Gosfield Utd. F.C.
11 Jul 2008

Gosfield Utd. F.C. was formed in 1906 when several prominent residents of the village contributed to the expenses for the forming of a football club. The very first match was played on October 6th. 1906, against Braintree Albion Rovers, who won by nine goals to three. In those days travel to games was by wagon, drawn by a pair of horses. Most of the matches were friendlies, and home matches were played on Gosfield Park. After the First World War Gosfield emerged as a very strong local side, and were a force to be reckoned with in the Halstead & District League.At one stage Gosfield competed in the Halstead League and the Braintree League at the same time.In those early days Gosfield played on the Park by kind permission of the Lady of the Manor, Mrs. Lowe, who eventually donated all of the playing field to the village, and to this day the Playing field is owneed and administered by the village, through the Parish Council.During the early 50's the club were lucky enough to have a prominent local resident, Mr. R.A.B. Butler, as President - he later went on to be Home Secretary in a Conservative government. Other well known figures in local football who were officials of the club include Jimmy Britton, Roy Letch, Eric Seymour and Maurice Rowson,the latter being well known for his bequest which allowed for the building of the Maurice Rowson Hall. In more recent years the club took a big leap forward with the building of the very well appointed new pavilion, built with the aid of a grant from the National Lottery Fund, after a magnificent fund raising effort by the village.This enabled to Club to move into the Essex & Suffolk Border League, Where we are today.