Club History

Bristol Manor Farm Football Club was formed for the 1960/61 season. After just one season, the club was disbanded but was later reformed and began playing again in the 1962/63 season. Our current home at ‘The Creek’ used to be the site of the Port of Bristol Authority Sports & Social Club and when they moved to new premises, Manor Farm too it over in 1967.

Having a permanent base of our own enabled the club to apply successfully to join the Somerset Senior League where they were to progress rapidly through the divisions before deciding to advance further to the Western League in 1977.

The club was to join the First Division for the 1977-78 season and remained there until the 1982-83 season when they won the First Division championship and gained promotion to the Premier Division, until relegation under Pete McCall's management team in 2001- 02. In 1983-84 they were to reach the final of the G.F.A. Challenge Trophy where they went down to Hellenic League side Shortwood United. They were also to lose in the final a few years later when they lost to Mangotsfield United, but the trophy did make its way to the Creek in 1987-88.

The pitch at the Creek has always been notorious for its sloping surface but work has been undertaken in recent years to eliminate the slope. This caused the club many problems initially, but they now appear to have achieved their aim. With seating and floodlights added since 1980, the club now boasts excellent facilities alongside a spacious clubhouse.

For many years, Mike Fisher was manager at the Creek and brought the club much success, which was carried on by Chris Rex. After a spell under former Bristol City player Alan Crawford, Chris Rex returned to the hot seat but parted company with the club during the summer of 1997, to be replaced by the management team of Geoff Bryant and John Black. Pete McCall was appointed manager for the 2001-02 season, which was to prove a particularly difficult one, with changes in administration, poor results and Pete himself leaving just before the end of the season. The result of all this upheaval was that the first team was relegated to the First Division. 2002-03 season saw Geoff Bryant back in charge, assisted by Steve Beecham, but after nine games of poor results they decided to resign. In their place came Shaun Bond as manager and Nicky Johns as coach. In addition we had a ladies team, no longer with us, managed by Terry Buffery, a return to the old club colours, new administration with Jon Scriven as secretary and a change of direction for the reserve team to the Suburban League with Steve Camm in the managers hot seat assisted by Nick Baldwin. The season also saw the return of the youth team, managed by Mike Shopland and Steve Wailer. With a new 100 seater stand named after our chairman Geoff Sellek , who has guided the club off the pitch and help from then vice-chairman Charlie Baldwin the club were again heading in the right direction.

This was proved the following season when the first team regained Premier Division status and the youth team also enjoyed success with promotion to the Somerset Floodlight Youth League Premier Division.

The beginning of the 2004/05 season saw Manor Farm riding high at the top of the table for the first couple of months before dropping off the pace by Christmas. Their early season form never returned which eventually saw the departure of manager Shaun Bond from the club and the appointment of former Clevedon Town boss Steve Fey, although he mainly took a back seat until the last few games of the season allowing players Matt Baird and Mark Buxton to take on a dual caretaker-manager role.

Seventh place was still a satisfactory final position despite their blistering start to the campaign and the success of the reserves in gaining promotion to the Suburban League Premier Two under Charlie Baldwin, as well as an impressive year for the youth team under Dale Dempsey and Andy Marshall in finishing third in the league and being losing finalists to Paulton Rovers in the Somerset Floodlight Youth Cup meant that the future was looking bright. Only three of the previous squad remained for the start of the 2005/06 season as the appointment of former Brislington boss Nigel Gillard as assistant to Steve Fey heralded the start of a new era at Bristol Manor Farm.

Their management brought Manor Farm its highest ever league position of 3rd place in the Premier division and this success resulted in an application from the club to join the Southern League which was turned down.

Geoff Bryant rescued the youth teams season by taking charge after previous manager Dale Dempsey resigned just before the first league game. After keeping the team in the Premier division Geoff was rewarded by leading them to cup glory, defeating Mangotsfield United 3-0 in the Somerset Floodlight Youth League cup final.

Steve Fey resigned as manager at the end of the 2006/07 season and John Black took up the reins as manager assisted by Geoff Bryant with Richard Thomas taking over as Youth Team Manager. The 2007/08 season was difficult from the start. No manager and no team. Many of the players from the previous season left the club to join other teams. It was always going to be tough going and the opening game of the season against Barnstaple showed how far the team had to go having suffered a 5-0 loss. By the end of the season however, the team had settled down and began to show the makings of a good team. And so the season ended with the club finishing 16th in the Premier Division. No mean feat considering the circumstances in which John Black and Geoff Bryant had taken over.