| Organising body | The Football League |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1921 |
| Folded | 1958 |
| Country | England |
| Other club from | Wales |
| Number of clubs | 20 (1921–1923) 22 (1923–1950) 24 (1950–1958) |
| Level on pyramid | 3 |
| Promotion to | Second Division |
| Domestic cup | FA Cup |
| League cup(s) | Third Division North Cup (1933–1939, 1945–1946) |
| Last champions | Scunthorpe United (1957–58) |
| Most championships | Doncaster Rovers, Lincoln City (3 titles) |
TheThird Division North ofthe Football League was a tier in theEnglish football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with theThird Division South with clubselected to the League orrelegated from a higher division allocated to one or the other according to geographical position. Some clubs in theEnglish Midlands shuttled between the Third Division North and the Third Division South according to the composition of the two leagues in any one season.
The Third Division South had been created in 1921 from theThird Division formed the previous year made up of 22 teams drawn mostly from theSouthern League. It was decided that this gave the Football League overall too much of a southern bias, so the Third Division North was created in 1921–22 to redress the balance.Stockport County had finished bottom of the Second Division at the end of the 1920–21 season, and they were relegated into this new division, where they joinedGrimsby Town who had spent a season in theThird Division after relegation from the Second Division in 1919–20. As there was no northern equivalent of theSouthern League, the remaining 18 teams came from several regional leagues: theMidland League,the Central League, theNorth Eastern League, theLancashire Combination and theBirmingham & District League.
The original 20 teams were: Stockport County,Darlington, Grimsby Town,Hartlepools United,Accrington Stanley,Crewe Alexandra,Stalybridge Celtic,Walsall,Southport,Ashington,Durham City,Wrexham,Chesterfield,Lincoln City,Barrow,Nelson,Wigan Borough,Tranmere Rovers,Halifax Town andRochdale. The division was extended by a further two teams in 1923 to take the total to 22, and for the 1950–51 season the division was expanded to 24 clubs, withScunthorpe & Lindsey United andShrewsbury Town joining.[1][2]
Only one promotion place was available each season from the Third Division North to theSecond Division, which made it very difficult to win promotion. Eight teams, Accrington Stanley, Barrow, Crewe Alexandra, Halifax Town, Hartlepools United, Rochdale, Southport and Wrexham, were ever-present in the division for the 30 years of its existence. Of the teams that played in Third Division North,Wolverhampton Wanderers andDerby County were laterEnglish football champions.
Its final season was 1957–58, after which the North and South sections were merged to form a singleThird Division and theFourth Division. The top 12 clubs in Division Three North, except for the ChampionsScunthorpe United, went into the new Third Division, and the bottom 12 clubs went into the Fourth Division.
From 1934 to the outbreak of World War II there was a short-lived knockout competitionFootball League Third Division North Cup.
From the 1954–55 season until the 1957–58 season, there was aseries of games between teams representing the Third Division North and the Third Division South.