Abingdon Town

Abingdon Town FC is a football club from the Oxfordshire town of the same name that can trace its roots right back to 1870, when they were formed as Abingdon FC. The club became a member of the Oxford & District League in 1892, absorbing St Michael’s FC in 1899.

Consecutive league titles followed shortly after, before the ‘Abbots’ joined the Berks & Bucks League, where they competed for just one season before choosing to play in the West Berks League. Another change of competition followed in 1904, seeing the club join the Reading Temperance League.

On joining the North Berks League in 1919, Abingdon were crowned as champions in their debut season, which was backed up by further success in 1922-23, as the club settled into their new Culham Road home ground. Whereupon the club moved to the Reading & District League, adding ‘Town’ to their name in 1928. 

They finished third in Division One in 1931-32 to win promotion to the Premier Division. After finishing at the bottom of the table for a third time in 1936-37, Abingdon joined the Oxfordshire Senior League for one season before returning to the North Berks League.

The moves around the competitions continued after World War II, as Abingdon returned to the Reading & District League, finishing as runners-up in 1946-47. The Spartan League was joined for the 1950-51 campaign before the club became a founder member of the Hellenic League in the summer of 1953.

1956-57 saw the Abbots crowned as champions, a feat they repeated in 1958-59, and again in 1959-60. They were relegated in 1965-66 before regaining their Premier Division status a year later. The runners-up position was achieved in 1970-71, which was repeated the following season.

My drawing of Culham Road and some Abingdon Town kits
To enjoy a closer look, click on the image.

Relegation followed in 1974-75, which was put right by another immediate return. A fourth league title was won in 1986-87, backed up by a second place twelve months later, as Abingdon moved to the Premier Division of the Spartan League, winning its title at the first attempt.

This was rewarded with a place in Division Two South of the Isthmian League, winning promotion to Division One in 1990-91, where the team remained until they were relegated at the end of the 1997–98 season. Another demotion, down to Division Three, followed in 1998-99.

Division Three became Division Two after the Isthmian League was reorganised in readiness for the 2002-03 campaign. Despite finishing in seventh place in 2004-05, Town dropped down to the Premier Division of the Hellenic League, where the team struggled for several seasons.

Bottom place in 2014-15 resulted in a drop of two tiers, down to Division One of the North Berks League. After being inactive for a year, the Abbots returned to Division Two East of the Hellenic League in 2017-18, moving up to Division One East a season later, rather than competing against mostly reserve sides.

 

Abingdon Town's manager, Tranell Richardson, caused a stir in December 2019 when his team shipped in eight goals before half-time against local rivals Abingdon United. They left the ground and refused to continue, with the team boss resigning the following day. Byron O'Regan was appointed to bring stability to the club.

After two seasons of abandoned competitive football owing to the worldwide pandemic, Town withdrew from the Hellenic League after failing to reach an agreement with the new owners of the Culham Road ground. They changed their name to Abingdon Abbots, joining Division One of the Oxfordshire Senior League for the 2022–23 season.

Promotion to the Premier Division was achieved in 2023-24, as the club changed back to being called Abingdon Town, finishing sixth in 2024-25 under manager John Beames. 

Abingdon United will play in the Oxfordshire Senior League Premier Division in the 2025-26 season.

My visit

May 1999

I had not long moved to London and secured a job at Lord’s Cricket Ground working for the MCC. My mate Steve had moved from Scarborough with his girlfriend Sarah and was living in Radley, south of Oxford. I went to stay with them for a couple of nights, discovering some new places.

It was a Bank Holiday weekend, so on Monday we decided to walk to Abingdon to have a game of pitch and putt at Abbey Meadows by the River Thames, which took around half an hour, passing some interesting-looking pubs along the way. Once we had finished, I said I’d like to look at the football ground. 

The venue was open, and it seemed like a decent set-up, having stands on either side of the pitch and a sizeable clubhouse. We took the bus into Oxford once we had finished for a look around before I caught the service back to London.

Somewhat remarkably, I never got to see a game there despite visiting times, and even more so, I never went to look at the Abingdon United ground, despite catching a bus into town from outside it on several occasions.

I didn’t have my camera with me on my visit in the days before smartphones and their images being instantly available, so those on this page have been sourced online.