Cheadle Town

Cheadle Town FC is a non-league football club from the town located west of Stockport in Greater Manchester. They were originally formed as Grasmere Rovers FC in 1961 to play in the Manchester & District Sunday Football League.

The club was formed by youngster Barrie Dean who asked his neighbour, Chris Davies to help put a side together to play in the under 16s division. Both lads lived on Grasmere Road, hence their original name.

By 1972 they were competing in Saturday afternoon football in the Manchester League, sharing the Surrey Street ground with Glossop. In 1982 the club moved into their Park Road home, before entering the North Counties West League in 1983-84. 

At that point, the club changed their title to Cheadle Town FC, going on to enjoy a steady but undistinguished time. Life started in Division Three of the NWCL before it was absorbed into Division Two in 1987-88.

Division Two became Division One in 1997-98, while Cheadle continued to organise their legendary foreign tours, with the team facing illustrious players in opposition sides such as Alfredo di Stefano, Ronnie Biggs, and Jairzinho. Some tours are mentioned in the iconic book ‘Kicked into Touch’ by Fred Eyre. 

The club became part of the Little Sports Group, owned by ex-Cheadle Town player Craig Brennan in 2018, a year after Anthony Trucca had been appointed as the new first-team manager. Danny Meadowcroft was next in the hot seat leading Town into action from the dugout.

Paul Marshall was appointed as manager in May 2022, taking the side to promotion to the Premier Division at the end of his first season in charge after Stockport Town and then Sandbach United were defeated in the Division One South playoffs. The side consolidated in their new elevated status twelve months later.

Jake Davies became Cheadle team boss in May 2024.

Cheadle Town FC will play in the North Counties West 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 arrived from London and already visited nearby Edgeley Park, home of near neighbours Stockport County. 

A bus out on the main road soon deposited me on Stockport Road, Cheadle. A signpost directed me down Park Road and within a few minutes I was walking past the cemetery and into the open gates of the stadium.

A groundsman was at work replacing turf on the far side of the pitch, so I went across and asked permission to take some photos, which he was fine about. Most of the ground was a mixture of open flat concrete and grass standing with a concrete wall enclosing the ground. 

The far end had a practice pitch. The side nearest the entrance had all the facilities, with the impressive main stand being the centrepiece. I was leaving when a club official arrived. He shouted for his mate to assist him in securing the gates to the stadium. 

They had been broken open for a car to get out a couple of days previously and he was extremely concerned that an open ground would lead to vandalism. He lamented that the walls weren’t high enough to secure everything. 

I mentioned that it was a shame the youths didn’t get involved in playing at the club, to which he replied that there was little chance of that, as it required effort. I bid farewell and went in search of a return bus back into Stockport so I could catch a train on to Altrincham.