Located on the banks of the river Wharfe in north Yorkshire, the town of Tadcaster's rich history includes being a Roman-era limestone quarry, as well as a battle-site of the 1066 Anglo-Saxon invasion and the English Civil War in the 1600s.
The town has been famed for its beer production since the 14th century and its longstanding football team Tadcaster Albion FC was first founded in 1892 as the football team of the John Smith's brewery.
The Brewers, who play at Ings Lane, are one of more than 1,000 clubs to have received investment from the Premier League Stadium Fund, which has provided more than £200million of grants since the year 2000 as part of the League's support for football at all levels.
Tadcaster Albion has received more than £100,000 in funding from the Premier League towards new, energy-efficient LED floodlights, fencing and several relief grants to help the club recover and protect itself from the effects of storms and flooding.
"Our club is at the centre of Tadcaster both geographically and in terms of our community," explains club chairman Andy Charlesworth. "We've got 130 years of history and more than 300 players across 20-odd junior teams. We attract fans from across Yorkshire and have even got a supporters' group based in Norway who come across twice a year!
"The whole town of Tadcaster is prone to flooding due to its low-lying land and position on the river, which presents challenges. We hope that the Tadcaster flood alleviation scheme that is proposed will help in the long term as we flood every season and our pitch was submerged six times last year following storms.
"With the help of the Premier League, we've invested over the years in various pieces of technology and been able to work with a specialist sports turf company. We've got drains that run across the pitch. If you go to the ground, you'll see the pitch is not quite level, its lowest point in the corner has a great big sump [basin] which means water will drain naturally and we can pump the water away.
"Without the support of the Premier League Stadium Fund, we wouldn't have a club. When water levels have been high enough to breach our flood doors and damage the club house, we have been able to access grants to make material repairs and to replace things our insurance was not able to cover."
The Premier League Trophy was at the club's Northern Counties East League Premier Division fixture against Eccleshill United for photos with fans as well as club president Kevin Derry, a recent recipient of a 50 years long-service award from The FA.
File this under things you never thought you’d see 📁#ATAW 💛 pic.twitter.com/oq6ayVVCBw
— Tadcaster Albion (@TadcasterAlbion) November 30, 2024
"With the support of the Premier League, we had LED floodlights installed in April," says Tadcaster grants manager James Hamilton. "Firstly, they are reliable and bright and don't take any time to warm up. They are a huge improvement on our old floodlights which needed replacing.
"We are a community club with limited resources and we've had to focus on ensuring the pitch is playable, so this is great.
"We project that the LED floodlights will save us more than 40 per cent on our total energy bill and anything we can do to reduce our carbon footprint is a very good thing."
