Researched and written by Chris Ponter.

Ledbury Town Football Club has a long and storied history. Some of Ledbury’s most memorable characters have worn the famous black and white stripes, and the town has produced some brilliant players, many successful teams and memorable moments on the pitch which are still reminisced about today. The club has also seen enough drama to create a Netflix documentary – the sale of players, financial disasters, and the search for a new home ground.

1893 – 1974: Humble beginnings

Ledbury Town Football Club was established in 1893, playing at Pound Meadow in the town during their early days in a number of small local leagues. The early 1960s saw them join the Worcestershire League under local stalwarts Ken Long and Jim Smith, playing at the present New Street ground which was donated as a gift to the people of Ledbury in 1934 by local businessman Lord Biddulph. The club returned to the Hereford League in the latter part of the 1960s, winning all before them under the management of Bob Pullen.

1974 – 1983: West Midlands success

Ledbury entered the West Midlands League in 1974 under new manager Roy Green, progressing up the ranks quickly and installing a set of floodlights at New Street to allow evening fixtures to be played in this more prestigious league, and it was at this time that a highly successful clubhouse was added to the already-thriving ground which The Friesians called home.

Many talented players were sold to high-profile clubs during this period, including Kevin Rose being acquired by Lincoln City in a £10,000 deal, Herrington Kelly going to Bristol Rovers, Mark Payne being sold to a Dutch side for £7,000, and Merrick Kwoski going on to play for Holland.

Ledbury’s squad during this period also featured Tony Berne, an Irish international player, as well as Mick Hill, who had previously played for both Ipswich and the Welsh national side. Local player Steve Emery also went on to play for Hereford United and Derby, while Phil Preedy, now general manager of the club having managed the first team over more recent seasons, also went on to have a stint at Hereford. Influential player Kevin Rose was also bought by the New Street outfit and then sold back to The Bulls in a lucrative deal.

1983 – 2000: Problems and recovery

In 1983 when the club went into liquidation. The deeds to New Street had been used as collateral over the previous ten years, and because of the mounting debt which the club had accrued, these deeds were lost.

The club reformed the following year with Phil Herbert at the helm of a new committee. The first team had to start back in Division Four of the Hereford League, but quickly rose undefeated over the course of the next five seasons, going on to win the Hereford Premier Division in 1989 before re-entering the West Midlands Regional League in the early 1990s to mark a remarkable recovery.

2000 – 2010: Pinnacle years

The new millennium saw Ledbury Town reach what has so far been the pinnacle of their achievements under the continued leadership of chairman Chris Stephens. They became West Midlands League Division One champions at the end of the 2000/01 season, finished fourth in the Premier Division and reached round four of the coveted FA Vase competition during the 2004/05 season, and also won the Herefordshire County Challenge Cup twice during the 2006/07 and 2009/10 seasons.

November 13th 2003 was a very memorable date for the club when a special match was played against a Manchester United XI side at New Street in memory of the McCoig-Lees family, who were avid United supporters and ran a popular newsagents in Ledbury until they tragically lost three members of their family in a motorway crash that summer.

For a period until 2006, the club’s squad also featured Latvian international Alex Volosanovs, as well as Bulgarian goalkeeper Dimitar Dimitrov.

It was at this time however that the club started paying rent to a developer who had purchased the deeds to the ground following the events of the mid-80s, which would eventually result in disaster for the club going into the second decade of the 2000s.

2010 – 2013: Second collapse and reformation

Once again for financial reasons, the club had to withdraw from the West Midlands League at the end of the 2009/10 season, with Stephens, first team manager Ben Symons and all but two members of the existing senior squad including influential players Dorian Colling, Liam Halliday, Lee Hooper and David Accam all choosing to move on to pastures new.

Under another new committee headed up by popular local figure Andy Kibble who was also much-involved with the Ledbury Swifts Junior Football Club, the first team once again rose from the ashes to compete back down in the Herefordshire Football League Premier Division under the new joint management of Phil Preedy and Chris Powell. This new senior side reflected Kibble’s aim of encouraging local town talent into the team, marked the club’s second recovery in stunning style by returning to Division One of the West Midlands League in the space of just three seasons, winning the Hereford Prem for the first time in nearly 25 years following a final nerve-wracking league encounter away at Ewyas Harold at the end of the 2011/12 season, with Preedy and Powell’s squad also picking up the Herefordshire FA Charity Bowl and Strongbow Senior Cups along the way.

Back in the West Midlands Regional League once more for the 2012/13 season, Ledbury Town finished runners-up in Division Two, gaining promotion back to Division One once more in the process, with the same season also seeing them lift the Worcester Infirmary Junior Cup after defeating Malvern Town Reserves at New Street, as well as finishing runners-up in the County Challenge Cup competition following a thrilling final against high-flying Westfields FC at Hereford United’s Edgar Street ground. Ledbury’s reserves side also continued to hold their own in the Herefordshire Football League under the management of Karl Lancett, acquiring the Ross Cup to join the silverware accumulated by the senior squad.

A number of enhancements also took place at the New Street ground under the leadership of Kibble who sadly passed away in 2015, as he very much wished for the club to have a more prominent focus on the local community.

2013 – 2015: Disaster strikes again

After finishing Division One of the West Midlands League safe from relegation under the new joint-management of Paul Mann and Chris Stone at the end of the 2012/13 season, with the club’s committee undergoing another reshaping as long-term director Colin Brandt stepped up as chairman assisted by long-serving groundsman Steve Watkins as vice chairman. However, within three months the club withdrew from the league and escalating debts caused a cash-strapped Ledbury Town Football Club to announce the closure of its clubhouse at New Street. The landowners evicted the club from the ground at the end of 2014, however a deal was struck to allow the existing reserves and Colts sides to finish their remaining fixtures of the 2014/15 season.

Ledbury Town were not out of the woods yet however, and it would be no exaggeration at this point to state that extinction for the club after an illustrious 125-year history was still a very real possibility. Negotiations with both the landowners and also with Ledbury Swifts continued, with long-term club stalwart John Preedy being elected to take on the mammoth task of reversing Ledbury Town’s fortunes.

2015 – 2019: Back from the brink

The club faced the real possibility of extinction. However, a new committee led by John Preedy struck a deal with both the landowners and Ledbury Swifts to return to New Street once more.

While the first team struggled to make progress throughout the 2015/16 season the reserves side, now being managed by the duo of Mitch Preedy and Mark Davis, stormed to victory in Division Two of the Herefordshire League.

With the first team remaining in the Premier Division of the newly-reformed Herefordshire County League and the reserves being promoted to Division One, everything was in place for the club to enjoy a much more stable period. The first team were now managed by Worcestershire coach Dean Rutter and veteran Town defender Pat Locke, and stayed in contention in the Herefordshire League Premier Division, also winning the HFA Charity Bowl cup once again following a memorable 3-2 victory over Ewyas Harold at Westfields’ Allpay Park ground. Ledbury Town Reserves, now managed by Nick Blakeway and David Butcher, also continued to fare well in Division One.

2019 – present: Covid and change

The 2019/20 season was brought to an unprecedented and abrupt end for all grassroots clubs across the country as the COVID-19 outbreak forced all remaining games to be cancelled in March 2020. The 2020/21 season started with the club once again locked out of New Street but during the November lockdown, a new committee led by former player Pete Boyle took over the club and, working closely with both Ledbury Swifts and the landowners secured the club’s short term future. On the pitch, the season resumed in April, with both the first and reserve team having positive ends to the season.