PART ONE
SEASONS 1890 – 1922 : FROM PEN MILL TO THE WESTERN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
Association Football first came to Yeovil in the 1890/91 season and was played in conjunction with the Yeovil Rugby Club, both codes being staged on a ground in West Hendford.
The soccer club was known as the Yeovil Football Club, with rugby and soccer being played at the ground on alternate Saturdays.
The birth of the Club as we know it today took place in 1895 with the formation of Yeovil Casuals. They played at the Pen Mill Athletic Ground and their headquarters was the Pen Mill Hotel. The Club colours were green and white stripes and, at the end of the first season, the Club showed a profit of £11.18s. 1d.
In the early days the Club played in the Somerset Senior League, the Dorset and Wiltshire County Leagues, the County Cups and the FA. Amateur Cup.
At the end of the 1897/98 season, an application was made for the Huish Athletic Ground owned by the Brewery Company, but it was unsuccessful.
In season 1907/08 the title of the Club was changed to Yeovil Town Football Club and a new strip of green shirts with white cuffs adopted.
Another club was founded in Yeovil in 1908. Called Petters United, their colours were amber and black and they played at Brickyard Lane as a Junior Club in the Yeovil & District League. After a few years, Petters United entered Senior football in the same competitions as Yeovil Town Football Club and the rivalry between the two clubs became intense.
During the early months of 1914 an important decision was made … to amalgamate the two clubs. Everything was ready for the start of the 1914/15 season, but the Great War broke out. The game was suspended during hostilities, but when peace came steps were taken quickly to put Yeovil on the football map. The scheme agreed upon in 1914 was put into operation and a new club, Yeovil & Petters United, was born.
The accommodation at the Pen Mill ground was improved, there now being two stands (one having been removed from the Petters United ground). Two Senior teams were run, the competitions entered being the Western League (Division Two) and the Dorset and Wiltshire Leagues.
The change of ground from Pen Mill to Huish was made and the first competitive game in the new stadium took place on Saturday, 28th August 1920, when the reserves entertained Christchurch in the Dorset League. An attendance of 1500 saw Yeovil run out easy winners by 5 goals to nil. The land at Huish had been purchased from Brutton’s Brewery for £1,725 and at the time a covenant was placed on the deal that the brewery had first refusal to buy back the land at the original figure.
In the early days the terraces were flat and the only covered accommodation was the 300 seater stand which had been moved up from Penn Mill. This stand served the Club until 1963 when the new stand was built. In July 1922 the Club accepted a quotation from Bird and Perry, for £733, to build dressing rooms with two sunken baths 9′ x 6′ x 4′ deep. The dressing rooms were opened in September 1922 and around this time the stand was also extended.
In the following season, 1921/22, Yeovil & Petters United won Division One of the Western League. In all competitions that season, Johnny Hayward scored 60 goals. The Club was now ready to step up into a higher class of football.
[NOTE: The Yeovil Town Story was originally written and published by Bryan Moore in Yeovil Town match day programmes between 1995 and 1997. It was later published on Ciderspace. All photographs are individually credited where the original photographer is known.]