Gloucester City A.F.C.
Gloucester City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Hempsted, Gloucester.
The club was established in 1883 as Gloucester, they became Gloucester City in 1902, but were briefly known as Gloucester YMCA from 1910 to 1925, before returning to their previous name. The club plays in the National League North. Prior to that, it spent a record 70 years within the Southern Football League from 1939 until 2009. The club secured promotion after a playoff final win against Farnborough.
In July 2007, the club was considerably affected by the 2007 United Kingdom floods, which significantly affected Gloucestershire and left the Meadow Park stadium under 8 feet (2.4 m) of water. The flooding meant that the club was in exile away from Gloucester for 13 years. The Tigers played home games at New Lawn stadium in Nailsworth, Cirencester Town’s Corinium Stadium, Cheltenham Town’s Whaddon Road and Evesham United’s Jubilee Stadium before a return home to a new stadium at Meadow Park in 2020. The club is affiliated to the Gloucestershire County FA.
The club was formed on 5 March 1883 as Gloucester,[2] but the first recorded match came during 1883–84 when a scratch team representing Cheltenham played a match against the new Gloucester side.[3] However, that first Gloucester team folded in 1886. The club re-formed in September 1889. Gloucester’s first competitive game in October 1889 was a Gloucestershire FA Junior Challenge Cup 1st Round tie beating Clifton Association Reserves 10–0 at Budding’s Field.[3]
The club became members of the Bristol and District League which subsequently became the Western League. During this era the club was noted as ‘The Gloucestrians’ and ‘The Citizens’ in local media. The club were renamed ‘Gloucester City’ in 1902 and later merged with St. Michael’s at the beginning of the 1906–07 campaign. This club then folded in September 1910. A different team, Gloucester YMCA, formed at the same time and most of the players who had been with City joined Gloucester YMCA.
By 1925 this latest club had assumed the name of Gloucester City once more and had become founder members of the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League. In 1934–35, after winning both the Cup and League, City turned semi-professional, and joined the Birmingham Combination, as well as moving to a new stadium in Longlevens where the club stayed for the next 26 years.
They won the Tillotson Cup for being the best club in the Birmingham Combination, and then had former Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Reg Weaver blow away all records with his stunning tally of 67 goals in the 1937–38 season.
