Page 26 - Brislington FC v Radstock Town 280323

Radstock Town FC - A History

Formation: Pro gramme notes from a game in 1937
suggest that football was being played in Radstock as
early as 1835 but there is no solid evidence to back that
up. However, there are newspaper match reports from
1883 so, it can be safely as sumed that the club was
actually formed in the early 1880’s. Radstock Wanderers
was the clubs name from 1889 until they changed to
Radstock Town after affiliating to the Somerset FA in
1895.
Ground: In the early days the club played on a ground off of the Old Bath
Road situated where a Primary School stood until recently. It was officially
called Roundhill but was known locally as ‘Hilltop’. In the late 1800’s and
early 1900’s they also played at South Hill, which is where a Bath College
campus is now but at the time was a manor house and grounds owned by
Earl Walder- grave.

The lack of a true home became critical at the end of the First World War
and the club was unable to re form until 1920 when they were able to move
to their current home at Southfield. The first official fixture played at
Southfield was on Sep tember 10th 1920 when Warminster Town were the
visitors in an FA Cup tie. The game, which Radstock won 1-0, was watched
by a crowd of 700, which apparently ‘greatly pleased the club committee!’

As a business: Financial issues saw the club take a couple of breaks from
competitive first team football,

1900-01 to 1902-03 and again at the end of the 1909-10 campaign. The
1914-18 war and the lack of a pitch meant that Radstock Town didn’t
appear again as senior club until the 1920-21 season.
In 1930 club supporters joined to gether to create a supporter’s social club
which remains in existence to this day.
On the pitch: The club’s first silver ware came when they won the inau -
gural Somerset Senior Cup at the end of the 1895/96 season beating Wells
City 4-0 in a replay at Midsomer Norton following a 1-1 draw. The club has
won the cup twelve times subsequently and finished runners up on a
further thirteen occasions! Success in league competitions has been harder
to come by but they have won the Somerset Senior League six times and
the Wiltshire League on four occasions. Despite many seasons in the
Western League the best position achieved was way back in the 1920/21
season when the reformed side finished run ners up. The 1960’s & 70’s were
the most successful in the clubs long history when they won a remarkable
12 leagues and cups!