as slightly enlarged by 3m2 so to comply with the FA requirements and allow us to tap in to their funding pots. Approval was eventually granted in July 2014.

The successful completion of these changing facilities to full FA specification enabled the club to achieve in 2019/20 the goal of returning to the Anglian Combination League after a 32 year absence.

In 2017 the Tea Hut was added to The Highfield after being purchased from Spixworth Football Club. They had left to join the Thurlow Nunn League as Norwich CBS. Norton paid £1,000 for purchase of it.

Norton have since added new dugouts and on the 28th September 2024, The Phil Hoadley stand was officially opened by his family.

The Millers currently play in yellow and royal blue but over the years the club colours have been blue and white stripes, blue and white quarters/halves, royal blue, white,maroon, black and white stripes, green and white and presently yellow and blue.

Football was played in Norton & Thurlton before the Great War; this would have been around 1910/12. However, due to the long working hours there was little time for games. The matches that were played took place on a field behind Thurlton rectory and a pasture behind Norton church, practice would often take place in moonlight.

After the war there were several young men who had an interest in football and cricket and a meeting was called. The inaugural meeting took place at Thurlton School around 1919/20. It was agreed to run football and cricket teams and the club was to be called The Norton and Thurlton Athletic Club. Some of the rules of the club were as follows;

“1 shilling a year to be paid at the General Meeting. 6/d per month during the football or cricket season. No player to play without suitable boots. Nets not to be used at practice. No player allowed to play unless he is a member of the club if other members are available”

Money was raised by whist drives, concerts and dances etc. At first these were held at the Thurlton School but when the village hall, known as ‘’the hut” was built they were held there.

In the early days the club played on a pasture at Highfield Farm on the opposite side of the road to where it plays now. However, there were disadvantages (which are not known) and the club moved over the road. At first, players used to cycle to matches but later on a bus was hired for which the club contributed £1, the players making up the difference.

The football team played in the Beccles Caxtonian League and in about 1921/22 they joined in the formation of the Reedham League. After one season in the Reedham League, where the club finished eighth, they returned to the Caxtonian League.

In 1929/30 Norton re-joined the Reedham League and finished in fourth place. At the end of the following season Norton joined the Yarmouth Borough League and surprised everyone by finishing runners up to Grouts Athletic thus gaining promotion. The club also reached the final of the Wiltshire Cup, having beaten league champions Caledonians FC in the semi-final. In the final Norton faced Rollesby at the Wellesley Stadium in Great Yarmouth and drew 1-1, the scorer was C Bean.

In the replay Norton fielded an unchanged team but after twenty minutes were reduced to ten men through injury. Rollesby opened the scoring but as in the first game C Bean levelled for Norton. Down to nine men throughout extra time Norton held on for a draw and the cup was shared with Norton receiving the winners medals and Rollesby the runners up. The crowd for the replay was 885 and the gate receipts £20 14s 6d.

The team that played in both games was; A Dobson A Fulcher J Littleboy H Fulcher E Colman L Grant W Fulcher J Colman R Catchpole C Bean and F Nursey

In their second season in division one Norton were crowned champions finishing a point clear of Gorleston Res. The next year Norton could only finish in fourth place. In the Wiltshire Cup the club reached the semi-final where they lost 2- 1 to Ormesby. The next two seasons saw Norton battle with Caledonians for the league championship only to finish runners up on both occasions. In the Wiltshire Cup however, it was Norton who held the upper hand. In 1934/35 Norton beat Caledonians 3-0 in the semi-final and St George’ s Men’s Society 4-2 to win the cup.

Norton also had a good run in the Norfolk Junior Cup beating Yarmouth YMCA 3-0 and Swaffham 7-4 before losing 4-2 against East Runton in the semi-final. Norton retained the Wiltshire Cup the following year beating Freethorpe 5-1. When the club left the Yarmouth League in 1936/37, the reserves, who had been promoted to division one made it three wins in a row for the cluq by beating Gorleston United 1-0.

East Anglian League

Forties And Fifties

Reformation And The Sixties

Historic 2024-2025 season

Norfolk County Cups

Anglian Combination League

Yarmouth Borough League

Lowestoft & District League

Lowestoft & District KO Cup

John Moore Shield Winners

Norton & Thurlton Invitation Cup

Raveningham Nursing Cup

Poringland Charity Cup

Loddon A Team Trophy

Bramfield Charity Cup

Lowestoft & District Referee’s Society Sporting Award

Norfolk and Suffolk Veterans League

Ronnie Moll Memorial Shield

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