Southend Manor

Southend Manor FC

Ground: Southchurch Park

Capacity: 2,000

Club Founded: 1955

League: Eastern Counties League Division One South - Step 6/10th Tier (current level)

While the Shrimpers of Southend United attract crowds to Roots Hall, the town's non-league club, a couple of miles away, provides the community and its youth teams a place to enjoy football.

Background to Southend Manor

The Early Years

The club was formed in 1955 as a team for youth players by Gil and Doris Medcalf. Gil had earlier played for prominent non-league side Eton Manor, hence the club's title. The club played in local league football for many years with an excellent record after initially joining the Southend Youth League. 

In 1964, they entered the Southend Borough Combination where they were crowned champions six times in twelve seasons. Manor went on to win the Southend & District Alliance twice, but the club couldn't progress as they were limited to using council pitches, including the Victory Sports Ground. 

A Ground of their Own

Finally, after many years of application, Manor became tenants at Southchurch Park Arena, which was originally shared with Southend Athletic Club. It contained many of the attributes needed for Senior Football, allowing a successful application to join the Essex Senior League Reserve Division while carrying out the work needed to meet senior status requirements. 

This status was reached in 1988 with a new clubhouse being erected. The Essex Senior League title was won within a couple of seasons as the club continued to grow, fielding many teams through the age groups. New state-of-the-art floodlights were installed in 2004 to comply with ground grading requirements. 

Manor had an excellent 2011-12 season, finishing as runners-up in the league and reaching the Fourth Qualifying Round of the FA Cup, before bowing out to Kettering Town under the management of Russell Faulkner and John Brandon. Manor would see their league positions fall away once the duo departed.

Managers continued to come and go, which eventually led to relegation to Division One South of the  Eastern Counties League in 2022-23. Manor were reprieved from relegation a couple of seasons later as they attempted to arrest the slide.

My visit

Tuesday 14th July 2009

The weather was stunning. I had previously called in at Southend United's Roots Hall across town and then walked a couple of miles to Southchurch Park. It is located just a block behind the seafront, and the ground is at the far end of a park that also has a pond, cricket pitches and playgrounds.

It took me quite some time to locate the entrance to the ground. Fortunately, a gate was open so I could get close to take some good photos. The ground was very open, with large grass areas and a path around the pitch. 

The arena once housed an athletics track, but that had now gone. On the clubhouse side, there are two modern-looking stands to offer shelter for spectators, one with seating and one with a few steps of terracing.

Southchurch Park looked to be a good venue in pleasant weather, but it is not somewhere I'd fancy on a wet and windy evening.