The club was founded by a local minister in 1889 and kicked around a bunch of tiny leagues like the Stroud and District and the North Gloucestershire for decades, playing teams with names like Braintree and Tow Law Town. In 1975 they got up to the Hellenic League Premier Division, a southern league at level 9 of the pyramid, and found success…

Anybody from nearby is a rival (Swindon Town and Cheltenham Town), but they have come so far that they’ve left all their traditional rivals

The FGR Women play at the same stadium (imagine that!) in the South West Regional Premier League at tier 6 of the pyramid; check the website for

“Not Bad for a Village

The New Lawn sits on top of a hill on the edge of Nailsworth—a hill which, to hear your average beer-laden British football fan tell it, roughly approximates Mount Everest. It is very much a League One ground, with 5,032 capacity that includes 2,000 seats. The long away terrace on one side has no roof, which leads home fans to sing, “It’s gonna…

GETTING THERE: Unless you rent a car, you’ll need at least one train and a bus to get there from London. From London Paddington, you need to get to Stroud (which could involve changing in Swindon or Gloucester), then take bus 63 from the Merrywalks shopping center about an hour to Nailsworth. No trains go there. The ground is on top of a fairly…