The club was formed in 1953 and joined the Tonbridge league that season. A few friendly games had been played the season before, and the regulars at the time decided to form a team for the next season, and applied to Div 4. We gained permission from the owner of a small piece of land (80x 50) behind the old Chequers pub in Bough Beech (now Honeygrove Properties) to play our home games, with the home team getting changed in an old bell tent, and the away team changing in old forge.

Original members included Bill and Nobby Hollands, Peter Baker, Reg Austin, Steve Stone and Ernie Mew. Reg Austin was elected treasurer and was given the opening balance of 13 shillings and 5 pence.

After the second season the club moved to Chiddingstone Castle, which was the Long Dean School and played there for three seasons. The rent was an agreement to gang mow the ground every week from April to September; an alternative ground was needed and was found in 1959, Gangridge Mead, down the footpath to the river Eden. I’m sure many of the players of that period will remember the walk down to the river. It was a good, large pitch (120x85) and the drainage back to the river was marvelous. I have seen the water half way up the goal posts on a Wednesday and we still played on Saturday.

In 1960 we formed a reserve team, this was a great help in bringing younger players along as well as extending the playing days of some of the older players.

In 1979 we moved to our current home. We gained a fifty-year lease on the ground, which was previously farmland and began extensive leveling works to make the pitch we have today. Whilst the new pitch was settling we were given kind consent by Charcott FC to play on their pitch for two seasons.

A mention must go here to the tremendous efforts of players in raising the funds to pay for the leveling, and the support given to us by the community during our various dances, auctions, raffles and walks. All these factors contributed to what we have today.

In 1981 the then club President Nigel Lucas (The Castle Inn) who had helped with the fundraising officially opened the ground and first game to be played was an Ex Chidd side versus the current Chidd team.

At this time the Sports Association was formed with the cricket club to share the old pavilion and to aid fundraising for the hoped for new pavilion, but in 1983 the Hever Castle Estate was put up for sale. This caused a big “ hue and cry” in the whole of Hever and Chidd as farms and local’s houses were put on the market as well as ours and Hever FCs grounds.

This culminated in a large public meeting in the village hall, with T.V.S television and hordes of local press. The final outcome of this is that after a lot of publicity we, as an association, were able to purchase the sports ground “freehold” with the funds we had in hand, which secured our future.

Fund raising began again in earnest over the next 9 years until finally in 1991, after lots of hard work and local support we were able, with the help of a Sevenoaks District Council main grant of £58,000, plus £2000 grant from the parish council which had been agreed 9 years before and held in trust by them until it was required, a small grant from the Sports Council and a repayable loan, plus our own funds we were able at last to build a new pavilion, with showers and clubroom. This facility has given us the privilege to be the only club in the Tonbridge league to own its own ground and clubhouse. We have the players and the supporters in the village to thank for this

The new pavilion opened in November 1991, with a match between Chiddingstone and Charlton athletic in front of a large crowd, with clubroom and bar open for the first time. The parish council chairman, Mr. Robert Hale presented the keys of the new asset to Reg Austin, Chairman of the Sports Association. Since that time the Tonbridge football league have used the ground on two occasions for league cup finals and Tonbridge Angels FC have used the ground for a friendly against a Belgian team.

I would like to remember some of the outstanding players, and personalities who have worked hard and been outstanding in the clubs history (it is not possible to mention them all). From the past Bill and Nobby Hollands, Beany and Ted Vine, Tim Burns, John Hodge, Peter Baker, Steve Gower, Gordon Larkin, John Piggot, Chris Thomson, Peter Johnson, Mick Brown, Rex Laver. And from more recent history, Martin Keeler, John Jeffery, Gary Piper, Ian Fuller and Peter Symes.

Derek Williams has worked very hard for the club as team manager, and has given his time unstintingly for the last few seasons, and been helped by ex player Dave Geal.

A mention must also be made here for all the help and support Bob Dockerty has given the club in so many ways .

 by Reg Austin - Chairman (written in 1997/8)

 The club came close to folding in the 2001-2 season with the first team losing lots of players and eventually folding. This left only the reserve team who were just establishing themselves in the third division to represent the club in division one in that season. The players, to their credit stuck together through a tough season winning only one game all season, a very memorable 5-2 win away to Brenchley. The inevitable relegation followed, but heavy recruiting during the summer gave us a good-sized squad for the following season. We did well that season reaching the Chairman’s cup final played at Tonbridge Angels ground and finishing mid table in the league. We are now on the verge of starting the reserve side again for the forthcoming 2004-5 season.

 The current season (2003-4) is looking good, so far with regular training through the summer and lots of support from our new sponsors “Slick Willies” of Kensington, London who sponsored our new kit and The Little Brown Jug have also been very kind in offering us food after away games. We have also reached the final of the Tunbridge Wells Junior Charities Cup this season, to be played at Tunbridge Wells’ ground, Culverden, probably during April.

 The club was rocked to the core with the passing of our chairman Reg Austin in the winter of 2002. Not enough can be said about the contribution that he made to the club and the village as a whole (we have Reg to partly thank for tennis courts and new car park). The Sports Ground and the Pavilion are a lasting legacy of the dedication of Reg to the sporting community of the village.

 Paul Vicary -Club Captain 2003-4