Berkeley Town Football Club are celebrating their 120th anniversary this season.

And while the club have a very proud history, they also appear to have a very bright future.

The Northern Senior League club – they also have a team who play in the Stroud League – have big plans and one of the people driving those plans forward is chairman Mark Edwards.

Edwards, who has been involved with the club “for decades”, wants to move the club forward both on and off the pitch.

On the pitch that means promotion from Division One of the Northern Senior League for the flagship team while he wants to see the reserve team climb the divisions in the Stroud League – they currently play in Division Five.

Off the field some of the changes have already started to take place.

“We took over a 25-year lease on the pavilion in April,” said Edwards. “We’ve renovated it a bit, decorated it and got our own bar in it.”

Edwards wants to open up the club to the community as a whole and that is already starting to happen.

“We have two pool teams that take part in the local league, meeting on Sunday nights,” he said. “Berkeley Harriers use the pavilion as their base on Thursday nights and the youth club use the pavilion on Wednesday nights.

“Stone Cricket Club youth section also based their summer training here.”

Cam Cricket Club also want to play some games at Berkeley – the first time the playing fields will have been used for England’s number one summer sport in some 15 years – but while Edwards wants to open up the club to everyone, he hasn’t lost sight of the fact that first and foremost Berkeley Town are a football club.

That is why he is so pleased to tie up a deal with Severnside that will see them have free use of the facilities.

Severnside are the youth football club in the area and Edwards hopes that offering the hand of friendship will result in a greater flow of young players coming into Berkeley’s senior teams.

“We have high hopes that within three years the first team will be stable in the County league, the reserve team will be in Division Three of the Stroud League and we have a youth system that feeds the senior teams,” said Edwards.

Throw in the other sports that are involved and it’s clear that as well as the pavilion, the ground at Canon Park is going to need redevelopment as well.

Edwards has thought of that too and has been working closely with Berkeley Town Council.

“In three years we aim to have a pitch as good as any and we will have our own training facility in collaboration with the council that will mirror approximately one third of the Rednock facility,” said Edwards.

The cost of this work is estimated to be £80,000 and Edwards added: “The council have identified the 4G pitch as a desired community project. The idea of the training facility is to allow teams and other organisations to use the pitch all year round.

“Additionally, the council have confirmed that children’s play areas will be added to perimeter positions alongside the pavilion.

“As you can see, this is an exciting time to be part of the vision shared between Berkeley Town Council and Berkeley Town AFC.”

Exciting it certainly is, but it also involves a lot of work although that is something that Edwards, who is in his third year as chairman, is clearly not afraid of.

He’s not alone of course and Edwards is keen to stress that the club have “a committee that any club would wish for, they work tirelessly alongside me”.

Those people Edwards is referring to in include Pete Lavis (reserve team manager), Alan Dimery (treasurer), Phil Smith/Jordan Moore (secretary), Andrew Tayler (vice-chairman), Alan Sherman (media), Di Edwards (events), Vicki Kerr (fundraiser), Tony Edwards( fundraiser), Justin Lane (bar), Fiona Edwards (kitchen), Barb Phillips (minute secretary) and Steve Mansell (DJ).

Born and bred in Berkeley, Edwards says he supports Berkeley Town “100 per cent” even though he has lived in Cam for the past 25 years.

And there’s absolutely no doubting his loyalty to a club that he was pretty much born into close on 50 years ago.

“I played for the club from the age of 16 until I was 40,” he explained. “I was a defender for both the first and second team and I’ve been on the club’s committee for the past 10 years.”

And while Edwards’ longevity is impressive, he is by no means the only Edwards with strong links with the club.

“My wife Fiona is on the committee – she does the cooking – and my son Ben is a defender at the club,” he said.

So how good is Ben?

“He’s more skilful than his old man but I was stronger in the tackle,” laughed Edwards senior, whose daughter May is also a regular at the club.

Edwards’ mum and dad, Tony and Diane, are also on the club committee and his grandad, Howard, is a former chairman.

Both Tony and Howard are former players and Edwards added: “My dad was a midfielder and he tells me he was a legendary player. Gramps was a striker and he scored a lot of goals.”

Goalscorers are matchwinners at any level in any era of course and Edwards is hoping that Aaron Nash and Ian Watkins, who has joined the club from close rivals Sharpness, can find the net often enough to spearhead a promotion drive this season.

Terence Stevenson is the current boss of the first team – he’s in his third spell as manager of the club.

A former goalkeeper, he was in charge when the club completed the treble of Stroud League Division One, County Cup and League Cup back in the late 1990s in the days when Mark Edwards was a player.

Stevenson is in his fourth season in this spell and Edwards said: “We’re making steady progress.

“We’ve been in the County League a couple of times, the most recent four seasons ago.

“We’re all geared up off the field for the County League and we’ve got a good enough team to do it on the pitch so I don’t see why we can’t go up.”