Burnham FC

Burnham 0 Erith & Belvedere 5 - Southern League, Southern Division

Burnham lies north of the River Thames, and sits on the border with Berkshire, between the towns of Maidenhead and Slough. The M4 motorway passes through the south of the parish. The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'homestead on a stream'. It was first recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086 as Burneham, when the manor belonged to Walter Fitz-Other. Burnham was once a very important village. The road from London to Bath passed through the extensive parish of Burnham and as a result, in 1271, it received a Royal charter to hold a market and an annual fair. However, when the bridge crossing the Thames in Maidenhead opened the road was diverted away from Burnham, which fell into relative decay. The market was then transferred to Maidenhead. In 1265 a Benedictine abbey was founded near the village by Richard, King of the Romans. This was, however, disbanded by King Henry VIII in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Since 1916, a contemplative order of Anglican Augustinian nuns has been based in the restored remains of the original abbey.

Burnham FC was founded in 1878; the club is the second oldest club Buckinghamshire. The club spent its first years in various local leagues, and then joined the Great Western Combination league in 1948. 16 years later they moved to the Wycombe Combination in 1964 and then spent one year in the Reading Combination for the 1970-71 season. The team first joined a senior league in 1971 when they entered the Hellenic Football League Division One A, finishing as runners-up in their first season, followed by a runners-up position in Division One which saw them promoted to the Premier Division. In 1975–76 they were Premier Division champions. In 1977 they switched to the Athenian League, where they achieved two runners-up finishes, and also reached the semi-finals of the FA Vase.

This Pieman travelled from London Paddington to Burnham for this Southern League fixture. The walk from the station took around 20 minutes. Visitors Erith & Belvedere romped to victory over their hosts with an emphatic 5-0 win.