Cheadle Town's history can be traced back to 1961 when a 14 year-old boy called Barrie Dean asked his neighbour, Chris Davies, to help his friends form a football team. This team was called Grasmere Rovers after the name of the street that both of them lived on. Chris Davies took on the role as team manager and on 3rd September 1961, Grasmere Rovers took to the field for the first time.

Grasmere started out in the Manchester Junior Football League - a league they would eventually win in the 1967-68 season - playing on Sunday afternoons at The Mellands in Belle Vue. They joined the manchester League in 1972 (one 'rung' below the NWCFL) which allowed them to play on the more regular Saturday afternoon.  Now under the managerial guidance of Albert Pike, with Chris Davies as chairman and now playing their matches at Surrey Street in Glossop, Grasmere Rovers went from strength-to-strength; the peak of which was the 1979-1980 season where they won the Manchester League, the Gilchrist Cup, the Manchester County Amateur Cup and the Derbyshire Junior Cup.

The team moved to their present-day home of Park Road for the 1982-83 season. Maine Road were the first ever visitors on Saturday 21 August 1982, running out 3-1 winners on the day. This would be the last season that the team would be known as Grasmere Rovers

The club joined the North West Counties Football League for the 1983-84 season as Cheadle Town, under the managerial guidance of Gerry Clewes. They finished their first season a lowly 15th in Division Three but were promoted "by default" at the end of the 1986-87 season when Division Three was incorporated into Division Two.

Cheadle Town have spent most of their NWCFL life in Division Two; 1998 saw the start of a three-year escape from Division Two as the club were promoted to Division One. The club struggled with lowly finishes during their three seasons and were ultimately relegated back to Division Two in 2001 after finishing bottom. They have stayed at this level ever since; the fact that Cheadle Town found themselves in Division One for the start of the 2008-2009 season was merely down to a renaming of the NWCFL leagues.

If you're good at maths you'll have sussed out that calendar year 2011 will be the club's 50th anniversary which was celebrated in February of that year with a special dinner, attended by players from the past and present.

Last updated on Jan 25, 2012 at 4:25PM by The Pole