Lye Town

Lye Town FC is a non-league football club, formed in 1930 as Lye & Wollescote FC before taking up their present name a year later. Lye is a small suburban town a couple of miles from Stourbridge and around eleven miles west of Birmingham.

Within a year or so the football club took on its present mantle and became members of the Worcestershire Combination, where after ending up as runners-up on a couple of occasions, they were crowned champions in 1935-36.

Following the end of World War Two, ‘The Flyers’ had a season in the Central Amateur League prior to joining the Birmingham and District League. The team was relegated to Division Two of the competition at the culmination of the 1955-56 season.

The club remained in the competition until it was renamed the West Midlands (Regional) League in 1962. Three years later Town were placed in the Premier Division following extension to the league.

Lye went agonisingly close to winning the league title in 1976-77, 1978-79, 1979-80 and 1980-81 when on each occasion they ended the season as runners-up. The wait for the championship came to an end in 1997-98 when the trophy ended up at the Sports Ground.

However, promotion to the Midland Alliance was denied owing to ground grading issues. Fifteen years later Lye once again ended the league campaign in second place, but they were not to be denied in the following 2013-14 season as they won the crown for the second time.

This time the win resulted in promotion to the newly reformed Midland League as members of the Premier Division. Dean Whitehouse had a spell as team manager before he was replaced by Mark Jones in October 2019. He was succeeded by Grant Joshua in February 2020.

The new team boss got to work following the abandoned seasons owing to the worldwide pandemic, taking his side to a Midland League runners-up place in 2022-23. A crushing 6-1 playoff victory away to St Neots Town sealed promotion to Division One Midlands of the Northern Premier League.

The new status was the highest Lye had ever reached, capping their debut season with a seventh-place finish. Joshua called it a day in May 2024 to be replaced by Craig Nicholls.

Lye Town FC will play in the Northern Premier League Division One Midlands in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Monday 4^th August 2014

It was a glorious summer’s day and I was fortunate to be spending a day off doing something I loved, as I adventured in new places visiting new places and football clubs as well as trying the occasional beer or two!

After the early part of the afternoon had been spent at Aston Villa and Walsall, I was now in full non league mode. After refreshments in Birmingham city centre, I’d taken a wonderful train journey to Stourbridge, where I’d visited the town’s football club.

The no.9 bus had dropped me in Lye at the stop on the by pass. Within five minutes I’d walked along the main A458 and found myself at the gates of the Sports Ground. Unusually I’d failed to do much research ahead of my trip, so I was surprised to find that both the football and towns cricket club shared the facility, the same as at Stourbridge.

The gate was open to the cricket ground, so I entered and walked round the boundary past the football clubhouse and facilities to the large barrel roofed terrace behind the neat goal. It was a bit of a relic from the past, and not unlike a smaller version of the old Cowshed at Leeds Road, Huddersfield.

Another stand with seating ran along the far touchline, with open sections either side. A grass bank enclosed the far end behind the goal, which ran all the way along to the cricket pavilion in the top corner. Once more, it pointed to days gone by where common sense prevailed and the towns sports ground was used all the year round. 

No doubt several players once played both sports at the same venue. One of the perils of good brisk walks interspersed with food and drink on my groundhopping travels was the sudden need for toilet facilities. On walking to the ground I had passed two pubs on the crossroads. I made my way as quickly as I could to the first of them.

It was really a case of double delight. The pub had a good clean facility with the added comfort of soft paper. Even better it had its own brewery attached. I will forever fondly remember the Windsor Castle Inn and Sadlers Brewery.

I had a fine pint of session ale that could easily have become two or three. However, I still wanted to visit the venue of Cradley Town before the highlight of the day; the Pre Season Friendly between Halesowen Town and Hednesford Town.