Cadbury Heath Football Club is a football club based in Cadbury Heath, South Gloucestershire, England. Affiliated to the Gloucestershire County FA, they are currently members of the Western League Premier Division and play at Springfield.

The club was first established in 1894 as Cadbury Heath Adult School (later to be known as Cadbury Heath Primary School) when Cadbury Heath was just a little narrow, one-street village, way outside the boundaries of Bristol.

Our first pitch was situated at Mill Lane, changing in the Social Club and heating up water for tin baths. With a break for the War years, and the transferring to what is now Coronation Park, we progressed from the Bristol & District League to Division Two of the Bristol Premier Combination, and then to Division One in 1961 after winning the GFA Junior Cup in 1950.

In the 60’s the team (only a first team then) built their own baths at the Social Club. The period of success coincided with the renting of our present ground – Springfield – for £10 per annum from a local farmer and President Jim Warner. This was then an open pasture land with cows, a rope had to be put around the playing area. It had no electricity, water or drainage. The tea bar was a garden shed. The offer to purchase the ground for £250 was shortsightedly declined, as the field was later sold as part of a major development and only intense lobbying by the then Chairman, Mike Packer, persuaded the Council to allocate Springfield as part of Public Open Space leased to the football club for dual use. This has meant that we have not been entirely masters of our own destiny.

The club became founder members of the Gloucestershire County League in 1968 and won the Championship in 1971-72, 1972-73, 1973-74 and were runners-up in 1974-75 and at the same time winning the GFA Amateur Cup in 1972-73, 1973-74 and 1974/75 under Ralph Miller’s management. The success pushed the club into joining the Midland Combination after being turned down by the Western League due to the dressing rooms being situated too far from the pitch (what is now the Social Club bottle store). A stand was built for the requirement of the Midland Combination (with tea bar). After finishing fifth and reaching the Quarter Finals of the FA Vase with a crowd of 2,000 at Springfield for the match and more listening live on the local Radio Bristol for the tie against Billericay Town from Essex, the manager left after a disagreement with the committee and took most of the players to Cinderford Town. This shook the club to the core, and we were relegated after finishing bottom of the Midland Combination in the 1976/77 season and had to drop two divisions to the Avon Premier Combination (we were founder members) as there was no “pyramid system” in force.

A slow recovery took place, with half-time rooms being built and then a terrapin to provide on-pitch dressing rooms and, taking advantage of newly laid drains for the new houses, a water supply and electricity for training floodlights were also added. Cadbury Heath were elected back into the Gloucestershire County League in 1980. After finishing in the bottom half of the table every season during the 1980s, the club were league runners-up in 1990–91 and again the following season.

A Reserve Team was started in 1988 ran by John Clarke formed from the Cadbury Heath YMCA. The managers in this period were Bob Williams, Dave Pitman, Les Allen, John Harris, Andy Stone, Keith Cottrell, Brian Knighton, Mike Ratcliffe and Chris Stone.

We celebrated our Centenary by wining the County League Championship for the fifth time in 1993/94 under the consistent management of Brian Knighton and we continued to dominate the league once again. The club were runners-up again in 1995–96 and then won back-to-back league titles in 1997–98 and 1998–99. Continued improvement on and off the field saw new dressing rooms being built on the ground in 1997, a youth academy started under Malcolm Knowlson and a new terrapin replaced the one for the youth section formed from an amalgamation with local youth football club, Grimsbury Rangers.

After finishing as runners-up in 1999–00, they won the Gloucestershire County League for a record sixth time 2000/01, under the management of Andy Black. An application to join the Western League was again turned down due to the lack of a fence surrounding the ground. Andy then left the club to join Bitton and Steve Plenty was appointed manager a long with Lee Knighton.

After a public open meeting and a long battle with the Council, the pitch fence was finally erected at a cost of £15,000 funded by the club. Steve and Lee’s first season in charge got us runners-up spot, of which consequently secured our promotion to the Western League at long last! After 2 seasons in charge, Steve Plenty stood down as manager due to family commitments and Lee Knighton took over the hot-seat for a season and then and then the reigns were handed over to his assistant, Glen Smart, who consolidated our position for four seasons. Lee Knighton took over as First Team manager for a second spell and appointed Andy Weeks as his assistant in season 2005/06, the same year that Steve Plenty became Chairman when Dave Smart stood down.

After 5 years of planning tribulations, floodlights were successfully installed at the end of the 2008/09 season as phase 1 of the ground redevelopment plan, thanks largely to the efforts of Chairman Steve Plenty. The Heath and the Social Club went their separate ways in season 2011/12. Andy Black joined the club for his third spell season 2010/11 appointing Glen Smart as his assistant culminating in the Western League First Division Championship and promotion to the Premier Division in season 2011/12.

Then followed two good seasons (2012/13 and 2013/14) in the Premier Division whilst the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons were a period of trying to rebuild the side after most of the original players either retired or moving on to a higher level of football. Phase 2 of the ground redevelopments is in the planning stage which is for a new dressing room facility incorporating a new clubhouse and a new 100-seat stand with a covered area for a further 100. During season 2015/16, Roger Coke joined the club as a coach. The Heath reached the 2nd Round of the FA Vase in 2015/16.

Season 2016/17 started with a new first team coach in Phil Bater (ex-Bristol Rovers) and the introduction of an Under 18 side who would be playing in the Bristol & Glos U18 league. Mid-season, Rob Mallet joined the coaching staff to assist Andy Black and Glen Smart. The 2016/17 season ended successfully with the Heath winning the GFA Challenge Trophy, beating Fairford Town on penalties in the Final. At the end of the 2016-17 season, Andy Black resigned as manager and became Director of Football, with Rob Mallet replacing him as manager. The Heath reached the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup in 2016/17.

The 2017/18 season started well with excellent runs in the FA Cup and FA Vase but the team struggled in the league, midway through the season Rob Mallet was replaced by Andy Black as First Team manager and the club steered itself away from the relegation zone.

Andy Black, assisted by Glenn Smart, remained in charge for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons steering The Heath to 14th and 17th positions in the Toolstation Western League. The club continued to do well in the Cup Competitions, reaching the FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round in 2019/20.

Andy Black returned to his position of Director of Football for the start of the 2020/21 season, with Mitch Hodge taking over as first team manager, assisted by Ollie Price. After some good early season League form we started to struggle for form with an revolving door of players resulting in us not being able to achieve a settled side. The season was cut short in late October 2021 as COVID and national lock downs closed out the football season. Mitch left just prior to he start of the 2021/22 season.

Heath legends George Boon and Matt Huxley agreed to take over first team duties, combining management with continuing their playing careers at Springfield. They were joined by David Doe to form a trio of joint managers which worked well, especially when Aaron Day returned to the club initially as a coach in Dec 21 and then as Assistant Manager. There was a huge overhaul of the squad at the start of the season and our League form was patchy as we struggled for consistency and languished near the football of the table. That all changed in Dec 21 when the playing side clicked under the new management team and we went unbeaten at home from Jan 2022 which saw us to a respectable 15th place in the table. This late season form saw us hit the Les Phillips League Cup fixtures at the right time and we had a superb run to the Final, narrowly losing 1-0 to Bridgwater United in the Final played at Wells.

We go into the 2022/23 season with the nucleus of last seasons squad and are looking to take our late season form into the new season in the Toolstation Western League Premier Division.

Cadbury Heath FC

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