During season 2009/10, Bury Football Club will be celebrating its 125th anniversary and today the club can announce major changes to the clubs look.

From 01 July 2009 and for the 2009/10 season only, the club will use the newly designed club crest.  Designed by ardent Shakers supporter Nick Hunsley, the new crest is a combination of the old 'V' Shaped badge and the current club crest.  The crest will be used on all kits and club stationery from 01 July 2009.

"It was a huge job, and a real honour, I hope I've come up with something fellow Shakers will love.  I think the representation of the FA cup wins will go down really well.  It's been a fantastic opportunity, and I'm really proud to have played a part in the 125 years of history at Gigg" said a delighted Nick Hunsley this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Shakers Commercial Manager Peter Young added:  "I hope our supporters embrace the concept of the new crest and I would like to say a big thank you to Nick for his work on the design.  We are very proud to be celebrating 125 years of Bury Football Club and we will be announcing more initiatives and events shortly."

The new club crest retains many of the features used on the existing crest.  It shows a bee for industry between two branches of the cotton plant.  A major addition to the crest is the two gold stars representing our success in two FA Cup Finals more than a century ago.  The popular 'V-Shaped Badge' returns to the club logo, though we are using the 'V' as a 'V for Victory against all odds' after the club overcame overwhelming obstacles in recent years.

The various images contained in the crest are the anvil representing metalwork, a fleece representing wool, two shuttles representing the textile industry and culms of the papyrus plant that represent the papermaking industry.  All are industries that have been heavily linked with the town of Bury for centuries.

The Latin phrase 'Vincit - Omnia - Industria' is translated to read Hard Work Conquers All, which is true now as it's ever been.

All media outlets will receive a digital copy of the new crest over the summer months in plenty of time for the new season, meanwhile, we've uploaded the new look crest as a desktop wallpaper, and this is available to download now in various sizes.  Click on your respective desktop resolution for the new crest wallpaper - 800 x 600 or 1024 x 800.  Other sizes will be available later in the week once we have the wallpapers micro site updated

Other ideas to celebrate the anniversary are being developed such as a new website detailing the entire clubs history with complete stats on every player to have represented the Shakers at first team level, all the games, all the stats and much more.  A 125th anniversary dinner is also being planned as well as various other key celebrations throughout the season.

The Shakers match day programme will also take on a 'retro' look with many of the cover designs used in the last 125 years making a re-appearance throughout the season.  However, for the last nine years, we've kept a copy of all programmes released by the club; this is something that has been sporadically done in the past.  The earliest programme currently held in the club is from the early 60's.  We'd like to take that back further and complete a unique shakers programme collection that can be held by the club as part of its deep history.

If you have old programmes that are cluttering your house and need to make space, please think about donating old programmes back to the club.  Alternatively, if you are able to 'scan' old programme covers, especially pre-1960 covers  (ideally in high resolution) for us so that we can re-create them for the anniversary season, then please get in touch.

A mass player's re-union is also planned with as many former Shakers attending the anniversary game.  The exact date for the anniversary is 24 April 2010, which will ideally fall on a Saturday.  Hopefully fixture planners will arrange a home game, and hopefully a game for all Shakers fans to celebrate the long history of the club.

The club are also written to several premier league clubs asking for a pre-season game at Gigg Lane in order to start the celebrations with as high a profile as possible

Further details of the anniversary celebrations will be revealed later in the season or over the summer months.