Club History

Football, like life, is full of ups and downs and nowhere is this more evident than in the history of Chelmsford City Football Club. In under thirty short years the famous non league club went from Southern League champions, playing in front of crowds in excess of 16,000 in the third round of the FA Cup to a less desirable position – homeless and on the verge of going out of business. They say a football club's heartbeat is the fans, this statement is remarkably true when describing the roller coaster ride that City have been on since 1997.

Anyone of a certain age will have seen Chelmsford compete against sides that have progressed to league football – Oxford Utd, Colchester, Gillingham, Wimbledon & Cambridge Utd among others. Other younger fans will still have seen City line up against sides such as Rushden & Cheltenham that also progressed to the Football League. City unfortunately have never progressed to the dizzy heights of the national leagues, this was not for the want of trying as a succession of Chairmen went after this dream.

Unlike the pyramid system that exists in football today the only way of promotion in the earlier part of City’s history was by election to the league. This system was unkind on City as they were beaten time after time by clubs that either boasted larger gates or more headline exploding cup runs. City were excluded from applying for election during a period when the club was in its prime a time when City boasted a team, stadium & assets that were the envy of every non league club, and many league clubs as well.

Due to a loophole in Football League law transfer listed players could leave for free to a non league team matching their current wages. This loophole was exploited by every non league side capable of funding such a move, this backfired on City however when Wolves complained to the Football League after City signed Bobby Mason in 1962. The league sided with Wolves and City were banned from applying for election for five long years.

Professional football kicked off in Chelmsford in 1938, however football in the amateur form had been played in the town since 1878, with the old amateur team playing at a host of venues before settling in at New Writtle Street in 1922. The inaugural season of professional football in the town also saw the most successful run in the FA Cup to date with the team reaching the 4th round. A crowd of 44,154 saw City lose to Birmingham 6-0, however the people of Chelmsford had seen enough to be proud in the earlier rounds where both Darlington & Southampton among others were seen off. A league finish of 10th was also achieved in this first season.

World War II then caused a break in competitions up until 1945/46, a season that saw City lift the Southern League & League Cup competitions. Football was now in a post war boom period, it was during this period that a footballer many regard to be the finest ever player to pull on a City shirt also became the first player to command a transfer fee. £2,000 was spent on Frank Soo in 1948/49 bringing him into an already star studded line up. This decade also saw the NWS record attendance when 16,807 crammed into the ground to see City draw with local rivals Colchester United.

The 50s saw an end to this boom, gates dropped and with it the success. The winning of the Essex Professional Cup in 1957/58 was the only shining light of the decade. It was during this decade that the first signs of financial problems became apparent, something that the club was never to fully shake off for the rest of its history at New Writtle Street.

The 60s started with a bang when in 1960 City lifted the League Cup for the second time in it's short history. It was during this period that the club was in its peak of powers, seen as the ‘Bank of England Club’ by many due to the money pumped into the club by ambitious chairman John Coward. He had a master plan, which was simple in its goal – league football. Like many football clubs have experienced since, money doesn’t always guarantee success, or in this case league football. Plans were drawn up to rebuild NWS to become a stadium for the whole town and one of envy to local league teams, however this like many other plans in the future was a non starter. Work on the ground during the decade, aside from any planned redevelopment left the stadium at its peak. The FA Cup proved to be fruitful yet again when the club reached the 2nd round in 1967/68, losing to Colchester United, but knocking out Oxford Utd on the way.

The 70s like the decade it followed began with a bang, the club reached the semi final of a new competition designed to be the FA Cup for Non League sides – The FA Trophy. It was during this time that the club merged with a successful local side – Brentwood Town FC. It was hoped that a combination of knowledge and power from both sides would held the push for league football. Success was immediate as the Southern League title was won in 1971/72 and followed the following season by a glamour 3rd round FA Cup tie against Ipswich Town. 15,557 fans squeezed into NWS to see City go down with a fight 3-1. During this season City hired a PR company to boost their reputation and chances of election to the league. Financial problems then took a hold of the club for the rest of the decade greatly affecting the on field performances. Despite these problems the club still found two famous faces pulling on the City shirt before the end of the decade – a young Nigel Spink and a not so young Jimmy Greaves.

The end of the decade saw a reverse of the earlier fortunes with the club suffering its first relegation when it lost its Premier Division status in 1976/77. With the 80s fast approaching the heady days of bumper crowds and election campaigns were a distant memory.

