There was a football team operating in Tow Law as early as 1881, when a vicar captained the team. However, the club still playing today was founded as Tow Law in 1890. The club became one of the founding teams of the Auckland and District League in 1892, and won the Durham Amateur Cup the following year. They then joined the
Northern League in 1894. In 1896, they won the
Durham Challenge Cup. They left the Northern League, and played in the South Durham Alliance from 1900 to 1905. The club played in the Crook and District League from 1912 until 1914. After the end of
World War I in 1918, the club again played in the Auckland and District League until 1920, when they returned to the Northern League where they have played ever since. Tow Law were league winners in consecutive seasons in
1923–24 and
1924–25. In the
1967–68 season, the club had their best ever run in the
FA Cup. After reaching the first round proper, they beat
Mansfield Town 5–1 at Ironworks Road, and took
Shrewsbury Town to a second round replay after a 1–1 draw at home. The team went into the third round draw and were drawn against
Arsenal at home. However this never happened because they were beaten 6–2 by Shrewsbury in the replay. Arsenal were said to be
"saved from a fate worse than death – a trip to Tow Law in January." Tow Law Town were runners-up in the
1988–89 season, before finally winning the league again in
1994–95, sitting 14 points clear at the end of the season. In reaching the final, Tow Law, with its population of only 2,200, became the smallest town to ever reach a Wembley final. The team took around 4,000 supporters with them down to London, about twice the population of Tow Law at the time.
Sir Bobby Robson was raised a few miles away from Tow Law, in the village of
Langley Park. He had held the title of life president at the club, and had helped them out when they hit financial difficulties after the
2001 foot and mouth crisis, which devastated the local area. He was known to spend a lot of time on the club, attending fund raisers and giving talks. On 1 August 2009, the club held a
minute's silence before their game with
Workington, following his death the day before. At the end of the
2009–10 season, manager Dave Hagan and his assistant Eric Tate left the club. Hagan felt he could not operate a competitive team on the team's small budget, and so took up an assistant job at
Consett. Ian Davison, a player at the club, took up managerial duties, acting as a
player-manager, and appointing Gary Innes as his assistant. Steve Murray is the current Tow Law manager, taking up the role in December 2014. ==Colours and crest==