1979-1989

1979/82

Orpington Rovers, in it's current format, was established in 1979. The club had been in existence before that but at the end of the 78/79 season different factions of the club decided to go their own seperate ways. The older age group went in one direction under a different name, and the younger section, retaining the name of Orpington Rovers, went in a different direction under the guidance of Charlie Moss as Chairman who co-erced Alan Mc Ilvaney to take on the role of Club Secretary. Some of the younger players left when the club split into two seperate groups and this meant that the three younger teams were going to be short of players, not to mention funds. It was decided that we should recruit players to make up any deficiencies by advertising on the notice boards of the schools in the area, letting them know that if they were interested in joining, we would be holding a signing on day on a Saturday morning in July at Tubbenden Lane. We were innundated with boys that wished to play football, so much so that we had enough players to form five teams. There were a few obstacles to overcome, namely that we did not have enough football kits, footballs or money to get five teams up and running. In fact we only had two kits, a few old footballs and about fifty quid in the kitty, prior to all these aspiring players turning up to join the club. We also had to see if we could get all these teams into a league, find managers to run them, arrange pitches for them to play on, and in general get ourselves up and running in a very short space of time, bearing in mind that we were not expecting to have this many teams in our first season, and apart from Charlie Moss, had no previous experience of running a Youth Football Club. All of the teams that season, played in a league known as the Norwood & District League which is no longer in existence. Teams within that league, when they knew of our plight, were extremely helpful and two clubs in particular, namely Canterbury Old Boys Club and B.P. Colts donated football kits to us to help us through our first season. Through these early years we hired pitches from Bromley Council at St. Mary Cray Rec, Goddington Park, Tugmutton Rec, Glentrammon Rec and we also hired some pitches from Bexley Council known as Five Arches off of Rectory Lane at Sidcup. As well as these we also had a pitch which we had marked out at Tubbenden Lane, which Bromley Council also permitted us to play matches on. We kept the goalposts for Tubbenden Lane matches alongside the garage of one of our members, who lived close by. We managed to survive that first season and progressed from there, each season often increasing the number of teams that we were running.

We eventually entered teams into other leagues, The Mercury League, The Tandridge League, The Bexley League.The Shirley & District League and the Gravesham League. In the 83/84 season, we also branched out into adult football entering a team in the Orpington & Bromley League, managed by Eric Shoebridge, ably assisted by Keith King. During all this time, we were playing our matches on various Council Pitches, which were not always well marked, were not always well maintained and certainly did not have very good changing facilities. Although we were beginning to become quite a large club, we were basically a number of individual teams when it came to playing games, due to the fact that we played at all these different venues but rarely did we have two teams that would play at the same venue at the same time. Clearly, this was not an ideal situation, and something had to be done to improve our lot.

