FEETHAMS has been Darlington Football Club's home beside the River Skerne for 120 years - which is appropriate as the Norse word 'feethams' means 'home on the riverside meadow'.

The club was formed on July 20, 1883, and played its first couple of games in North Lodge Park. A few months later, it moved to Feethams where the ground's riverside roots gave the players their first nickname: "the Skernesiders". The ground itself is 20 years older than the Skernesiders and belongs to Darlington Cricket Club.

Until 1866, the cricketers had played in Park Street near the pub which still bears their name. Then, John Beaumont Pease - who lived in Feethams House where the new Town Hall is today - allowed them to rent part of his pasture beside the river. The cricketers called in Silas Usher of York. He culverted the stream that meandered across Feethams, and cut into the bank (which is why Safeway's car park is so much higher than the pitch) to create a level playing field.

He then transplanted 80 square feet of turf from the old ground at Park Street and the cricketers were soon in business. All for £75.

This was a period of great sporting enthusiasm in Northern industrial towns and the cricketers were soon sharing their Feethams home with an athletics club, a donkey derby, a bicycle club, lawn tennis players, swimmers (who had annual race along the Skerne from Victoria Road to South Park), rugby players and even lacrosse players from Canada.

When Darlington Football Club was formed, it naturally sought premises among the other sportsmen at Feethams - and quickly became the most successful of the lot.

Indeed, there was success of sorts in the club's very first season as Feethams enjoyed her first taste of Cup glory. The Skernesiders reached the final of the Durham FA Challenge Cup, beating Stanley Park 8-0 at home (possibly North Lodge Park) in the first round. They had a bye in the second before beating Bishop Auckland Church Institute 2-1 at home (probably Feethams) in the third. The semi-final against Sedgefield Wasps went to a replay, Darlington winning 4-1.

The final was against Sunderland at Monkwearmouth Old Cricket Ground, in front of 2,500 spectators. "A most unpleasant match was awarded to Sunderland by four goals to three," reported The Northern Echo. But Darlington protested about the referee's decisions and - sensationally - their protest was up-held.

Durham FA ordered the game to be replayed in Birtley, Sunderland winning 2-0.

But the Cup run gave football a kick-start in Darlington, and in October 1884, the cricketers had to acquire another of Mr Pease's fields so that Feethams could host two football matches simultaneously.

That season, Darlington's first team played 26 matches and its second team 18 matches. None, though, can have been more keenly anticipated that Feethams' first major footballing event of her 120 years: the 1884-85 Durham FA Challenge Cup final.

Imagine the atmosphere among the 1,000 spectators as the finalists were again Sunderland and Darlington.

After the previous year's shenanigans, this was a more gentlemanly affair. Sunderland put through their own net early doors and Kelso increased the Skernesiders' lead with an "unstoppable shot" in the 20th minute. In the second half "a centre by Glover enabled Wright and Kelso to score". Despite the confusing reporting, this made it 3-0 to Darlington and although Sunderland lodged a tit-for-tat protest on the final whistle, Feethams had won her first piece of silverware.

The goalkeeper that day was Arthur "Darkie" Wharton.

He may even have celebrated by swinging from the crossbar and catching the ball beneath his knees.

Born in Ghana, educated in Darlington, Darkie was the first man ever to run 100 yards in ten seconds - so the Skernesiders stuck him between the sticks.

Darkie was also there when Feethams had her first brush with the FA Cup in 1887, when Darlington beat Elswick Rangers 4-3 after extra-time in the second round, and lost before 3,000 fans to Shankhouse in the third.

However, when Darlington became founder members of the Northern League in 1889, Darkie was at Preston North End, the first professional black footballer. In September of that year, the first proper stand was erected at Feethams: a galvanised sheet roof held up by 12 iron pillars. All for £200.

Darlington were now established, although Feethams wasn't secure because in 1894 the Pease family wanted to build houses over the riverside meadow.

They'd planned them out: there was Abbeyville Terrace, Rose Bank Place, Myrtle Grove, Meadow Street and, best of all, Daisy Dell. Running perpendicular to them, beside the Skerne, was River Parade.

It took the cricket club eight years to raise the £5,000 required to make Feethams the Skernesiders' permanent home for the next century or so.

Darlington turned professional in 1908 and moved into the North Eastern League where they were playing in 1910-11 when Feethams witnessed what was to be the greatest FA Cup run of her life.

Having played five qualifying rounds - beating Hartlepools United, Wingate Albion, Bishop Auckland, Shildon and Blackwell Colliery - Darlington became the first non-league side to win away at a First Division club - a feat that was not equalled for more than 60 years until Wimbledon beat Burnley.

They beat Sheffield United 1-0 at Bramall Lane and returned to Feethams in triumph to take on Bradford Park Avenue in front of 12,030 people.

Kick-off was brought forward by a few minutes because so many people were in the ground.

Some were up telegraph poles, others clinging to rooftops. "A few had just mounted a wall at the Park end of the ground when the tenant of the adjoining property threw bucketfuls of water at them," reported the Echo.

Within seconds of the game starting, the hastily-erected fence around the pitch collapsed, but no one was hurt.

The Skernesiders - who were just beginning to be known as the Quakers - won 2-1, before going out at Feethams to Swindon Town in the following round.

The star of that Cup run was the local dentist RG Brebner filling in between the sticks. He was the only amateur in the team and he crowned his heroics by moving on to Chelsea. He represented England in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics but the following season was so badly injured playing for Leicester Fosse that he died.

Brebner, Wharton and all those early Skernesiders who made their home on the riverside meadow would be quite forlorn at saying farewell to Feethams - but beside themselves at not having the chance to play in such an impressive arena as the new Neasham Road stadium.