Forest Green Rovers

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 there. In 1982 they won the FA Vase by beating a team actually called Rainworth Miners Welfare, 3-0, and then they played in the tier 7 Southern League for seven seasons. They made the tier 6 Conference in 1998.

All of this is to say that Rovers were one of countless little clubs toiling away in the villages of England—until Dale Vince became their chairman in 2010. He had been a “New Age traveler,” which seems to be like a Deadhead without the Grateful Dead. At one point he was living in a windmill-powered van on a hilltop! He started a company called Ecotricity, doing alternative clean energy, and has turned Rovers into a kind of sustainability demonstration project–and, more recently, another example of the power of money in the game. The players (and fans at the stadium) are on a vegan diet; the pitch is organic; the lawn mower is solar-powered, unmanned, and runs on GPS; the lights are solar; the address is on Another Way; grass clippings go to local farmers; and the team wears a striking neon-green kit.

Vince also put money in with all that peace and love, and Rovers kept playing their way up through the leagues. After the 2016-17 season, they made the playoffs of tier 5 and won the final at Wembley, 3-1 over Tranmere Rovers. Thus did Nailsworth, population 7,746, become the smallest town ever to host a Football League club. As you might expect, the team struggled, but they stayed up (by one point) in 2017-18—and hey, at least all the groundhoppers and the “do the 92” crowd got to try samosas and go for a walk in the Cotswolds!

The investment paid off: After making the League Two playoffs twice in three seasons, Rovers went and won the title last season, putting the little vegan club in League One for the 2022–23 season. Unfortunately, Rovers finished dead last during that season and the next, resulting in their relegation out of the Football League to the National League.

2024–25 SEASON: 3rd in National League (lost in playoff semifinal), 1st Round FA Cup

2025–26 SEASON: National League (relegated in 2024)

Anybody from nearby is a rival (Swindon Town and Cheltenham Town), but both are still in League Two for the next season.

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 fixtures.

“Not Bad for a Village Club.”

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 non-Football League 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 rain in a minute.” Apparently the club is considering a partial roof and some seats for their guests, and eventually a whole new ground out by the expressway.

TOURS: No tours are scheduled, but it’s worth a call.

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 steep hill on the edge of town; the entrance road is called Another Way. Just ask around or follow the colors.

PUBS: The club has one at the ground; it’s clean, comfortable, friendly, and serves real ale from a local brewery. The George in town is also a nice option; just remember you have to climb the mountain to get to the game, so go easy on the pints.

GRUB: There’s vegan at the game, of course; the samosas were excellent—hot and fresh. There are “burgers” made with something called Quorn; this is a good time to point out that visiting fans often sing “You can stick your veggie burgers up your arse.” Otherwise, Nailsworth is a bit of a tourist town, though a lovely and charming one, so there are options. Wild Garlic has excellent meals and nice B&B rooms upstairs. Balti Nailsworth looked tasty. Walkers is a traditional chippy on Bath Road.

AROUND TOWN: If you know anything about the Cotswolds, you will know how lovely they are—assuming you like old villages with stone cottages perched on hilltops and surrounded by sheep pastures and brooks and patches of forest. The Cotswolds are pretty much England’s Tuscany. You want to check out the Egypt Mill Hotel, an amazing restored 16th-century mill on the creek. (Rooms are in the £150 to £200 range, some with a dinner allowance.)

A lovely walk can be had up through the hills to Minchinhampton Common, where cows roam a golf course, then over to Minchinhampton itself, where there is a fantastic coffee shop serving local bread and dairy products. The Cotswold Way, a famous 107-mile hiking trail, is not far away and worth doing a section, for example the eight miles from Painswick to Kings Stanley using buses to get there and back.