A Trip to England’s 9th Tier: Penrith FC
A Trip to England’s 9th Tier: Penrith FC
A Trip to England’s 9th Tier: Penrith FC
Penrith Football Club, founded in 1894, are members of the Ebac Northern League Division One, the 9th tier the English league pyramid. In 2009, they relocated to a new stadium at Frenchfield Park after the development of Penrith New Squares took over the site of their historical home, Southend Road. Nathen McVittie grabbed his camera and propped it up right next to the pitch to experience Penrith FC for the first time.
In Nathen’s words: “Penrith is a pretty small town. The new stadium is only a five minute walk from my family’s house. I was trying to get to as many football games in England as I could before I had to fly back to New York, and it hit me that everything I had seen up to that point was of a fairly high standard. I wanted to capture something local, something gritty that captured the essence of non league football.
I wasn’t looking to capture immaculate photos, quite the opposite. I wanted to reflect exactly what I was seeing on the pitch– imperfection. It was actually my first ever Penrith game, even though I spent the best part of 20 years there. It was my Nick Hornby moment; I realized I would watch any game, anytime, anywhere.”
The photos are from the game against South Shields on the 12th of January 2013, and you can find the full collection of Nathen McVittie’s Penrith photos here. To be a part of the #whereisfootball project, just go outside with a camera and find the game.
