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Coggeshall Town Football Club is a football club based in Coggeshall, Essex, England. The club are currently members of the Essex Senior League and play at West Street.

History
The club was established on 27 September 1878 by the J.K. King seed company in a meeting at the White Hart Hotel, with many of the King family and company employees being keen footballers. After losing the final of the Essex Junior Cup in 1899, they joined the North Essex League, going on to win the league four times. The club then joined the Colchester & District League and won Division II B and the Colchester & District Junior Cup in 1909–10, before retaining the Division II title the following season. In 1911 the league merged into the Essex & Suffolk Border League and the club were Division II B runners-up in 1926–27.

During the inter-war period, Coggeshall also played in local leagues around Braintree, Halstead, and Kelvedon, as well as returning to the North Essex League, where they won a further ten titles by World War II. After the war, the club joined the Braintree & District League, before switching to the Colchester & East Essex League. They were promoted to the Premier Division at the end of the 1951–52 season after finishing as runners-up in Division One. In 1959 the club moved up to the Essex & Suffolk Border League and won Division One in 1962–63.

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a prolonged period of success for Coggeshall as they won back-to-back Premier Division titles in 1966–67 and 1967–68, finished as runners-up in 1968–69, and won a third title in 1969–70. They also won the League Cup in both 1968–69 and 1969–70, beating Whitton United 3–2 in the 1969 final and Heybridge Swifts 1–0 in the 1970 final. After finishing as runners-up in 1970–71 and 1971–72, the club joined the Essex Senior League in 1972. After finishing bottom of the table for three consecutive seasons between 1983–84 and 1985–86, the club left the league. They rejoined the league in 1987 but left again at the end of the 1988–89 season for financial reasons.

Coggeshall had two spells in the Essex Intermediate League during the 1990s, before rejoining the Essex & Suffolk Border League. They won Division Three in 1994–95 and were Division Three runners-up in 2000–01. In 2012–13 they finished second in Division One, earning promotion to the Premier Division. In 2015–16 they won the Premier Division and the League Cup, beating Holland 4–3 on penalties, following a 0–0 draw. At the end of the season, they were promoted to Division One of the Eastern Counties League. The following season saw them finish as Division One runners-up, resulting in promotion to the Premier Division. In 2017–18 the club won the Premier Division title at the first attempt, earning promotion to the North Division of the Isthmian League.

Coggeshall's first season in the Isthmian League ended with a fourth-place finish and qualification for the promotion play-offs, with the club losing 1–0 to Maldon & Tiptree in the semi-finals. In 2022–23 they finished fourth from bottom of the division. After losing an inter-step play-off to Winterton Rangers the club were relegated to the Essex Senior League.

Ground
The club originally played at Mynheer Park, before moving to Barnard Field on Pointweel Lane for the 1880–81 season. The following season saw the club move to Highfields Farm Park, where they played until relocating to Fabians Field on Colne Road in 1890. In 1895 the club returned to Highfields. After being given notice to leave the ground in 1960, land for a new ground on West Street was offered to them on a leasehold basis, with £2,000 raised to prepare it for the club.

A pavilion was opened in 1961, a stand in 1964, and a clubhouse in 1971, at which point the club moved its headquarters from the Chapel Hotel. Floodlights were installed in 1967. When the landowner decided to sell the site in 1981, the club raised enough money to purchase it.

The ground's record attendance of 1,124 was set at the end of the 1967–68 when Coggeshall defeated Tiptree United to win the Essex & Suffolk Border League at the end of the 1967–68 season.

21/10/23 Isuzu FA Vase Round 1 Downham Town 1 Coggeshall Town 0
14/10/23 Essex Senior League Coggeshall Town 2 West Essex 1
10/10/23 Essex Senior League Tilbury 1 Coggeshall Town 1
07/10/23 Essex Senior League Coggeshall Town 1 Ilford 0
30/09/23 Essex Senior League Great Wakering Rovers 7 Coggeshall Town 0
26/09/23 BBC Essex Senior Cup FC Clacton 4 Coggeshall Town 2

After 13 matches, Coggeshall Town are currently in 20th place in the Essex Senior League Premier. They have 8 points from those 13 games – 2 wins, 2 draws, and 9 defeats. They have a -19 goal difference.

Away form is not good with no wins, 2 draws and 5 defeats, scoring 9 and conceding 24.

Obviously on a number of occasions, the last couple being last season when both teams dropped out of the Isthmian League North. On Thursday 20th April 2023, The Bridge won 1-0 at home to The Seed Growers in front of 139 spectators. Roy Stevens (who was in the Frenford team we beat recently) scored the winner on 78 minutes (used to love Football Web Pages!).

Prior to that, we went to Coggeshall on 2nd December 2022 and, despite a red card for Sam Elwood, came back from one down to win 3-1 with goals from George Smith, Ellis Lawson, and Harry Honesty after Jason Hallett had opened the scoring for Coggeshall. 93 were in attendance, including Beryl & Lesley, I believe, on a Friday night out in Essex!

Leon Boyejo
Aaron Cassie
Harry Davison
Nathan Dennis
Theodore Duffin
Ross Elsom
Harvey Farmer
Alfie Gilbey
Reggie Gregory
Bradley Hodge
Cameron James
Scott Keys
Ellis Lawson
Harry Lloyd
Gradi Milenge
Diione Millett
Alex Moss
Dimitri Nicolaou
Emmanuel Olagunju
Roland Oteniya
Joseph Payne
Reggie Pegrum
Freddie Pheby
James Pugsley
Finley Purcell
Leandro Sain
Enock Soganile
Jude Spearing
Conor Tyrrell
Dominik Varady
Finn Wilkes
Jack Zielinski

I can’t tell you who scores the goals for Coggeshall as nobody fills in the details on FA Full Time (so miss Football Web Pages!) but there are a lot of Hullbridge connections.

Obviously, the manager, Rob Moore, and assistant, I believe, Gareth Cleverly. It will be nice to see Mooro & Clevs back at Lower Road.

Player-wise, I’m not sure if they will play or even if they are still there but listed as registered players are: Ross Elsom, Reggie Gregory, Ellis Lawson, Roland Oteniya, Finn Wilkes, and Alex Moss (although I’m sure Mossy is now at Basildon…so hard to keep up with it all!)

Anyway...here’s Ross, would be great to see him back, lovely fellah! And Finn (who I don’t know!).

After a couple of cup matches, it’s back to the ESL Premier and 6th place takes on 20th and last. Coggeshall, however, have improved results in recent games, beating high-flying West Essex and not so high-flying Ilford and drawing with an in-form Tilbury so maybe it’s not the forgone conclusion that it possibly looks at first glance. Add in the returning management and players, if they do, and it’s going to be an interesting evening under the splendid new LED lights…

There remains just one thing left to say….