Braintree Town F.C.

Braintree Town F.C. are an English football club, representing the Essex town of Braintree. The team play most of their home matches at Cressing Road, and the grounds can easily be visited by fans staying at one of the nearby Braintree hotels.

The club was originally founded in 1898, when they went by the name of Manor Works. Initially it was the work team associated with labourers at the Crittall Window Company. From these industrious origins, the team derived their nickname: ‘the Iron’.

As the main Braintree F.C. had recently become defunct by this stage, the new club soon found themselves taking over fixtures in the North Essex League… in time, they also inherited most of the players from their predecessors.

Braintree Town F.C. won their first league title in 1905, and then won again in both 1910 and 1911. By this point they were moved to Division 2A of the Essex & Suffolk Border League – a position they kept until 1928.

After this it was the Spartan League, and later, in 1935, the club were one of the founding teams of the Eastern Counties League. After winning the league in its second season, they left to join the brand new Essex County League.

Braintree Town F.C. continued in this fashion throughout most of the 20th century – hopping from league to league, and only going from strength to strength. These days the club have more recently been associated with the Southern Division of the Southern League, the Isthmian League and more recently, Conference South – where they reached the play-offs in their very first season, before loosing 1-0 to Salisbury.

The team have a loyal fan base, who tend to follow them around with an almost religious zeal – from Cardiff to Corby hotel, hostel or bed and breakfast. Braintree Town F.C. continue to play far and wide across England, as they compete in an ever growing assortment of leagues and competitions.