| Clubname: | Vale of Avon |
| Nickname: | the Vale |
| Founded: | 1880 |
| Dissolved: | 1886 |
| Ground: | Grierson's Holm |
| Owntitle: | President |
| Owner: | George Stewart |
| Chrtitle: | Match Secretary |
| Chairman: | James Campbell |
| Mgrtitle: | Captain |
| Manager: | James Grainger |
| Pattern Name1: | 1883–84 |
| Pattern La1: | _thinnavyhoops |
| Pattern B1: | _thinnavyhoops |
| Pattern Ra1: | _thinnavyhoops |
| Pattern So1: | _hoops_navy |
| Shorts1: | FFFFFF |
| Socks1: | _hoops_navy |
| Pattern Name2: | 1884–85 |
| Pattern La2: | _thin_blackhoops |
| Pattern B2: | _thin_blackhoops |
| Pattern Ra2: | _thin_blackhoops |
| Pattern So2: | _hoops_black |
| Leftarm2: | FFFFFF |
| Body2: | FFFFFF |
| Rightarm2: | FFFFFF |
| Shorts2: | 000080 |
| Socks2: | FFFFFF |
Vale of Avon Football Club was an association football club from Strathaven, Lanarkshire.
The club was formed on 1 April 1880, at a meeting at the Good Templars' Hall.[1] It was effectively a replacement for the defunct Avondale and eventually rented a ground from the former honorary secretary of Avondale (James Grierson).[2]
The club played at a junior level for its first three seasons, one match with Carluke being ended after 20 minutes because of "the very quarrelsome nature of the Vale team",[3] or, alternatively, because the Carluke team left the field in protest at having a goal disallowed.[4]
It was admitted to the Scottish Football Association in August 1883,[5] in time to enter the 1883–84 Scottish Cup, and drew a bye into the second round, but scratched when paired with Benhar.[6]
The club claimed a successful 1883–84 season with 10 wins, 2 draws, and 1 defeat,[7] the one loss coming in the club's only Lanarkshire Cup entry, 3–1 at Albion Rovers.[8] Despite this ostensible success, the club scratched from the 1884–85 Scottish Cup after being drawn against the much smaller Airdriehill. [9]
The club's somewhat pointless run as a senior team ended in 1885 when it did not renew its Scottish FA membership.[10] It continued once more at a junior level until the 1885–86 season,[11] but before the 1886–87 season could get underway, fell apart amid a welter of recrimination; the club did not convene a meeting to approve the club accounts,[12] and, despite the committee's assertion that the club "is not dead: it merely sleepeth",[13] it never re-started.
The earliest known colours for the club are navy and white jersey and hose, and white knickers.[14] In 1884 it changed to black and white jersey and hose, with blue knickers.[15]
After playing on public fields for a season, the club found a more permanent location in August 1881 on a field owned by a Mr Semple in Westfield.[16] In May 1882[17] the club acquired a lease of Grierson's Holm, half-a-mile from Strathaven railway station.[18]