Rochdale Town

Rochdale Town FC is a former non-league football club that represented the town of the same name, until they folded in August 2016 as members of the Manchester League.

The club was originally known as St Gabriels in 1924 when they were born playing in local league football in the Rochdale Alliance League, from their base in Castleton. Until the 1960’s it was a condition that all the clubs’ players were Catholic and attended both church and Sunday School. 

Once those conditions were lifted the club started winning a few trophies. In 1979 St Gabriels moved to their home ground which was called Butterworth Park at the time. They progressed into the Manchester League in 1984, becoming league champions in 1986-87.

The club changed their name to Castleton Gabriels in 1990. A year later they joined the North West Counties League as members of Division Two. The club struggled in the bottom reaches of the competition, avoiding relegation in consecutive seasons. 

On the second occasion, 2004-05, they escaped because the league was under-subscribed, with no club from feeder leagues having the required ground grading to make the step up. The woes continued as they were forced to groundshare with Oldham Town for a while, as work was carried out to upgrade their own home venue.

In 2006, Rochdale Mayfield ARLFC moved into the Mayfield Sports Centre to help upgrade and share the venue, which gave everyone a boost.

To encourage support and sponsors, the club changed its name to become Rochdale Town in 2008. The town’s senior club Rochdale FC were quite happy with this arrangement and helped build links. Town adopted Rochdale’s original kit of black and white stripes in recognition of this.

 

After several seasons of struggle, Town finished in an excellent fifth place at the end of the 2011-12 season. Finishes of seventh and ninth followed as Town began to find their feet properly after finance had been pumped in. However, a row over ground rental in 2013, came close to shutting down the club.

After a second successive mid-table finish in 2015-16 the club was demoted after the ground graders found the Mayfield Sports Centre had insufficient facilities. Chairman, Mark Canning appealed, pointing to the fact that it staged local finals, but the FA and NWCFL were adamant.

It forced Town to take up a place in the Manchester League, but they resigned and folded after playing three matches in the 2016-17 season.

My visit

Tuesday 20th July 2010 

It was day two out of three of my own Greater Manchester groundhop. The weather was cloudy and offering rain as I went from my hotel in Sale on the tram to Manchester Victoria station.

After a misunderstanding over the day ticket I required in the grand old station, which was really looking tired in comparison to Piccadilly, I was on board a Rochdale bound train just after 9.30am. Before long we were pulling into Castleton station and I was on my way down Heywood Road, which became Chadwick Lane further down.

The ground was right on the edge of town and surrounded by open fields. I was pleasantly surprised just how good an arena it was. Castleton Sports Centre had been the setting for the BBC womens drama “Playing the Field” a few years previously, which chartered the on and off the field progress of the fictional Castlefield Blues women’s football team.

There were people working inside the ground but the gates were locked. I got my photos through the wire fences behind one end. I noticed rugby posts on the floor and later investigation found that it is also the home of Rochdale Mayfield Rugby League Club, who play in the National Conference. When they are the proprietors they call the ground the Mayfield Sports Arena.

The far end of the ground had a narrow shelter which carried on round the corner on the side where there was an impressive seated Main Stand with a hospitality box on the roof. The changing rooms and social club were behind this stand. Opposite this stand was another low roofed seated structure. The near end was an area of open flat standing.

Even more later research revealed Town struggling on average home games around the 35 mark, save for the one occasion FC United of Manchester came to town. I sincerely hope the locals decide to have a walk down the lane and give this club a go at a splendid venue.

I walked back to Manchester Road to await a bus into Rochdale town centre and my next port of call, which would be Spotland.