| Full name | Ayr Parkhouse Football Club |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1886 |
| Dissolved | 1910 |
Ayr Parkhouse Football Club were a football club from the town of Ayr in Scotland. The club was a member of the Scottish Football League until 1910, when they merged with neighbours Ayr F.C. to form Ayr United.
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Ayr Parkhouse were formed in 1886 and took their name from the Parkhouse farmhouse where the club's players trained. They initially played their home games at Ballantine Drive, before moving to the Ayr Racecourse ground. In 1888 Ayr vacated the better developed Beresford Park, and Ayr Parkhouse moved in, where they played for the remainder of their existence. In 1891 they joined the Ayrshire Football League, but moved onto the Ayrshire Football Combination in 1893, of which they were founder members along with Ayr with whom they would develop a healthy rivalry.
Before turning professional for Tottenham Hotspur, Walter Tull (28 April 1888 - 25 March 1918), the UK's first professional black footballer and commissioned army officer, played in the early 1900s for Parkhouse. Around this time the Scottish Football Association sanctioned the advent of professionalism. However, Ayr Parkhouse took the decision to remain a faithfully amateur club, only turning professional in 1905. Despite the club's amateur status, they competed well in their league and performed well in Scottish Cup competition, reaching the quarter finals of the competition in season 1894–95, where they fell to that year's runners-up Renton.
Local success continued, but the rivalry that was built up with Ayr ceased to have a regular outlet when that club were admitted to membership of the Scottish Football League in 1897. Ayr Parkhouse's ambitions were beginning to outgrow their local successes and the club's early amateur fuelled hostility to membership of the professional Scottish Football League was waning. In 1901 they unsuccessfully applied for membership, but after finishing second in the Scottish Amateur Football League the following year they managed to get elected to full league status in 1903, just ahead of St. Johnstone. Their initial season in the league was a disaster. They finished bottom of Division Two and therefore had to reapply for membership, but they declined to do so.[1] Aberdeen were elected instead.
After two seasons outwith the league, playing instead in the Scottish Football Combination, Ayr Parkhouse were accepted back into the Second Division in 1906.[1] The club performed without much distinction in the following four seasons.[1] At the end of the 1909–10 season, Ayr and Ayr Parkhouse merged to form Ayr United.[1]
Somerset Park, the home of Ayr F.C., became the primary home ground of Ayr United.[1] Beresford Park remained in use for some time after 1910 and was used by Ayr United during the First World War.[1]
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