Calne Town

Calne Town FC is a non-league football club from the town of Calne, which is located six miles east of Chippenham in Wiltshire. The football club was formed in 1886.

The club joined the Wiltshire League as founder members in 1894 while playing home games at the Recreation Ground in the centre of town before merging with another local side; Harris FC to become Calne & Harris FC. Harris was the name of the bacon factory whose buildings dominated the town skyline.

Following World War Two the club emerged as Calne & Harris United FC continuing to play Wiltshire County League football. In the early 1960’s the club changed titles to Calne Town FC and moved to a new Bremhill View ground, which offered scope for better facilities.

In 1985-86 a new committee was formed at the club in an attempt to bring a better standard of football to Calne. The move succeeded as they were accepted as members of the Western League for the 1986-87 campaign.

Expansion work beginning in 1991 saw a new clubhouse being added to the facilities at Bremhill View. In 1992-93 under manager Graham Fell, the team won promotion to the Premier Division of the Western League.

The side retained its status for three years with managers coming and going before the club employed twenty-two-year-old Tommy Saunders as team manager. Saunders did a fine job in improving the team before he was offered the manager's job at Chippenham Town in February 1998.

The following season saw several players follow their former boss down the road to Chippenham. ‘The Lillywhites’ were relegated as a consequence to Division One in April 1999. The club tried to rebuild by using younger players but had a lucky escape when finishing bottom of the table in 2000-01 when league reconstruction saved a further demotion.

Gradually the club re-established themselves under manager Kelvin Highmore who led the side back to the Premier Division in 2004-05, before he departed for pastures new. Highmore was succeeded by the team of Robbie Lardner and Simon Hillier who took Calne to a fifth-place finish; the highest in the clubs’ history.

In May 2009 Lardner and Hillier stepped down to be replaced by the returning Highmore who was joined by Tommy Dryden. They lasted until the end of the 2009-10 season when Calne finished bottom of the table and were relegated once again.

After further managerial changes, several of the younger reserve team players were given an opportunity in the first eleven with their manager Simon Gardner taking over team affairs. Gardner later became the club chairman and appointed Neurin Jones as team manager.

The 2016-17 season was one of extreme disappointment after Dave Ferris took over from Jones in November while Garry Murphy took over as chairman. Ferris was dismissed with two matches of the season remaining as the team finished second from the bottom of the table with the club being reprieved from relegation.

The pairing of Clive McDaid and Ben Radford took over team affairs before Trevor Rawlings eventually took over the role. This was after the club was placed in the Premier Division of the Hellenic League in 2021-22 following a couple of abandoned seasons owing to the pandemic.

Calne were relegated to Division One of the competition twelve months later, finishing at the right end of the table for the following two campaigns. The club was placed in Division One of the Western League for the 2024-25 season under manager Craig Kent.

Calne Town FC will play in the Western League Division One in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Calne Town 3 Corsham Town 1 (Saturday 8th October 2016) Western League Division One (Att: 257)

My visit to Calne came about because the Western League had decided to run a groundhop weekend with many fixtures kicking off at staggered times. It was the international break for the top two divisions, which offered the potential for decent crowds to attend the matches.

It certainly worked for me. I was able to get to the Swindon Town v Bolton Wanderers match at lunchtime, followed by the majority of Royal Wootton Bassett Town v Burnham in the Hellenic League before the 55 bus delivered me in Calne.

I had arrived early to ensure that I got a programme at the ground before going in search of some ale. I didn't bother with the North Star club outside the ground, which had been listed in the guides, and the one backing onto the ground was staging a kid's party.

Instead, I went back around the corner to the Jenny Wren where both Wadsworth pumps were out of action. I sipped a bottle Newcy Brown while taking in the closing stages of the desperate England v Malta game on TV before heading back to the ground where the crowds were massed on the far side.

Bremhill View was a tidy enough venue. The near side had a low terraced cover, with the far side being cramped and atmospheric with a low seated stand in the centre with changing rooms and a busy refreshment hut towards the corner flag.

Admission was a very reasonable £5, with the programme costing a further quid. I thought it was a tidy little ground with superb floodlights which made the trees at the far end a very pretty image. I bought just about my first Bovril of the season for £1.

There were a few recognisable faces in the crowd from other matches as neutrals over the years along with a real plethora of team jackets and hats. Scarborough Athletic fans Keith Crowe and Neil Daniels were in attendance and were doing the full Western League hop over the weekend.

The match turned out to be a decent local derby, which had apparently been very feisty in previous seasons. The visitors of Corsham Town went 1-0 up through Ben Pring before Mark Dolman levelled things up for the Lillywhites on twenty-one minutes.

Just before the half-hour mark, player-boss Neurin Jones made it 2-1 to the home side. There was no point trying to get served in what would have been a busy bar at the break. Instead, I took advantage of the great offer on half-price hot dogs for a pound. Some of the more frugal hoppers weren’t best happy having made their purchase at the higher prices a little earlier!

Oliver Webb made it 3-1 to Calne with half an hour left on the clock. They looked in control of the match when I had to depart to ensure that I caught the last bus to Chippenham. I missed a second goal for Pring that made the final score 3-2.

On arrival in Chippenham, I had time for a pint of the very quaffable Summer Lightning from the Hopback Brewery in the excellent Old Road Tavern, which was marked down for a return visit in the future.

At which point it was time for the rattler back to Paddington, and with the aid of a bus and the new night tube on the Jubilee line, it meant that I caught the end of the Football League goals on a rerun just before 2am when I turned the key to my door.

The people of Wiltshire who I had come across were most amiable. All were friendly and helpful, helping to round off a wonderful day out.