Chelmsford City F.C:
Team Manager: Rod Stringer
Ground: Melbourne Stadium
Capacity: 3,000 (1,300 seated)
Segregated: No
Record Attendance: 3,201 (vs AFC Wimbledon, 15 March 2008)
The start of another new season for the Gulls and, after the disappointing end to last season, a whole new raft of teams to play and places to visit. In these segments we will be looking at our upcoming away fixtures and giving you some more insight (things to do, how to get there, history of the town/city etc.) to the different places Gary Owers’ men will be travelling to this term. The travelling Yellow Army has always been something the club has been extremely proud of and we will be counting on you again this season as we look to get this club moving in the right direction again.
CHELMSFORD, ESSEX
Location: 32 miles (51 kilometres) northeast of the central London. 262 miles from Plainmoor by car, and with the traffic gods on your side, it will take about 4 hours and 18 minutes to get to Chelmsford’s ground (Melbourne Stadium, CM12EH). By train or coach it will take an hour or two longer than that.
Population: 168,310 (ONS Census, 2011)
Facts:
- Chelmsford did not exist in its current form until 1199 when William of Sainte-Mère-Eglise (Bishop of London at the time) granted it a Royal Charter to hold an under-cover market operating from Tuesday to Saturday. The market still holds an important place in Chelmsford city centre today, over 800 years after it began.
- Though Chelmsford is quite an old place, it holds the title of being one of the newest cities in the country as it was only granted city status in 2012 as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
- The city is known as the ‘birthplace of radio’ as Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi opened the first ‘wireless’ factory on Hall Street in Chelmsford. The building still stands today but has recently been mostly converted in to apartments (but the developers did restore the old writing from when the factory originally opened which could be a nice thing to see).
- It was home for many years to English footballing legend, and a World Cup winner (one of the few still unfortunately) at that, Sir Geoff Hurst.
History:
- Originally called Chelmsford Football Club they were founded in 1878
- Changed to Chelmsford City Football Club in 1938
- Applied, unsuccessfully, for membership of the Football League no less than 17 (!) times between 1947 and 1976.
- Transferred from the Southern Premier Division to the Isthmian League Premier Division in 2004 where they got promoted as champions in the 2007/08 season. This promotion took them to their highest ever league standing in the Conference South.
- Qualified for the play offs in 6 out of the 10 seasons they have been in the league, the most recent being last season (2017/18) where they lost 1-0 in the semi finals to Hampton and Richmond Borough.
- Moved to Melbourne Stadium from their old New Writtle ground in 2004.
- Got to the FA Cup 4th round in 1938, beating then 2nd division team Southampton on the way before losing to Birmingham City in the 4th Only FA Cup showings to come close to that were recently when they reached the 2nd round in three consecutive seasons (2010/11, 2011/12 and 2012/13).
Story by Sam Turner