Page 33 - Bath City v Winchester City - Saturday 3 October - FA Cup

PUTTING TWERTON BACK INTO BATH CITY

Whatever way you look at it, Twerton and our football My Dad was one of a squad of local men who helped
club belong together. With the new emphasis on lay the first pitch at Twerton Park, so if it ever gets dug
Community Partnership in the club, and the plans afoot up, I want a bit of the turf back please! He trained
to reshape the ground and make major improvements the Bath Tramways team in the Bath Thursday League
to Twerton High Street, that matters as never before. (Thursday was always early closing day for shops). In
Bath City Football Club’s first ground was behind the the 1940s and 1950s George Payne was a stalwart
Belvoir Castle pub on the Lower Bristol Road in East of the Supporters Club. Although he died when I was
Twerton, a nice little pub frequented by my stonemason only 12 years old, I still thank him for introducing me
grandfather, my Dad and his brothers. The family to the club. I have been known to deliver reports to his
home at this time was in River Place, Twerton, down graveside at Haycombe Cemetery about the ‘Goings
by the river. Head of the family was the formidable On’ at Twerton Park!
Grandma Payne. Her unlikely story (and something After the Second World War, village Twerton became
about her ten children) is told in my book ‘A West estate Twerton; there were built lots and lots of houses
Country Odyssey’ which you can buy later on this and flats for those bombed out in the horrific Bath Blitz
year. Some of it is true but not all. There’s still a road of 1942. And for the families of ‘Admiralty’ (Ministry
sign that says River Place, but no houses - think Curo of Defence) staff who moved down from London in
and Bath City’s overflow car-park, think Computer the war and didn’t go back. Friendly, socially mixed,
World. plenty of jobs, a good place to grow up. But always
After the First World War, there was a temporary that soft underbelly of poverty.
move to Lambridge which lasted into the early 1930s. In the 1966 General Election, I worked as a polling
At Lambridge we beat Crystal Palace 2-1 in the FA clerk in Twerton. 1966 was the year Labour came
Cup on 12 December 1931. Few people among the within 1,000 votes of winning Bath. The candidate
6,000 crowd saw the winning goal. Sight lines were was a teetotal Methodist and they celebrated with tea
never good at Lambridge, and many of the crowd had out of respect for him. It was also the year that I played
headed home in disgust before Jim McCartney struck a major minor rôle in England winning the World Cup.
the winner with only 8 minutes to go. Buy the book if you want to know more!
So City headed back to Twerton and we’ve been So there are all sorts of reasons to welcome the
here ever since. The 1930s was a hard decade Community Partnership model of football club which
in Bath. Flattening the hillside to create a football we are striving to achieve at Twerton Park. And we
pitch provided much needed work and pay for the won’t forget that our history and identity was forged
unemployed. Right through the 1930s, the unemployed here in good old Twerton.
paid reduced rates at the turnstile to attend matches.
JOHN PAYNE

John pictured at Twerton Park at the Southern League championship celebrations in 2007.
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