Westbury Utd

The club started in 1920 when two local sides amalgamated. Westbury Old Comrades FC had just won promotion to the First Division of the Wiltshire County League, and to strengthen the side they joined forces with a local junior side, Westbury Great Western Railway XI, and together they became Westbury United Football Club.

In its first season, the Club finished third from bottom of the County league and in the 1920s they struggled, but in the 1930s they won everything possible in Wiltshire football. In 1936 the Club reached the First Round Proper of the FA Cup. They were led by a magnificent player, Billy Pearce, who captained the County throughout the decade. Also in the side at the time was prolific goal scorer Bill Butler, who scored more than eighty senior goals in one season, and thirty in one month.

The Club purchased and moved to its present ground in Meadow Lane in 1934, the cost of the four-acre site being £475. The first game played on what was then the Jubilee Playing Field was against Bristol City and a crowd of around 4000 attended.

The club has produced many players who have gone on to make the grade at professional football, two of them being centre forwards for Bristol City. The first was Reg Smith who played for City in the 1930s and was then transferred to Wolverhampton Wanderers for what was described in the Press as a 'considerable fee'. The other was John Atyeo, for whom City played a presentation game against Westbury and made a donation of £100. Atyeo played over 600 games for City and scored 359 goals; he also played six times for England in which he netted five goals. He died suddenly in June 1993, aged 61, and now has a grandstand named after him at City's Ashton Gate ground as well as a street in his home village of Dilton Marsh (a few miles from Meadow Lane).

The club has strong family traditions. Wilf Alford left Westbury before the last War to play for then First Division Portsmouth. His son, Phil, managed the Reserve Team for many years as well as stints helping at First Team level, while his grandsons have also played for the club.

Westbury joined the Western League in 1984 and initially struggled. In 1988 floodlights were erected and Southampton were the visitors for the official switch-on. Season 1988–89 saw the club win its first honour in the League, winning the Sportsmanship Trophy. In 1991, under the management of Ian Harris, they won the First Division title to gain promotion to the Premier Division. The highest League placing to date came in the 1994–95 season when they finished fifth.

The club has had its share of dedicated officials who have given a lifetime of service. Former Club President, Ernie Barber, who died in December 2012, carried the team kit as a seven-year-old in 1933, and after the war he started playing. When he finished playing he became Secretary and held the post until the end of the 1996–97 season when he decided to retire.