With a reorganisation of the non leagues City found themselves back in the Premier Division in 1982/83 and a finish of 4th was well earned. The 2nd round of the FA Cup was also reached in two out of the next three seasons as City strived to regain their place in the top division of Non League football, now branded the Alliance League. 1985/86 saw a second place finish in the Southern Premier, so close but so far away from that top division goal. This was to be the highlight of the decade in terms of league finishes as once again in 1987/88 City slipped into the second rung of Southern Division football. All was not lost when the following season City swept everyone aside to race to the Southern League Southern Division Title, amassing over one hundred goals including an 8-0 victory over Erith & a 9-0 victory over Ruislip. The following season plans were unveiled to redevelop NWS, demolition work on the famous barn took place unfortunately planning permission was not sort for the redevelopment and another major scheme was brushed under the CCFC carpet.

The 90s became the most infamous decade in CCFC’s history. The decade started well with the lifting of the League Cup in 1990/91. However this was one of few highlights in a decade that saw the club become homeless and forced to share with Billericay & Maldon. The summer of 94 saw Trevor Wright and his board rip the club away from the jaws of obscurity and put the club back on the rails – with one storm cloud floating above its head, the ownership, or lack of, of NWS. This lack of ownership was to result in the club being evicted from NWS after the first home game of 1997/98, a season that also saw them return to the second tier of the Southern League. Maldon Town was the destination for the first half of the season, Maldon had just moved into a new stadium on the promenade and many City fans would be forgiven for thinking that it was in fact on the promenade in Iceland such were the temperatures in winter.

A disagreement between the two boards left City again without a ground to call ‘home’ however thankfully Billericay Town offered City the chance to share at their ground – New Lodge. This was not without event however when in 1997/98 City finish 2nd in the Southern League Southern Division, only to be denied promotion by a technicality that saw their landlords gain promotion untested in the Ryman League.

Two major planning applications were put forward during the clubs exile from the town, one at Sandon in conjunction with a leisure facility the other at Beaulieu Park. Both of these applications didn’t get beyond the drawing board and City fans were left to wonder if they would ever return to the Borough.

City finally gained promotion in the new Millennium when New Lodge was given an A grade listing by the Southern League, this alongside a 2nd place finish meant Premier Division football finally beckoned again for the Clarets. A switch to Ryman League football in 2004/05 brought more local derbies and a road home. Chelmsford Borough Council had agreed, pending the club gaining the necessary funding and improving the site that City could come home to play at the Athletics Stadium at Melbourne Park. This was finally payback for the fans, board and most of all the unpaid volunteers that had kept the club running when most would have folded. So in January 2006 City finally came back to the borough and an absence of over 8 years was forgotten when an opening day crowd of 2,998 saw the famous claret shirts run out in the Borough.

Finally the club can look to the future, the major worry of finding a home is over and the club go looking to complete something that it missed out on time and again in its heyday – promotion to the Football League.
Grounds

A football stadium often reflects the state of a club both on and off the field. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the history of Chelmsford City, and the four grounds it’s called home. For many of us aged under thirty we have little or no recollection of the big crowds that City used to pull in at New Writtle Street (NWS), nor will we ever sample the electric atmosphere of the Monday nights under floodlights during the 60s and 70s. Aside from one 2,000 plus crowd in a 90s FA Cup replay v VS Rugby, the decade that saw the decline of the famous stadium also mirrored the 80s in failing to bring the crowds and success back to NWS.

With the birth of professional football in the town in 1938, a revamped NWS was unveiled to the fans. NWS had been used by the club during its amateur days along with fields that are now Marconi’s in New Street and the Meadows shopping centre off the High Street. Huge crowds turned out for the early years at NWS. It was during these early days that the record attendance figure for a game at NWS was set, a crowd of 16,807 crammed into NWS to see City take on local rivals Colchester Utd. Most clubs at the Ryman level would kill for that as a season total now!

NWS, in its prime, mirrored the team that trod its turf, they were both well turned out and ready for league football. The ground like the club was the envy of every other non league club, and lower league clubs too. During the 50s and 60s the club had developed NWS to such an extent that it now had covering on three sides of the ground, a stand that held 1,500, floodlights and a social club. During this time crowds of 4,000 plus were the norm, cup ties and games against rivals such as Colchester and Romford saw crowds of up to 9,000.

It was during this boom time that the first sounds were being made regarding redevelopment of the NWS site. The plans, over the years included building a stadium that included office space, squash courts, a swimming pool – all looking good on paper but never coming to any fruition. The majority of these plans involved turning the pitch round 90 degrees to make best use of the site, this of course in the late 80s saw the beginning of the end of NWS.

The early 70s saw the crowds and the silverware return to NWS, another decent FA Cup run saw the club pull in 15,557 for a 3rd round tie against Ipswich Town. This was the last time the ground would see a crowd of this magnitude as the ground like the crowds deteriorated well into the 80s. The little money that was available during this period saw new floodlights erected in the early 80s and a brief upturn in fortunes on the playing front soon after.

