AFC Aldermaston tease return to Rec Soc home

Wessex League Division One side AFC Aldermaston could be on the verge of a return to their traditional home, the clubs social media accounts have teased.

“Our 1st Team return to the Rec Soc will be soon,” was the final line on a post highlighting work being done on the ground the club vacated in 2021, and means one of Berkshire’s great and unique matchdays may shortly return to the non-league calendar.

The Atom Men have been playing at Thatcham Town’s Mettal Stadium since leaving the Aldermaston Recreational Society ground (known as the Rec Soc), and Marcus Richardson’s side will shortly welcome National League South Maidenhead United to West Berkshire in the Berks & Bucks County FA Senior Men’s Cup.

At the time of the clubs departure from the Rec Soc – where the club had played since 1952, chairman Martin Desay wrote: “The groundshare became necessary as AFC Aldermaston were unable to meet the required Ground Grading criteria for Step 6 at their home ground Aldermaston Recreational Society.”

One of the great and unique Berkshire matchdays

If ‘watching a football match inside a nuclear weapons facility’ isn’t on your groundhopping checklist, then you need to hand over your notebook.

There’s no date on the return, but a return to the Rec Soc means a return to watching matches inside the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Aldermaston. It’s difficult to argue this is a very unique matchday.

The committee and volunteers at the Atom Men look to have been working hard with the grounds owners to get the playing area up to standard. A club returning home can only be a good thing and if Wessex League AFC Aldermaston can achieve this after four years away, then we’ll be there (plus the food at the Rec Soc was always fantastic).

A bit of history

The club was founded in 1952 as AWRE FC as a team for the workers at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment as it was then known. The name AFC Aldermaston came into being in the early 1970s when the club was asked to change its name.

The Atom Men have criss-crossed the local leagues, either through promotion and relegation or lateral movement, playing in the Hampshire League, the Thames Valley Premier League, the Hellenic League, Combined Counties League and more recently the Wessex League which they joined in 2023.

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