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HISTORY OF ALVINGTON STAR FC
Welcome to Alvington Star FC's history page!
Discover our football club's history, from its beginnings to recent rebuild. Join us on a journey through the years.
Alvington Star FC Timeline
1890s
Records of sport in Alvington began in the 1890s when Woolaston & Alvington are reported to have played "football" games over the years of around 1892 onwards.
The below newspaper clippings from the South Wales Weekly Argus, Monmouthshire Advertiser and Gloucester Citizen talks of "football" games being played at Sudbrook, Coleford and Lydney. It would appear upon further reading that this was actually a rugby team.
1920s
A Woolaston & Alvington association football, or soccer, team isn't mentioned for another two decades when on Saturday 13th September 1920 the Gloucester Citizen lists football fixtures in the Forest of Dean District of the North Gloucestershire Football League.
What makes this newspaper clipping really interesting is not the first time the club are mentioned for two decades, but it is also the first time that we see Alvington and Woolaston named as separate clubs.
This leads us to believe that either the two clubs were formed separately, or the two villages football teams split somewhere between the 1890s and 1920s.
The idea of a split is the most likely thing to have happened (more on that later).
The Welsh newspaper, Western Mail, talk about the growth of football in 1913 and that the Forest of Dean league "is full and can admit no more teams".
This saw the establishment of the East Monmouthshire Football League.
The Gloucester Citizen references a farewell social and dance that was held at Woolastone Memorial Hall by the Woolastone and Alvington Club on Wednesday 27th May 1925.
It would appear that in the 1929/1930 season the Woolaston team had ventured into the now not-so-new East Monmouthshire Football League as they are mentioned having drawn 3-3 with St. Briavels on Saturday 15th November 1929.
1930s
Tensions between the Forest of Dean and North Gloucestershire Football Associations appeared to be a concern for football in the local area.
A tough read due to poor quality but headlined "Why teams prefer Glo'ster League' appears to show that a lot of the Forest teams moved away to the much more "challenging" North Gloucestershire Football League, however Alvington remained supporters of Forest football and were one of 14 teams competing in one league in 1930.
Their first fixture that season in the Dilke Hospital Cup Competition was away to Broadwell in the second round, after receiving a bye in the first round.
Woolaston must have made the move back into Forest football as both themselves and Alvington are listed in fixtures on the weekend of 11th October under the Northern Minor - Forest of Dean District football league.
At the end of the 1930/31 season Alvington Football Club dissolved and did not compete in the following season of football. Mr E. D. Fenwick, who may have been the Chairman or Secretary of the club wrote to the Secretary of the Forest of Dean League stating that "no move had been made to revive the club, but he had not given up hope".
We believe the club missed just one or two seasons as a newspaper clipping of the Cheltenham Chronicle and Gloucestershire Graphic on 26th September 1935 talks about a dance which was held by Alvington Football Club.
Unfortunately, a fight broke out and a man was arrested before being tried at Lydney Police Court and fined £3 and ordered to pay £2 11s. costs.
1950s-1970s
1940s
During the late 1930s until 1945, football wouldn't have been the main priority for most people as they tried to survive the Second World War.
But it would appear that between 1935 and 1946, when the club is first mentioned in a newspaper again, Alvington Football Club grew with considerable size, along with an amalgamation with Woolaston Football Club.
The Gloucestershire Echo reports the fixtures for the Gloucestershire Football Association Cups - Northern Junior Cup A Section and Northern Minor Cup A Section, where two Woolaston and Alvington teams can be seen.
A first team and a reserve team!
Later in that season the local Gloucestershire Citizen and Gloucester Journal newspaper reported our first trophy!
Woolaston and Alvington Football Club
Chepstow & District Hospital Cup Winners 1946/47
Woolaston and Alvington Football Club players:
Back Row: Mr Kingston, Ted Cook (slightly back), S Wakefield, Wilf George, Jack Clarke, Len Ball.
Row 3: Arthur Williams, Bert Pine, Mr Thomas - Trainer (from Alvington), Charlie Dorrington (Goalie), Cliff Thompson, Rocky George, Harry Grail, Mr French (in Trilby).
Row 2: Bob Guest, Baggy Marshall, Norman Biggs, Bob Hoskins, Tom Ball.
Front Row: B Edmunds, Jacky Corbin, Tony George, Stan Grail.
This is the first picture of the club and the teams colours were black and amber as seen in the modernised colour image.
At the time the team HQ was at Brookend at the Woolaston Inn (the Old Woolaston Inn. They changed in a Nissen Hut in the pub garden.
Bert Pine was the Woolaston Inn Landlord. Mr Kingston [Bill] was the groundsman and the team at that time played on a field at Plusterwine Farm (referred to locally as Plusterwine House) by courtesy of Mr Arthur Davis.