The ground was now in need of major work, part of the barn roof was ripped off in the storm of 87, this was followed by the total demolition of the stand in 89 as part of a redevelopment of the ground that was never to happen. This, and the safety restrictions brought in following the Hillsborough disaster reduced the capacity of the ground to less than 3,000. A crowd of 3,000 was seen as a disappointment in most of the clubs history, let alone a ground capacity.

As the club lurched from one crisis to another during the ill fated 90s, the future of the ground, now not even owned by the club, became bleak. A stay of execution allowed the club to complete the 95/96 season at the ground, which would be the last full season the club completed at their spiritual home. Plans were unveiled during this season for a multi million pound sport and leisure park on the outskirts of the town at Sandon. The following season saw the club kicked out of its home after the opening home game and a bleak period in the clubs history followed.

The club moved to the Essex coast and began a ground share with Maldon Town at their new, but hardly ideal Park Drive stadium. Many fans though that it couldn’t get any worse for the club, not only did the fans have to brave the very cold conditions at their new ‘home’ they also had to face the prospect that they wouldn’t be returning home as quickly as they thought. Plans for the development at Sandon were thrown out, much to the frustration of the clubs hardworking board. More bad news was to follow, as the club fell out with its landlords and ended up having to look elsewhere for a ‘home’.

Luckily for the club another local side Billericay Town offered to accommodate the team, so in February 98 the club moved on again. Billericay’s New Lodge was a stadium fit for the standard of football, but like Park Drive hardly ideal for a club of Chelmsford's stature. The late 90s saw another planned move back home to the borough, this time to a new development in between Springfield & Boreham. This plan, like the previous one came to nothing and was thrown out by the then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in the early part of the Millennium.

Many thought this would be the end of the club, or at least the end of the club's search for a return home. Thankfully the dedicated board of directors and hardcore of support did not give up. In the middle part of the decade all the hard work paid off when the club announced it would finally be returning home. The club was to share the town’s athletics stadium, although not an ideal choice for a football stadium it was far better than the 10 mile trek across to Billericay.

Finally, the club could get itself back on the rails and focus on the one thing that had eluded it in its history – promotion to the football league. The first game back in the borough saw a 3,000 capacity crowd finally cheer the clarets on in a stadium within the CM1 postcode. The club like the crowds have picked up and we are finally moving on to the goal of league football, a goal that could see us look to move grounds again - this time however for all the right reasons.

HISTORY OF THE CLUB
In 1973, a group of over-sized Cubs who discovered they were suddenly too old for cub football, formed a team called "Holy Name" with Richard Basjack as their manager and Stan Selby as their trainer.
And thus the club was born.
In the 1975/76 season with Jim Machin as Chairman, they never lost a game and decided to enter the, then Chelmsford Mini League as Under 12's, after which Derek Bearman took over the helm.
In 1978/79 together with City Juniors, Westlands, Baddow Spartak, Springfield and Writtle, to name but a few, who were founder members of the Chelmsford Youth League when the Mini League and Junior league amalgamated and changed their name to "Name United" the following season 1979/80 under the guidance of Howard Southall.
In 1989 when Bruce Martin was chairman, our fundays were born, when four enthusiastic committee members, Pete Crockford, Trevor Smethurst, Bob Good and Chris Adams organised a fund raiser for both the club and an Essex radio charity with a five-a-side tournament against Baddow Spartak. From this small beginning, the event has grown into the annual football fest we have today.
Since then, the club has gone from strength to strength and in 1993 were invited to become Marconi Athletic Youth thanks to Terry Brailey who initiated the move as chairman after having taken over the position from Cliff Chung.
Their reputation grew, and in 1995 they were invited by Chelmsford City to become their Junior section, with Nigel Henson as chairman. The club has since been chaired by Phil Rogers, Andy Golding, Steve Hall and currently Gordon Williams.
In the 2002/03 season City Colts again changed it's name to Chelmsford City Youth FC.
In 2003 City Youth gained the FA Charter Standard Development Club Award, which has been renewed in 2006.
2006 Has seen the first Neal Cooper Memorial Shield game at Chelmsford City stadium. Which raised a £1,000 for Farleigh Hospice the chosen charity.
2007 Chelmsford City Youth FC awarded Charter standard Development club of the year from the Essex FA, the Neal Cooper Memorial shield was held at Witham stadium and raised £1,500 for Farleigh Hospice. The youth section has expanded to 21 teams. ClubSX was awarded in September for the ongoing improvements to the youth set up. The first youth tournament held in the stadium in May. City youth has 4 Eastern Junior Alliance teams at Under 14's, 15's, 16's and 18's.

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