The non league rickety wonder of Crockenhill FC

[editor]

This ground is such a gem that I figured it was worth a thread of its own. What a ground!

In photos: the wonderfully rustic, rickety charm of Crockenhill FC’s football ground

On Saturday, Peckham Town travelled to the tiny village of Crockenhill in Kent, defeating the local team by two goals to nil. Their delightfully old fashioned and overgrown ground has long been a f…

www.brixtonbuzz.com

 

[Ben Caldecourt]

Used to play here when I was younger against a team called Eynsford Juniors.

 

[darryl]

It was an amazing place. Not what you expect to find after a 20 minute walk from the 233 bus from Eltham (thank heavens for the trusty A-Z showing paths through fields that Google doesn't!). Crockenhill itself is a bit bigger than a hamlet - it's got a village green and a pub - but the ground is a decent distance away so it feels in the middle of nowhere (despite the roar of the A20/M25 and the sight of Swanley in the distance).

There were very, very few Crockenhill fans there that I could see - can't be much fun heading for your second relegation in a row after not having won all season - but the club volunteers were smashing people. I hope the club sees better times soon.

 

[editor]

It was an amazing place. Not what you expect to find after a 20 minute walk from the 233 bus from Eltham (thank heavens for the trusty A-Z showing paths through fields that Google doesn't!). Crockenhill itself is a bit bigger than a hamlet - it's got a village green and a pub - but the ground is a decent distance away so it feels in the middle of nowhere (despite the roar of the A20/M25 and the sight of Swanley in the distance).

There were very, very few Crockenhill fans there that I could see - can't be much fun heading for your second relegation in a row after not having won all season - but the club volunteers were smashing people. I hope the club sees better times soon.

By coincidence I was channel surfing the next day and the Bromley Boys came on! I'd never seen it before so it was lovely to see the old ground on TV (even if the film was a bit naff).

 

[surreybrowncap]

I'm going to make the effort to seek out grounds like these.....

 

[Sparkle Motion]

Tony Cascarino was said to have been sold to Gillingham by Crockenhill for a set of tracksuits. Although I’ve also heard a version that included some corrugated iron.

 

[steeplejack]

Yep Cascarino started out there and I have heard the tracksuits story. Kent league was a tough leage back then with many future football league players coming through it. Here's a Crockenhill team photo from 1981-82 with Cas second from left in the back row. He went to Gillingham in summer 82 with the club receiving "a new set of strips and some corrugated iron for the ground". Later pic is him in the 82-83 season at Priestfield.

 

[AverageJoe]

He's forgotten his shorts.

Did they include them in the transfer?

 

[steeplejack]

In the early 80s football shorts had more the character of swimming trunks.

 

[Pink Panther]

Tony Cascarino was said to have been sold to Gillingham by Crockenhill for a set of tracksuits. Although I’ve also heard a version that included some corrugated iron.

On a similar theme, the Hamlet received a set of gym weights from Palace for Ian Wright.

 

[steeplejack]

anyway, poor Crockenhill seem to be hurtling towards a double relegation, rooted to the bottom of the Kent League Division 1 West and next season likely to be in a league full of reserve teams and others called names like "AMG Ballerz". Must try and get along to this park which I have never been to.

 

[pompeydunc]

anyway, poor Crockenhill seem to be hurtling towards a double relegation, rooted to the bottom of the Kent League Division 1 West and next season likely to be in a league full of reserve teams and others called names like "AMG Ballerz". Must try and get along to this park which I have never been to.

They truly are woeful on field for several seasons now. Such a shame. Clearly need new leadership for on pitch affairs to match their history and charming ground.

 

[Pink Panther]

anyway, poor Crockenhill seem to be hurtling towards a double relegation, rooted to the bottom of the Kent League Division 1 West and next season likely to be in a league full of reserve teams and others called names like "AMG Ballerz". Must try and get along to this park which I have never been to.

I went there once shortly before the turn of the century, I think it was a league match for Hamlet u15 on a Sunday morning, purely for the ground tick with (possibly) Roger D, Paula_G and Mishi. We visited the village pub afterwards and a fight (handbags) kicked off, purely by coincidence, as soon as we walked through the door. The landlady was really embarrassed, as we were clearly the only non-regulars on a busy Sunday lunchtime. "We've been here 5 years and nothing like this has happened before", she told us. I went back a couple of years ago with a friend whose horse was living nearby, and some other friends recently moved to the village.

The Chequers

chequerscrockenhill.co.uk

 

[Pink Panther]

They truly are woeful on field for several seasons now. Such a shame. Clearly need new leadership for on pitch affairs to match their history and charming ground.

They were an established Kent League club for at least two or three decades before the turn of the century, although lack of floodlights always hampered them. You'd think they could at least compete strongly at Kent County Premier level, with a basic ground and no lights.

 

[darryl]

I went there once shortly before the turn of the century, I think it was a league match for Hamlet u15 on a Sunday morning, purely for the ground tick with (possibly) Roger D, Paula_G and Mishi. We visited the village pub afterwards and a fight (handbags) kicked off, purely by coincidence, as soon as we walked through the door. The landlady was really embarrassed, as we were clearly the only non-regulars on a busy Sunday lunchtime. "We've been here 5 years and nothing like this has happened before", she told us. I went back a couple of years ago with a friend whose horse was living nearby, and some other friends recently moved to the village.

The Chequers

chequerscrockenhill.co.uk

Quite something when the pub website has to warn potential patrons that any lip and they'll be out...

anyway, poor Crockenhill seem to be hurtling towards a double relegation, rooted to the bottom of the Kent League Division 1 West and next season likely to be in a league full of reserve teams and others called names like "AMG Ballerz". Must try and get along to this park which I have never been to.

That's got to be their third relegation in a row, hasn't it? So sad. Should wander back across the fields and pay them another visit when the days are a bit warmer and longer: nice excuse to visit the ace Cotton Mill boozer in Swanley as well.

 

[Pink Panther]

Quite something when the pub website has to warn potential patrons that any lip and they'll be out.

That's got to be their third relegation in a row, hasn't it? So sad. Should wander back across the fields and pay them another visit when the days are a bit warmer and longer: nice excuse to visit the ace Cotton Mill boozer in Swanley as well.

That's London outskirts for you. Zone 2 is much more civilised and sophisticated! Chequers is the only pub within at least a 1 mile radius, so any local idiots will go there. Swanley does appear to have better options close to the station these days but that wasn't the case a quarter of a century ago.

 

[darryl]

That's London outskirts for you. Zone 2 is much more civilised and sophisticated! Chequers is the only pub within at least a 1 mile radius, so any local idiots will go there. Swanley does appear to have better options close to the station these days but that wasn't the case a quarter of a century ago.

There's a reason why micropubs took off in such a big way in the SE London/NW Kent borderlands - because just about all the other pubs are bleedin' awful places.

 

[pompeydunc]

Quite something when the pub website has to warn potential patrons that any lip and they'll be out...



That's got to be their third relegation in a row, hasn't it? So sad. Should wander back across the fields and pay them another visit when the days are a bit warmer and longer: nice excuse to visit the ace Cotton Mill boozer in Swanley as well.

Think they have finished bottom of SCEFL one before that too and were reprieved. They were bottom I think for the two cancelled COVID seasons in Kent Prem.

They survived their first season back in Kent Prem though...just. That was the season when ex Hamlet forward, Kladji "Clyde" Cani made his debut for the Menace away at their place. He came on for last twenty minutes for his debut and scored a hat-trick.