Shaftesbury Football Club, nicknamed “The Rockies,” is a non-league football club based in Shaftesbury, Dorset.
Established in 1888, they currently compete in the Pitching In Southern Football League Division One South, which is part of the eighth tier of English football. The team calls Cockrams their home ground.
The club achieved early success by winning the league cup in 1900 and the League Title in the 1905/06 season. By 1908/09, the club had formed a reserve side and a mid-week league side named Shaftesbury Wednesday. The first youth team, Shaftesbury Athletic, was introduced in the early 1920s. In the 1932/33 season, the club won the Dorset Senior League, and its most prosperous period occurred in the 1940s and 1950s with 12 cup victories over a decade.
In 1974, Shaftesbury relocated to Cockrams, where they continue to play today, albeit in a slightly different spot due to the construction of a Tesco supermarket. Over the years, they collected numerous titles, including the League Cup in 1976, League Championship and Combination Cup in 1988/89, Combination Cup in 1994/95, and the League title in 1996/97. The club entered the Wessex League in 2004/05 and made its debut in the FA Vase in 2005/06 and the FA Cup in 2006/07. They rejoined the Dorset Premier League in 2011/12, marking a period of significant growth and improvement.
The 2015/16 season saw Shaftesbury win the Dorset Premier League under new management, earning promotion to the Wessex League Division 1. In 2016/17, they returned to the Wessex League, achieving a top-three finish that led to promotion to the Wessex Premier League for the 2017/18 season. The club maintained its status in the Wessex Premier League, reached the Dorset Senior Final, and won the Salisbury Hospital Cup, marking a notable period of success in the club’s history.