Tewkesbury Town Football Club have been casting envious glances at their sporting neighbours.

While the town’s cricket and rugby clubs have established bases at Swilgate and the Vineyards respectively in the shadow of the imposing Tewkesbury Abbey, the football club find themselves spread all over the town with no place that they can call home.

It’s something that James Heath, a one-time player and now chairman of the club’s Colts, wants to rectify as soon as possible.

“We need our own clubhouse and our own ground,” he said. “It’s something we’re crying out for. The cricket club and rugby club have got their own grounds, so why can’t we?

“That’s the dream and hopefully something might happen soon.”

It’s not easy, of course, to find a plot of land or facilities to house a football club, especially one as big as Tewkesbury Town.

They run more than 30 teams from the senior men all the way down to the youngest age groups and if that wasn’t enough, they also have a veterans’ team and want to revive their women’s team.

“If we had our own home we’d be able to invest more money back into community football rather than paying to use other facilities,” said Heath.

The club currently has teams based at Tewkesbury School, in Puckrup, at Wheatpieces and at Pamington Fields and Heath added: “We’re spread all over and it makes it much more difficult.

“We’re a community club and we want to provide football for players of all standards.”

That is certainly the case this season with the club set to run three senior teams in the Cheltenham League.

One of those – the third team – will be a development team and will provide a pathway for the under-18s as they break into men’s football.

The first team, the club’s flagship team, finished mid-table in Division Two and were runners-up in the Senior Charities Cup last season and it is a source of irritation to Heath that the club are not playing at a higher level.

“When you look at the size of the town you have to say we are a sleeping giant,” he said. “Look at Bishop’s Cleeve, they are playing at a very high standard and Cleeve is much smaller than Tewkesbury.

“And look at the National League, someone told me the other day that there are three teams from towns playing at that level with smaller populations than Tewkesbury.

“I know it’s a massive leap but the town is still growing, we could be on the cusp of something really good.

“First of all we’ve got to get promotion to Division One of the Cheltenham League and then into the Northern Senior League and then go from there.

“If we could just get a clubhouse then that could provide us with a springboard.”

Another factor that has encouraged Heath to think big is the demise of some previously strong clubs in and around Tewkesbury.

While Apperley have joined forces with Tewkesbury this season, other clubs such as Tewkesbury YM, Northway and WMK have gone completely.

It leaves only Bredon in close proximity to Tewkesbury Town and Heath said: “We’ve pretty much got exclusivity, we’re not competing with anyone anymore. The other clubs have always taken players in the past but that isn’t happening now.”

Heath, 36, joined the club 20-odd years ago and after serving his apprenticeship in the second team as a striker got his chance in the first team on the right wing.

He eventually moved on to a number of other clubs – including Apperley – but Tewkesbury has always held a special place in his heart.

“My passion is to get something going at the club,” he said. “We could create something of a legacy.”