Bridgwater United Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. The town had a population of 41,276 at the 2021 census. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies along both sid ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Affiliated to the

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

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

History

Bridgwater Association Football Club were established at a meeting in the Cross Rifles pub on 28 January 1898.BTFC History - The Early Year
Bridgwater Town F.C. They joined the Somerset Senior League later in the year won the Somerset Senior Cup in their first full season, 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 and District League for the 1905–06 season, but left after a single season to join the Weston and District League, also playing in the Highbridge League. They won Division Two of the Weston and 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 also referred to as factory team and company team, is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business, institution, or organization in a broad sense. Works teams have very close ties with thei ...

of the Wills Engineering company, played Bristol City 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 and District League, which they played in until 1931. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Crown Dynamos were formed in 1946 and joined the Bridgwater and 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 Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

for the first time. After beating Southern League club Hereford United 3–0 in the first round, they lost 2–1 at another Southern League club,

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club () is a professional association football, football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. Founded as Headingto ...

in the second. They repeated the feat the following season, beating

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

1–0 in a first round replay, before losing 3–0 at home to Third Division Crystal Palace. 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, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

; they were beaten in the same round by

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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 and 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 and 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 They finished third in the Premier Division in 2023–24, qualifying for the promotion play-offs, in which they lost 3–1 to Falmouth Town in the semi-finals.

Ground

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

Honours

*Western League **Champions 1967–68, 1980–81 **Division One champions 1995–96 **Les Phillips Cup winners 2002–03, 2004–05, 2021–22 **Challenge Cup winners 1957–58, 1981–82 **Alan Young Cup winners 1968–69 (shared with Glastonbury Town), 1971–72, 2006–07 *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 **Winners 1958–59

Records

*Best

performance: Second round, 1960–61, 1961–62 *Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

performance: Third round, 1969–70, 1972–73 *Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

performance: Fifth round, 2004–05, 2022–23, 2023–24 *Record attendance: 1,112 vs Taunton Town, 26 February 1997

References

External links