Bridgwater United Football Club is a football club based in Bridgwater,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Affiliated to the

Somerset County FA The Somerset County Football Association, also known as the Somerset FA, is the governing body of football in the county of Somerset. The association was formed in 1885. History The Somerset County Football Association was formed in 1885. ...

, they are currently members of the and play at Fairfax Park.

History

Bridgwater Association Football Club were established at a meeting in the Cross Rifle pub on 28 January 1898.BTFC History - The Early Year
Bridgwater Town F.C. They joined the

Somerset Senior League The Somerset County League is a football competition based in England. The Premier Division sits at step 7 (or level 11) of the National League System. It is a feeder to the Western League Division One and has promoted a club in seven of the ...

later in the year, and in their first full season they won the Somerset Senior Cup, beating Yeovil Casuals 1–0 in a replay. However, the club disbanded after four seasons in the league. In 1903 a new Bridgwater A.F.C. was formed. They subsequently joined the Clevedon & District League for the 1905–06 season, but left after a single season to join the Weston & District League, also playing in the Highbridge League. They won Division Two of the Weston & District League in 1908–09, but finished bottom of Division One the following season and were relegated back to Division Two. This was repeated when they won Division Two again in 1911–12, but were relegated from Division One the following season. The club subsequently folded during the 1913–14 season. In 1921, Highbridge League club Wills Athletic, the

works team A works team (sometimes factory team, company team) is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business. Sometimes, works teams contain or are entirely made up of employees of the supporting company. Association footb ...

of the Wills Engineering company, played

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

in a friendly game. The level of interest in the match led to the club being transformed into Bridgwater Town during the 1921–22 season. After being rejected by the Somerset Senior League in 1923, they joined both the Mid-Somerset and West Somerset leagues. However, financial problems caused by the building works at their new ground forced them to withdraw from both leagues after a single season, they returned to local leagues, including the Taunton & District League, which they played in until 1931. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Crown Dynamos were formed in 1946 and joined the Bridgwater & District League. They moved up to Somerset Senior League in 1947, and after finishing third in their first season, the club was transformed into Bridgwater Town Association Football Club. The first season under the new name saw the club finish as runners-up, resulting in a successful application to join Division Two of the Western League. They finished as runners-up in Division Two in 1951–52, earning promotion to Division One. The 1957–58 season saw them finish second in Division One, as well as winning the League Cup. In 1960–61 Bridgwater reached the first round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

for the first time, and after beating Southern League club

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

3–0, they lost 2–1 at another Southern League club,

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

. They repeated the feat the following season, beating

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmix ...

1–0 in a first round replay, before losing 3–0 at home to Third Division

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

. In 1963–64 another first round appearance resulted in a 3–0 defeat at home to Third Division

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

; they were beaten in the same round by

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

in 1971–72. The club went on to win the league in 1980–81. After winning the League Cup the following season, they moved up to the Midland Division of the Southern League. However, after two seasons the club resigned from the league and folded due to financial problems caused by the additional travelling, falling attendances and building works at the social club. A new Bridgwater Town was established, taking over from the defunct club's reserves in Division One of the Somerset Senior League. Although they were relegated to Division Two at the end of their first season, they were promoted back to the division at the first attempt, and won Division One in 1986–87 to earn promotion to the Premier Division. They went on to win three successive Premier Division titles in 1989–90, 1990–91 and 1991–92, and after finishing as runners-up in 1993–94, were promoted to Division One of the Western League. In 1995–96 they won Division One and were promoted to the Premier Division. After finishing as Premier Division runners-up in 2006–07, Bridgwater were promoted to Division One South & West of the Southern League. A third-place finish in 2009–10 saw them qualify for the promotion play-offs. Although the club defeated VTFC 3–0 in the semi-finals, they lost 4–3 to Cirencester Town in the final. They finished bottom of Division One South & West in 2016–17 and were relegated back to the Premier Division of the Western League. In March 2021 Bridgwater Town merged with women's club Yeovil United, forming Bridgwater United. In 2021–22 the club won the Western League's Les Phillips Cup, defeating Cadbury Heath 1–0 in the final.Bridgwater United win the Les Phillips Cup
Bridgwater Mercury, 16 May 2022

Ground

The original Bridgwater club played at a field off the Bath Road that later became the

British Cellophane British Cellophane Ltd (BCL) was a joint venture company formed in 1935 between La Cellophane SA and Courtaulds, when they began building a major factory for producing Cellophane in Bridgwater, Somerset, England. History 19th century The proce ...

factory. The 1903 club started playing at Taunton Road, the ground used by the Albion Rugby Club, before moving to Westonzoyland Road the following year. The new Bridgwater Town formed in 1921–22 played at the Malt Shovel ground until the site was used for housing in the mid-1920s, at which point they moved to a ground named Chilton Park at Crowpill. Crown Dynamos initially played at the Eastover Park, before moving to Castle Field when they were transformed into Bridgwater Town. The modern Bridgwater Town have played at Fairfax Park on College Way since being established in 1984. The ground currently has a capacity of 2,500, of which 128 is seated and 500 covered.

Honours

*Western League **Champions 1967–68, 1980–81 **Division One champions 1995–96 **League Cup winners 1957–58, 1981–82, 2002–03, 2004–05 **Les Phillips Cup winners 2021–22 **Alan Young Cup winners 1968–69 (shared with Glastonbury Town), 1971–72 *Somerset County League **Premier Division champions 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92 **Division One champions 1986–87 *Weston & District League **Division Two champions 1908–09, 1911–12 *Somerset Senior Cup **Winners 1898–99, 1993–94, 1995–96 *

Somerset Premier Cup The Somerset Premier Cup is an association football knock-out cup competition run by the Somerset County Football Association (SFA). According to the current rules of the competition, to enter clubs first affiliation must be with the Somerset C ...

**Winners 1958–59

Records

*Best

performance: Second round, 1960–61, 1961–62 *Best FA Trophy performance: Third round, 1969–70, 1972–73 *Best FA Vase performance: Fifth round, 2004–05 *Record attendance: 1,112 vs

Taunton Town Taunton Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Taunton, Somerset. They compete in the , the sixth tier of English football and play their home matches at Wordsworth Drive, which they moved into during the 1953 season. ...

, 26 February 1997

References

External links