The Club was first established in 1894 by Cadbury Heath Adult School (later to be known as Cadbury Heath Primary School) when Cadbury Heath was just a little narrow, one-street village, way outside the boundaries of Bristol.
Our first pitch was situated at Mill Lane, changing in the wooden hall and heating up water for tin baths. With a break for the War years, and the transferring to what is now Coronation Park, we progressed from the Bristol & District League to Division Two of the Bristol Premier Combination, and then to Division One in 1961, after winning the GFA Junior Cup in 1950. In the 60’s the team (only a first team then) built their own baths at the Social Club.
This period of success coincided with the renting of our present ground – Springfield – for £10 per annum from a local farmer and President Jim Warner. The offer to purchase for £250 was short-sighted declined, as the field was later sold as part of major development land and only intense lobbying led by the then Chairman, Mike Packer persuaded the Council to allocate Springfield as part of Public Open Space leased to the Football Club for dual use. This has meant that we have not been entirely masters of our own destiny. Even so, Gloucestershire county League championship in 1971-72 1972-73, 73 74 and runners up 74/75 at the same time winning the GFA Senior Amateur Cup in 1972/73 73/74 and 1974-75. Under Ralph Miller’s Management.
The success pushed the club into joining the Midland Combination after being turned down by the Western League due to the dressing rooms being situated too far from the pitch (what is now the Social Club bottle store). A stand was built for the requirement of the Midland Combination (with tea bar). After finishing fifth and reaching the quarter finals of the FA Vase with a crowd of 2,000 at Springfield, and more listening live on local Radio Bristol for the tie against Billericay Town from Essex, the Manager left after a disagreement with the committee, and took most of the players, to Keynsham Town. This shook the club to the core, we were relegated and had to drop two divisions to the Avon Premier Combination (we were founder members) there was no `Pyramid System’ in force.
A slow recovery took place, half time rooms being built, then a terrapin to provide on-pitch dressing rooms and electricity for training floodlights. Elected back into the Gloucestershire County League in 1984 a reserve team was started in 1988 ran by John Clarke formed from CHYMCA the first team finished as runners-up in the County League in 1990. The Managers in this period were Bob Williams, Dave Pitman, Les Allan, John Harris, Andy Stone, Keith Cottrell, Brian Knighton, Mike Ratcliffe and Chris Stone.
We celebrated our Centenary by winning the League Championship for the fifth time in 1994. Under the consistent managership of Brian Knighton, and we continued to dominate the league once again.
Continued improvement on and off the field saw new dressing rooms built on the ground in 1997, a youth academy started under Malcolm Knowlsen and a new terrapin replaced the one for the youth section formed from an amalgamation with local youth football club, Grimsbury Rangers.
After winning the Gloucestershire County League for a record sixth time, under the management of Andy Black, an application to join the Western League was again turned down due to the lack of a fence. Andy then left the club to join Bitton and Steve Plenty was appointed Manager along with Lee Knighton. After a public open meeting and a long battle with the Council, the fence was finally erected at a cost of £15,000 funded by Cadbury Heath Football Club. Steve and Lee’s first season in charge got runners up spot, of which consequently secured our election to the Screwfix Western League at long last! After 2 seasons in charge, Steve Plenty stood down due to family commitments and Lee Knighton took over the hot seat for a season and then the reigns were handed over to his assistant, Glen Smart, who consolidated our position for four seasons. Lee Knighton took over as First Team Manager for his second spell and appointed Andy Weeks as his assistant in season 2005/6, also that year Steve Plenty became Chairman when Dave Smart stood down.
We have now taken on a 25-year lease on Walker Playing Fields to accommodate the expanding youth section (19 teams including 5 girls’ teams) with plans to rebuild the dressing room complex with clubhouse facilities. This will compliment Springfield, not replace it. We have re-submitted our application for floodlights after modification, to enable night matches to be played. The ever expanding youth section continues to provide us with promising players.
After five seasons of struggling with the higher standard of the Toolstation Western League, we now feel we have arrived and look forward to the future!
