Church Street recreation ground in Clayhanger, formerly home to Brownhills United FC. Imagery from Bing! Maps.
A great enquiry reaches me from Florida, USA the home of Brownhills lad Andrew Richards, who emigrated there in 1990 – when Andy lived here, he played for Brownhills United and has written a wonderful piece requesting information on this lost local team.
It’s a great question and a side I’m keen to find out more about, as although we have plenty of material about Walsall Wood FC, and a little about Brownhills Albion, I don’t think we’ve really covered much local soccer in Brownhills.
Please, if you can help, do comment or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.
My thanks to Andy, who wrote:
Hi Bob
Discovered your blog a few months ago and have enjoyed it immensely. I lived in the area back in the 70s and 80s before emigrating to Florida in 1990. We lived on Watling Street just down from Whitehorse Road, our two daughters were educated at Brownhills Comp and before that at the junior and infants school at the junction of the Parade and Watling Street.
I wondered if anyone had ever come to you with memories of Brownhills United FC. I played for them for 10 years on and off as a goalkeeper and have some great memories of my playing days and the people I met but have now lost contact with.
In the early 70s we played in the Staffs County league our home ground was at the recreation ground in Church Road, Clayhanger getting changed in the Church hall. While holding our own in the league but not setting it alight we did have success in the Fazeley Cup, one of the oldest cups in the area. We reached the final two years running, winning once and losing once, I think it would be 1972 and 1973.
The team as I can remember from those days was made up of the following:
Me (Andy Richards), Bob Dolan, Michael Joberns, Alan Portman, Horace (Hoss) Timbrell, Pete ???, Bruce Fryer, Michael Cook, Bob Hobster, Alan Winter, Michael Brookes, Alan Dixon, John and Barry Cooper. The team at that time was managed by Bob (Libby) Hill. Apologies to thise I may have missed.
In the years following the team did start a reserve side and the first team was later managed by George Martin and then Mick Geary and became quite a force in the Staffs County league before it lost traction and I believe broke up in the early to mid 1980’s. I think one of the problems came from not having a solid home ground in the Brownhills area as over the years the team moved from Clayhanger, to Walsall Airport to Ogley School to Rushall etc.
It would be great to hear if anybody else remembers the team and its achievemnets.
Best Regards
Andrew (Andy) Richards