They bathed in a tin bath at a small barn near to the roadside, the water being heated in an old boiler by Mr Kingston whose fee for marking the pitch seeing to the nets etc. was seven shillings and sixpence [ 37.5p ]".
Plusterwine House is marked by the red circle in the image below, but the Plusterwine Estate includes the entire area below the A48.
In the following season Woolaston and Alvington FC are mentioned a few more times in weekly newspapers with results, but frustratingly no league tables...
This appears to have been the last season of the reserve team as they aren't mentioned again and then eventually in 1949 another split with Woolaston as Alvington Football Club are shown playing in the Northern Gloucestershire Football League Division One.
The league featured Lydney Town, Aylburton and Blakeney.
1950s-1970s
In the 1950s onwards Alvington were still performing strongly and it would appear the first mention of 'Alvington Star' can be seen in a newspaper article from January 1951. They were scheduled to play in the Northern Junior County Cup preliminary round at the start of the year against Steam Mills away.
Later in the year in the new season the scores showed Alvington smashing Llanishen 7-2 in the East Monmouthshire League Cup.
Later in the 1951/52 season and the following season more results can be found in the local newspapers, including a big win against Chepstow and Shirenewton in the East Monmoutshire League.
A photo from the 1952/1953 season was found captioned "They were playing Gloucester City XI". Whilst no records online or with Gloucester City can be found to back this up, a well known Gloucester City historian can confirm that the kit worn by the number "4" in the background is similar to the shirt that Gloucester City wore around this era.
The Alvington player's are as follows:
Back row: D Harris, A Voyce, R George,. J Fryer, C Thompson, C Murphy.
Front row: George Bollen, A Cook, J Voyce, F Parker, J George.
Success followed in 1954 as Alvington won the Watkins Shield, a cup with little information but also won by Caldicot Town in the 1960s.
The winning sides player's are as follows:
Back Row: J Voyce, A Cook, A Voyce, J Fryer, C Murphy, J George, R George, J Legge ( D Tyrell. Ref)
Front Row: Ted Winter, F Parker, C Thompson, T Ball, George Bollen.
A brief gap in the newspaper articles again before 1958 when a few names are mentioned repetitively; J Legge, the Cook brothers, and George Bollen, all of them performing well or scoring for Alvington.
After this no more history for Alvington can be found in the newspapers and internet records also bring up nothing. This was until Mike Thomas shared a video of Alvington vs Viney Hill Under 14s at Alvington Playing Fields.
In the video the teams can be seen playing across the north end of the playing fields, compared with the current pitch layout of north/south along the western side.
2020s
2020s
Alvington Football Club were reformed in 2024 after almost 50 years under the name Alvington Star FC. The revival was headed up by Stuart Lodge and Tom Vincent along with Russell Robinson, three avid local footballers who have played and managed for a number of clubs over the years, most recently Viney Hill.
After leaving management at Viney Hill, Stuart and Tom decided to start their own local football team, settling for the small village of Alvington where Stuart's mum resides. They both fell in love with the history of the club and decided to rise a team from the ashes into the 21st century.
The team secured a place at Alvington Playing Fields with huge backing from Alvington Parish Council and the locals. They currently use old shipping containers in the top corner of the field as their temporary changing rooms whilst funding is secured for an official building installation (see more here).
Next up was choosing a club badge. The inspiration for the new club badge came from various local features, and combines proud roots, more recent history and a beautiful location to play football.
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The blue that tops the crest represents the River Severn that runs right next to our scenic village.
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The date is the year the reborn Alvington Star FC became established, whilst the star is taken from the original badge from the 70's as a nod to the former side.
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The lion finds itself with us from the Herefordshire Coat of Arms. Until the 13th century, Alvington was considered part of Herefordshire, before being absorbed into the Bledisloe Hundred and made a separate parish.
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The motto ‘Prorsum Semper’ translates as ‘Ever Forward’ which is derived from the Arms of the City of Gloucester, a link to more recent history as part of Gloucestershire
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And of course, the blacksmiths tools, located behind the lion of Herefordshire ties us to the local pub, the Blacksmiths Arms which was a smithy until 1891.
The team's home kit is currently amber and black striped shirts with black shorts and black socks, and their away kit is white and green squared with green shorts and green socks.
In their first season in 2024/25, Alvington Star finished third in the league, losing out on the promotion places by 1 point. Although they finished third in the league, Alvington were deducted three points earlier in the season due to Sling Reserves folding, however their promotion rivals Blakeney Reserves had lost to Sling early on in the season and weren't deducted any points. A few meetings later, and the push for an Alvington Reserves team, Gloucestershire FA finally allowed Alvington Star to be promoted to Division Two of the North Gloucestershire Football League.
They also made the quarter-finals of the County Cup losing narrowly 1-0 on the day.
Their main rivals are local neighbours Woolaston who they play on a yearly basis on Boxing Day for a friendly match. So far results have swung in favour for the more experienced Woolaston.
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