Midsomer Norton Football Club
02 Jun 2009

The Club was founded in 1990 by a group of parents as a youth football club who resurrected the name West End United. In 1998 the Club became associated with Welton Rovers FC and consequently changed its name to Welton Rovers Youth FC. On 2nd June 2009 the Club made the landmark decision to change its name to Midsomer Norton Football Club.

The roots of the Club as it is today can be traced back to before the First World War, to West End Rovers FC. Organised boys or youth football in those days was predominately played at school, football clubs were all men’s teams. The name West End Rovers was chosen because its players comprised mainly of men who worked for the coal mining industry in the “west end” of the Somerset coal fields. First records available show that the Club played in the Bath & District League from the 1919-1920 season, winning the League and Cup double in the 1920-1921 season. By 1932 the Club played in the Mid-Somerset Football League.

The Club won the League twice in the late 1930s including another League and Cup double in 1937 and also reaching the quarter-finals of the Somerset Cup in the same year losing 0-2 to Shepton Mallet.

In 1952 West End Rovers became West End United (unfortunately we don’t know the reason for the change) and it continued initially to play in the Bath & District League then moved to the Mid-Somerset League winning the Division 3 title in 1955 and the Cup in 1958. A return to the Mid-Somerset League in 1964 saw promotion to Division 2 but in the following season the Club withdrew from the League and no further records remain so as far as we can ascertain West End United folded around about 1965.

In 1990 West End United was reborn but this time it was a youth football club for ages Under 7 to Under 17 playing in the Midsomer Norton & District Youth Football League as indeed we still do today. From its rebirth the Club flourished to become the largest and most successful youth football club in the area. Most memorable was the Club’s then legendary annual six-a-side tournament which attracted over 100 teams each year.

In November 1998 the Club became associated to Welton Rovers FC, Midsomer Norton’s Western League senior football club, hence the change of name to Welton Rovers Youth FC. This coming together was supposed to provide a path for aspiring youth players to feed through into senior club football and similarly provide the senior Club with a source of home grown young talent. Unfortunately however, whilst not without some success in this respect, in the early years of the millennium the youth section started to go into decline as did Welton Rovers FC. The youth section lost teams whilst Welton Rovers struggled to maintain its U18 side and it lost its "A" and "B" sides.

The clubs went their separate ways for a while but have now formed an association with Welton Rovers providing a home for Midsomer Norton FC who have 6 teams in the MSNYFL league for season 2011/12.