Castle Vale F.C.

Castle Vale F.C. was a football club based in the Castle Vale area of Birmingham, England. The club was previously known as King's Heath and Castle Vale King's Heath before adopting its final name in 2005. The club resigned as members of the Midland Combination Premier Division in July 2012 and folded.

Castle Vale
Full nameCastle Vale Football Club
Nickname(s)The Spitfires
Founded1964 (as The Horseshoe)
Dissolved2012
GroundVale Stadium
Farnborough Road
Castle Vale
Birmingham[1]
2011–12Midland Football Combination
Premier Division, 5th (resigned)

History

The club was founded in 1964 as the pub team of the Horseshoe pub in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. The team played in the South Birmingham League and Mercian League for a number of years. In 1977 they changed their name to Kings Heath F.C. and joined the Midland Football Combination, initially in Division Two, and in 1982–83 were promoted to the top division, which was renamed the Premier Division in the same year.[2][3]

By this stage the club, although still named Kings Heath, was based at The Glen in Solihull but were forced to leave the ground when, midway through an extensive programme of ground improvements, their financial backer abruptly pulled out, leaving them unable to complete the work. The team was able to groundshare with Knowle and later Shirley Town but the facilities at these grounds did not meet Premier Division requirements, forcing the club to step down to Division One.[2] In the 1992–93 season Kings Heath finished as runners-up in Division One and were able to step back up to the Premier Division, having helped Shirley Town to get their ground up to the required standard. In 1999-2000 they achieved their best ever finish when they came second in the Premier Division.

The grandstand at Vale Stadium
Castle Vale (red shirts) take on Barrow Town in the FA Cup in 2008

They moved on to groundshare with first Alvechurch before moving into Vale Stadium, the former home of the previously defunct Paget Rangers in Castle Vale. They accordingly changed their name to Castle Vale Kings Heath, although they were usually known as Castle Vale KH.[4] In 2005 they dropped their last link to Kings Heath when they changed their name to simply Castle Vale F.C.[2][5] The club remained in the Midland Combination Premier Division until folding in 2012. They achieved a second runners-up finish in the 2006–07 season.[5]

Records
  • Best league performance: 2nd in Midland Combination Premier Division, 1999–2000, 2006–07
  • Best FA Cup performance: Preliminary Round 2007–08
  • Best FA Vase performance: 3rd round proper, 2006–07

References
  1. Midland Combination website
  2. Matchday programme, Castle Vale vs Barrow Town, 16 August 2008
  3. Kings Heath at the Football Club History Database
  4. Castle Vale KH at the Football Club History Database
  5. Castle Vale at the Football Club History Database
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