Derby Women

The club started out as the idea of Sheila Rollinson and Jess Reid, who at the time were both playing for the Coventry-based women's side Holbrooks Athletic. Rollinson had recently moved to the Derby area and Reid lived in Burton, so they came up with the idea of forming a new more locally based team.

Adverts for players were placed in both the Burton Mail and the Derby Evening Telegraph and at that time more of the replies came from the Burton area, so Burton Wanderers was born. The club's first season was 1978–9 in the Midland League (which later became the West Midlands League) and saw the club playing at Shobnall Fields in Burton, with Phil Rollinson as manager and Bob Reid acting as club secretary. Training sessions were held in Bitham School sports hall.

After one season in the Midland league the club decided to move to the Nottingham League (later the East Midlands League) due to the standard of football being of a higher level. At this time a national women's league was not in place and as such the club regularly played against teams such as Doncaster Belles, which at the time contained most of the England team. Junior leagues were not in place and with girls not being allowed to play in boys’ teams, the side often had 11–13-year-olds playing alongside adults.

With the demise of another local side, Derby Rangers, a number of experienced players joined the club and in 1985 the club secured its first sponsorship deal with the Beacon Hotel. The deal saw the club's name change to Beacon Wanderers. During this period Dave Elks enjoyed a lengthy spell as the club's manager before handing over to Malcolm Aldridge. Gradually the balance of players swung more towards the Derby area and as the club name no longer included Burton, it seemed sensible to move both matches and training sessions to Derby. For a while, Leesbrook school was the venue for both before eventually Derby City Council's Parkers Piece ground became the club's home.

In 1990, John Jarman started the Community Department at Derby County Football Club and in the same year, he held discussion with the management of Beacon Wanderers which eventually led to the formation of Derby County Ladies FC. At that time the club consisted of a single open-age team, however, the association with Derby County quickly saw it extended to a reserve and third team. The first manager of the newly formed DCLFC was Neil Crofts.