Cradley Chain & Castings Football Club

Bev Pegg shares some of his memories and recollections of Cradley Chain and Castings Football Club.

My cousin Stafford Screen was football mad like both my dad and me. Back in 1957 when I was about 15, Stafford and my dad agreed to start a football team and Cradley Chain and Castings Ltd would part sponsor it by providing the strip, helping with transport and assisting in leasing a pitch in the area. Having said that, all of the players contributed by paying to play each weekend so it was not just the works paying for everything.

We badly wanted the Homer Hill pitch by the High School, but it was used by Homer Hill Youth Club, who I played for several times. Permission was declined, so we played on the pitch next door to the school pitch which had a bit of a large slope and wasn't really that good.

We started off in the Cradley Heath League, and then moved to play in the Brierley Hill League. We moved ground to Wollescote Park for quite a while. Around approximately 1969, we leased the E J & J Pearson ground in Maypole Fields which was a good flat pitch. We had also left the Brierley Hill League and joined the Birmingham AFA League. Around that time we had a very good team and won the Birmingham AFA Premier League on two occasions during the early 1970s.

Very soon houses were built on the Maypole Fields site, so we developed a pitch at Kinver Street, Wordsley where we resided until the time came when engineering was in recession. As a result, although it nearly broke my heart, Cradley Castings had to cease sponsoring the team. If our own workers were on short time and struggling, it did not seem right for us to be spending money on outside items such a sponsoring the football team. At that time, my father had died some years ago and my cousin's playing days were over, and the running of the club was gradually delegated to a few lads who took over the responsibilities well.

Following, this, the team gained another sponsor in the Darlaston area and moved there. However, the new sponsor got into difficulties consequently the team folded and was no more.

Bev Pegg