Lewes Football Club, nicknamed “The Rooks,” is a non-league football club based in Lewes, East Sussex.
Established in 1885, they currently compete in the Pitching In Isthmian League Premier Division, which is part of the seventh tier of English football. The team calls The Dripping Pan their home ground.
Founded in 1885 at The Royal Oak pub, Lewes Football Club started playing at The Dripping Pan, originally in light green shirts, switching to black and red in 1893. Early years were modest, leading to their founding membership in the Sussex County League in 1920. The 1960s marked a significant upturn, with the club winning the County League title in 1965 and multiple cups, then progressing through the Athenian League to the Isthmian League by 1976.
The 1980s saw some success, including a Sussex Senior Cup win in 1984/85, but the 1990s were challenging, culminating in relegation to Division Three. A revival began in the late 1990s, highlighted by a Sussex Senior Cup victory in 2001.
The 2000s brought mixed fortunes; the men’s team briefly reached the non-League top flight in 2007/08, while the women’s team, established in 2002, quickly ascended to the FA Women’s Premier League. In 2010, Lewes FC became a community-owned club. The men’s team competed in the Isthmian League, and the women’s team established themselves in elite leagues.
Significant off-field developments included launching the EqualityFC campaign in 2017 for equal budgets for men’s and women’s teams, and upgrading facilities with a new 3G all-weather pitch in 2015 and a state-of-the-art grass-hybrid pitch in 2022.