1983

Already the club had an enthusiastic committee. It's Chairman was now Pat Harvey and all the managers were very committed and passionate for football. One club member suggested trying for our own ground. This was put to a vote and agreed. We would investigate various ways that we could achieve this. Several options were investigated, preferential use of an existing Council Recreation Ground, leasing a plot of land that could be turned into pitches, or owning our own ground, although in the early days owning our own ground seemed a very remote possibility. We were financially secure at this time, but we were certainly going to require a lot more funding if we to achieve our ambition. The wheels were put into motion. Fundraising began. Our Social & Fund Raising Chairman at this time was Eric Shoebridge. It commenced with running discos, barn dances, jumble sales, quiz nights and race nights. We became so professional at this, that we would hire the New Village Hall in Orpington for our own use, but also let plots for stalls out to other organisations that could not afford to hire the entire venue. Then we hit upon the idea of entering stalls in summer fetes. Stalls were constructed and members ran these at every fete and carnival available, giving away footballs or cuddly toys as prizes, selling seconhand books and anything else we could think of as a way of raising money. In Eric Shoebridge's house, the entire ground floor would often be filled with merchandise for Jumble Sales and Brian Archer's hall and rear porch often resembled a library. Pretty soon, being a member of Orpington Rovers became an all year round occupation, almost an obsession. We would enter two or more stalls in large summer fetes or sometimes two single stalls in different fetes on the same day. Another money raising scheme was the collection of waste paper / newspapers which turned out to be extremely lucrative. John Draper, our current Ground Manager, was also a person who a lot of this fund raising depended on, for without the use of storage facilities at his works premises and the use of his transport, we would not have been able to do anywhere near as much fund raising as we did in those early days. 
We needed to raise our profile somewhat in order to have a bit more muscle when it came to negotiating for land for our own use and it was decided that the club needed a President. It was felt that the local Member of Parliament at the time, Ivor Stanbrook, was the very person we needed. Pat Harvey went to see him one Saturday at his surgery along Sevenoaks Road and Ivor Stanbrook duly became our First President. When Ivor Stanbrook retired, he was succeeded by the well known football comentator, Brian Moore. Sadly both of these men have passed on and as yet we have not sought a new President. 
Pat Harvey left the club and sadly died before we had the ground at Cockmannings Lane up and running. Ian Johnston, our current Chairman succeeded Pat Harvey and has held the post eversince. Eric Shoebridge, who did so much as Social & Fund Raising Chairman died suddenly whilst playing Table Tennis. Although he saw the ground and pitches formed, his team did not play a league game here. Being an adult team, it was a requirement of their league that changing rooms were available and for the first season the pitches were available, the changing rooms were not. His team, did however play the odd friendly at the ground.

1983/1984

Ground development committee formed. Various plots of land were looked at, mainly for lease from Bromley Council, but for one reason or another, they were not viable. It was agreed that purchase of land was probably our best option with a price ceiling of £25,000. The hunt began and land was looked at in various locations that might be suitable for our needs in places as far afield as Knockholt, New Addington/Biggin Hill and New Eltham. A member saw eight acres of land in Cockmannings Lane advertised in the local paper. It was for sale by auction. This was ideal. The estate agent was contacted at 11:00 one morning, asked if the owners would sell for £25,000 and by 15:00 the land was sold to ORFC.

As the club was not a limited company, ( and there wasn't enough money ), one member put up the money and via agreements with banks ( arranged by members who worked in the City ) the land was brought.

Then Planning Permission!!!! With the help of a members friend, permission was sought for change of use from agricultural land to playing fields. 

Local councillors were enlisted for support but residents were opposed to the application. They formed the Cockmannings Action Group and arranged petitions in Orpington High Street. This opposition led to numerous meetings.

1985

Bromley Council refused planning permission by 7 votes to 5. Again, a friend of friend was enlisted to help. He was a Lecturer on Green Belt policy. This help didn't come cheap and a thirty page document was produced detailing why Bromley Council was failing residents! Along with local MP Ivor Stanbook's backing, planning permission was granted on appeal. 
The land then needed to be changed from a 'vegetable plot' used for growing cabbages and potatoes into football pitches. 
More fundraising was organised and along with a grant from The Sports Council monies were soon in place.

1986

A contractor was appointed to level the land. Work commenced but it was soon realised that there was far too much topsoil that needed to be removed. ( the original height of the land was level with the bank running behind the goal on the current junior pitch, sloping all the way to the opposite end of the ground ). The contractor was able to sell the excess top soil thus reducing his overall bill by a half! The car park was also dug out and dressed with 'type one' aggregate. Working flat out, using JCB's, bulldozers etc it took three months to complete. Club members were busy making goal posts during this period!

1987

The now level land was seeded. One club member went to the ground every single day for four months and picked up 4 buckets of flints on each visit. They were disposed of down a 'Dean Hole' that had appeared on one side of the ground during the excavation process. A contractor was employed to cut the grass.

1989

Three pitches were marked out, ( no small sided pitch at this point ), and the first games commenced. 
A lot of ex-managers whose players were now adults themselves were still heavily involved with supporting the club.