Abbey Hey

Abbey Hey FC is a non-league football club from the Gorton area of Manchester, originally formed as Abbey Hey WMC in 1902. The team started out life playing in local Church Sunday Leagues.

The club was disbanded and reformed several times, progressing to the Manchester Amateur Leagues. The club took on the players of the Admiralty Gunning Engineering Department (AGED) following its closure in the early 1960’s.

Abbey manager and club stalwart Alf Gentry stood down to be replaced by AGED Manager, Danny Danson. ‘The Red Rebels’ joined Division One South of the Manchester League in 1970 with former player Ken Brown taking over as manager.

The title was secured in their debut season leading to promotion to the Premier Division at the end of the 1971-72 season. In 1978 Abbey Hey moved to Werburghs Road in Chorlton on the understanding that the club improved the venue. They carried this out, but the owners reneged on the deal, so the club moved to Godfreys.

Sadly, despite money been spent on this venue, the club were forced out in a deal made by someone else to use the ground, which never materialised. Hey were crowned Manchester League champions for the first time in 1988-89.

Further titles followed in 1990-91 and then 1993-94 which was celebrated after Manchester City Council stepped in to settle a legal battle with Crossley Motors Ltd over trying to buy some disused land on at Goredale Avenue in Chorlton.

Abbey Hey had at last got their own home. Much work was required to make it fit as it had been used for fly tipping for some time, but the resourcefulness of the dedicated committee soon put things right.

Jim Clark arrived as manager, leading Hey to another league title in 1994-95 before finishing runners up in the Manchester league in 1996-97 and again in 1997-98, the club were accepted to Division Two of the North West Counties League, as long as improvements were made to The Abbey Stadium.

True to form, the club installed new floodlights, a clubhouse and dressing rooms as the team played their part by finishing as runners-up in 1998-99 to secure promotion to Division One. Former Football League striker Tony Hancock took over as manager in the summer of 2002.

Jim Vince ws appointed as team boss for the 2003-04 season. The side narrowly avoided relegation after Chris Bailey took over team affairs. Ten members of the committee were given long service awards for their 25 years of service in Grass Roots Football by The Manchester FA in 2004.

Division One was renamed the Premier Division from 2008-09 with Hey remaining there until 2009-10 when they were relegated despite the best efforts of new manager Barrie Walker and his plethora of new signings.

Walker decided to invest in a policy of the club developing their own youth players. He remained at the helm until May 2013 after steering the side to promotion to the Premier Division as runners-up when Luke Gibson took over as player-manager.

After a narrow scrape with relegation, Abbey Hey stabilised. Paul Moore was appointed as team boss for the 2018-19 season, as the team was relegated to Division One South. Terry Hincks came in as manager in the summer of 2019.

The team sat in fifth place when the 2019-20 season ended early owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hey were in eighth in 2020-21 when play was halted. The playoffs were reached in 2021-22 which ended in a semifinal defeat to New Mills.

Hincks stood down in April 2023 after twenty-eight years as a non-league manager. Simon Heaton took the side to the playoffs in 2023-24, defeating Sandbach United and then Stockport Town on penalties to be promoted to the Premier Division.

Abbey Hey FC will play in the North West Counties League Premier Division in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Monday 19th July 2010

I was on annual leave from work, so I decided I would have three days in the Manchester area clocking up some new grounds. I had already been to several grounds in the Stockport area and booked into my accommodation in Sale, before taking a train from Bredbury to Reddish North. 

I wanted to get off at Ryder Brow, but trains only stop their irregularly, so it was time to get into hiking mode once more. The problem was that The Abbey Stadium was not marked properly in my A to Z map book and I had slipped up by not marking down the address of the ground.

Fortunately, we live in an advanced technological era and after a quick text to my brother Nick, who was in London on business but had a new-fangled phone, I soon found out I needed to find Goredale Avenue. 

This proved easy enough, but the gate was locked into the ground. I walked around and got a poorish view inside from a hill behind one of the sides, but this was no use to see the only stand at the ground. Fortune was on my side. 

I had noticed an old disused railway embankment that was now a public footpath at the far side of the ground which gave me a far better view. I must have looked a bit strange to passers-by as I aimed my mobile phone at a small football ground and snapped away.

The ground was basic. There was flat grass and concrete standing all around. Behind the Entrance End, there was a small practice pitch with training lights. The near-side touchline had a two-storey clubhouse, which the club proudly advertised as having excellent facilities. 

The far side had the only cover for spectators in the form of a long low structure with standing and seats on metal frames. After years of wandering, Hey has a functional ground with a large housing area around to gather support from.

I wandered back along the embankment and ended up having to scramble down a large bank onto Hyde Road to continue my adventures for the day.