A COMMUNITY came together to celebrate a football club’s 100-year history.

Beacon Hill Rovers is a grassroots club which celebrated its milestone birthday with a party weekend.

In 1921, residents from the Wickham Bishops area got together to celebrate the end of the First World War and the Spanish flu pandemic. 

They held a two-day party on a field they had cleared behind the Mitre in Wickham Bishops, including Beacon Hill Rovers’ first match.

A century later the community turned out again at the field on Great Totham Road for a combined centenary festival and village fete. 

Saturday evening saw the football club celebrate its centenary with live music after a day of five-a-side competitions for current and past Beacon Hill players. 

On Sunday it was the youth team’s turn as they hosted their favourite opposition in special centenary matches.

The weekend also gave the opportunity for the community to mark the passing last year of Peter Mickelsen, a great servant to the football club and the Beacon Hill Sports Association, which organised a ceremony where the pavilion was renamed the Peter Mickelsen Sports Pavilion.

To complete the weekend’s entertainment Heybridge Swifts brought a team to play against Beacon Hill in the Peter Mickelsen Memorial Match. 

Swifts won the penalty shoot-out after a 2-2 draw.

The weekend was also a double celebration for the Rovers’ female footballers as this summer is the 75th anniversary of the club’s first ever women’s team.

The team was formed in 1946 by players defiant against the FA’s ban on women’s football introduced in 1921 and still in place at the time.

Spokesman Merfyn Roberts said: "Thanks to the whole team who put together the programme and to MediaVita for the photographs."