The origins of Nelson Football Club can be reputedly traced to a group of townspeople who in 1881, on witnessing a local football match between Burnley and Blackburn, were inspired to form their own team.

Nelson thus became founder members of the Third Division North in the Football League in 1921, a period which saw the finest achievement in the club's history.

Unfortunately Nelson's time in Division Two was to be short-lived, lasting just the one season in which they finished second-bottom of the table.

Nelson struggled on in the Lancashire Combination without winning any honours, and things became much more bleak in 1936.

Nelson joined the Third Division of the newly created North West Counties League - an amalgamation of the Lancashire Combination and Cheshire County League - in 1981/82.