Melksham Town 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

Melksham Melksham () is a town and civil parish on the Bristol Avon, River Avon in Wiltshire, England, about northeast of Trowbridge and south of Chippenham. The parish population was 18,113 at the 2021 census. History Early history Excavations in ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

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

Wiltshire Football Association The Wiltshire Football Association is the governing body of football in the English county of Wiltshire. Affiliated members pay a fee commensurate with the level of competition they play in, and benefit from access to support and guidance on such ...

, they are currently members of the and play at the Oakfield Stadium.

History

The club was established as Melksham Football Club in 1876.Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2016) ''Non-League Club Directory 2017'', Tony Williams Publications, p571 In 1894 they were founder members of the

Wiltshire League The Wiltshire Football League, also known as the Wiltshire League and the Wiltshire Senior League, is a Association football, football league in England which was formed by amalgamation in 1976. All clubs are affiliated to a County Football Ass ...

.Melksham Town
Western League The club were Division One champions in 1903–04 and won the Wiltshire Senior Cup the following season.Senior Challenge Cup Competition Results
Wiltshire FA In 1920 the club was renamed Melksham & Avon United as a result of their new ground being owned by

Avon Rubber Avon Technologies plc is a British company that specialises in the engineering and manufacturing of respiratory protection equipment for military, law enforcement and fire personnel. Its corporate headquarters are south of Melksham in Wiltshi ...

, before reverting to their original name in the 1926–27 season. They were runners-up in the league in 1924–25, 1929–30 and 1936–37.Wiltshire League 1901–1955
Non-League Matters In 1951 the club adopted their current name and went on to finish as runners-up in Division One in 1959–60 and 1971–72, also winning the Wiltshire Senior Cup again in 1969–70. Melksham moved up to the Western League in 1974. After finishing third-from bottom of the league in 1975–76, the club were demoted to the new Division One as the league expanded to two divisions. They won the Wiltshire Senior Cup again in 1977–78 and were Division One champions in 1979–80, earning promotion to the Premier Division. Their first season in the Premier Division saw the club win the Wiltshire Premier Shield, a trophy they retained the following season and won again in 1984–85 and 1985–86.Premier Shield Winners from inception
Wiltshire FA However, they were relegated to Division One again at the end of the 1987–88 season. In 1992–93 Melksham finished bottom of Division One and were relegated to the Premier Division of the

Wiltshire Football League The Wiltshire Football League, also known as the Wiltshire League and the Wiltshire Senior League, is a football league in England which was formed by amalgamation in 1976. All clubs are affiliated to a County Football Association. The area cov ...

. They won the Premier Division and the Senior Knock-Out Cup the following season, and were promoted back to the Western League at the first attempt. In 1996–97 the club were Division One champions and were promoted to the Premier Division. They won the Wiltshire Premier Shield the following season, and again in 1999–2000, before winning the Wiltshire Senior Cup in 2002–03 and 2007–08. Although the club were relegated to Division One in 2009–10, they were Division One runners-up in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, earning promotion back to the Premier Division. Melksham won the Wiltshire Senior Cup in 2012–13 and 2013–14, before winning the Western League Premier Division title in 2014–15. However, delays to making ground improvements meant that they were denied promotion. The following season saw the club win the Senior Cup again. The club were runners-up in the Premier Division in 2017–18, earning promotion to Division One South of the Southern League.

Ground

The club played at Challymead Common until moving to the Old Bear Field in 1883.Brief history of Melksham Town FC at the Conigre
The Melksham Independent News, 11 March 2015 They relocated to the Conigre in 1920; the ground was part of the

Melksham House Melksham House is an 18th-century Listed building#Categories of listed building, Grade II listed house in the centre of Melksham, Wiltshire, England. It is owned by Wiltshire Council and is the home of Melksham House School, for children and yo ...

estate, centrally sited in the town, which had been purchased in the same year by

, with the house turned into a social club. A wooden stand was erected on one side of the pitch and wooden fencing installed around the ground. During the 1960s covered stands were built behind the Rugby Club End and on the other side of the pitch, and floodlights were installed in 1986. The wooden stand was demolished in the early 1990s and replaced by a modern metal stand in 1994.Melksham Town
Pyramid Passion Oakfield Stadium

In 2017, in preparation for redevelopment at the Melksham House site, the club moved to Oakfields, a new £7.3 million facility shared with Melksham Rugby Club on the eastern edge of the town. The first match at the new ground was played on 14 January 2017 against Bristol Manor Farm in the

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 ...

, with the visitors winning 5–3 in front of a crowd of 1,215.Perrin eyes top spot after Vase disappointment
The Melksham Independent News, 18 January 2017

Honours

*Western League **Premier Division champions 2014–15 **Division One champions 1979–80, 1996–97 *Wiltshire Football League **Premier Division champions 1993–94 **Senior Knock-Out Cup winners 1993–94 *Wiltshire League **Division One champions 1903–04 *Wiltshire Premier Shield **Winners 1980–81, 1981–82, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1997–98, 1999–2000 *Wiltshire Senior Cup ** Winners 1904–05, 1969–70, 1977–78, 2002–03, 2007–08, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2015–16

Records

*Best

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 ...

performance: Third qualifying round, 1954–55, 1957–58, 2024–25 *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 qualifying round, 2021–22, 2022–23 *Best

performance: Quarter-finals, 2017–18 *Record attendance: 2,821 vs

Trowbridge Town Trowbridge Town Football Club is a football club based in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England. They compete at Step 7 in the and play at Woodmarsh, on the southern edge of the town. History A Trowbridge Town team was originally formed in 1880 and ...

, 1957 *Most goals in a season: Gareth Lewis, 72 (1968–69)

References

External links