Although there has been a team called Yate since 1906, it wasn`t until 1969 that they played senior football as members of the Gloucestershire County League.
It wasn`t until 1983 that the Bluebells moved up to the Hellenic League Division One, but, after finishing third in their first season, ended the 84/85 season as runners-up to Pegasus Juniors and gained promotion to the Hellenic Premier Division.
That also coincided with moving into their present Lodge Road ground and Yate quickly became a force in the Hellenic League, taking the title in 87/88 and retaining the title the following season, losing just one game and conceding only 16 goals in 32 matches.
With Lodge Road up to scratch, manager Peter Jackson led Yate up into the Southern League South Division in 1989.
Amongst the players who came up with Yate from Step 5 level was centre-back Paul Gardiner.
He began his playing days with the Bluebells but went on his travels to play for Frome Town and Clevedon Town.
He re-joined Yate in 1987 and spent eight seasons with the club in his second spell and is now a successful coach.
Gary Hewlett is Yate`s record appearance holder, who also had a spell managing the club.
He first joined Yate at the age of 15 before spending one season with Clandown and a short spell on Cheltenham Town`s books.
In 2000, Hewlett took over as joint player-manager with Richard Thompson after Yate suffered relegation back to the Hellenic League.
Hewlett`s managerial partner, Richard Thompson lasted longer in the job though.
He started his playing days with the Bluebells after being on Watford`s books as a schoolboy.
In January 1987 the forward was signed by Third Division Newport County, where he made 33 appearances but scored only 2 goals.
He moved to Torquay United a year later and played 35 times for the Gulls with 4 goals as well as enjoying a 19-game spell on loan to Yeovil Town.
In 1989, Thompson (pictured) made the move to Yeovil a permanent one and he played 17 times in the Conference.
After leaving Huish he went on to have spell with Trowbridge Town and Salisbury City before re-joining Yate as a player.
He moved on to have spells with Forest Green Rovers, Mangotsfield United, Taunton Town, Tiverton Town and Taunton again - he was a member of Taunton’s successful Western League and FA Vase squads - before returning to Yate again in 2000 when he became joint boss.
Thompson with Hewlett led Yate back up to the Southern League in 2003 and the club enjoyed their most successful season in 2004/05 as they finished runners-up in Division One West, and secured promotion to the Southern Premier Division for the first time.
Additionally, they won the Gloucestershire Senior Cup for the first time in their history, beating Bristol Rovers 2:0 in the final at the Memorial Stadium following victories over Bristol City and Forest Green Rovers en-route.
Yate under Thompson exceeded all expectations in the 2005/06 season as they finished in a highly creditable sixth position, and also retained the Senior challenge Cup beating Cheltenham Town in the final.
The following 2006/07 saw Yate continue to perform well in the Premier Division but a number of injuries impacted the squad and poor results towards the end of the season saw Thompson`s side finish mid-table. Now established in the Premier Division the club finished in tenth position at the end of the 2007/08 season.
The following season did not start well and a poor run of results, two wins in twenty league matches, saw the club slide into the relegation zone and that led to Thompson leaving the club in February 2009.
He soon took over as manager of then-Hellenic Leaguers Almondsbury Town and led them to promotion to the Southern League.
However, Thompson left Almondsbury when the club were forced to resign from the Southern League at the end of their one and only campaign at that level.
In April 2012, he took over as manager of one of his former clubs, Mangotsfield, until November 2015.
Thompson returned to Yate once more in 2020 in a new role as director of football.
Yate`s record sale was the £15,000 they received from neighbours Bristol Rovers for Mike Davis in 1992.
Davis was a strong front runner who represented Gloucestershire and the South West Counties at youth level whilst with Yate.
After becoming a first team regular at Lodge Road, scouts soon became aware of his talents and he joined Rovers.
He made 17 first team appearances for the Gas before being released at the end of the 1995/96 season.
He joined Bath in the Conference and had a personally successful first campaign, despite the Romans suffering relegation.
In 2001 he moved to Basingstoke Town and then returned nearer home with Cirencester Town before becoming player-manager of Cinderford Town in 2009.
Howard Pritchard is a former Yate player with international pedigree.
The Cardiff-born winger began his career with Bristol City and between 1976 and 1981, made 38 first team appearances with 2 goals.
He joined local rivals Swindon Town in 1981, after two successive relegations had seen City slip from the First to the Third Division.
His time at Swindon wasn't much more successful - in his first season at the County Ground in 1981/82, he managed just one league goal (coincidentally coming in a 3-0 win at Ashton Gate) and the Town were relegated to Division Four for the first time in their history - Bristol City joining them in the relegation places.
Pritchard scored 10 goals in the league the following season, but newly appointed manager Ken Beamish allowed him to leave the club in the summer, and he returned to Bristol where he played 119 times, scoring 22 goals and also won his one full international cap for Wales against Norway in 1985.
Later, he was part of the Gillingham team which his former club Swindon beat in the 1986/87 play-off final and also had spells with Walsall and Maidstone United before signing for Yeovil Town in the Conference in 1990.
In 1992 he signed for Yate for a season and a half before ending his playing days with Nailsea United in the Somerset Senior League.
Dean Holtham is a former Welsh Youth international left-back who signed professional terms for Cardiff City in September 1981, he failed to make an impact and moved to Swansea City in August 1982.
He made his League debut in Swansea's 2-1 defeat at home to Portsmouth in December 1983 and played 6 Second Division games prior to joining Alliance Premier League side Yeovil Town in July 1984.
He went on to play for Ebbw Vale, Newport County, Weston-super-Mare, Bath City, Merthyr Tydfil and Bridgend Town before signing for Yate in 1991/92.
He was later appointed manager of Midland Alliance club Alvechurch in September 2012 and they finished 11th, and won the Worcester Senior Urn, defeating Pershore Town on penalties after drawing 1-1 after 90 minutes.
In 2013/14, the club finished 13th, after their best-ever start to an Alliance campaign and reached the Third Round of the FA Vase before going out 1-0 to Westfields.
The season also saw Holtham leave in early November 2013, being replaced by Ross Thorpe as manager.
In December 2019, Holtham took permanent charge of Alvechurch at Lowestoft Town for a second time.
Holtham, who rescued the club from certain relegation in season 2011/12 in his first spell in charge, was named as the successor to former Aston Villa and Jamaica international striker Darren Byfield whilst also being the club’s education programme director.
In February 2020, however, Holtham stepped aside to allow for the return of one of the most successful managers in Alvechurch`s history, Ian Long, who had an unhappy short spell away with rivals Stourbridge.
Holtham is now the community director for the Birmingham City Football Community project.
Danny Iddles seemingly couldn`t keep away from Yate for long, having three spells with the club.
He played for a number of other Gloucestershire and Wiltshire clubs as well as Yate, including Sharpness, Forest Green Rovers, Cheltenham Town, Clevedon Town and Trowbridge Town, who he signed for in July 1991.
However, he was swiftly back at Yate when he had his best goalscoring campaign during 1991/92 when he netted more than 20 goals.
He had a short spell with Gloucester City in 1994 and then returned to Yate in March 1995 for a third time when he later took over as player/assistant-manager having been voted as player of the season for the previous two seasons.
He later took over as player-manager of Gloucestershire Senior League side Wotton Rovers in July 2003 but left two months later.
Although born in Glasgow, Ian Alexander played his youth football in Leicester but signed for Rotherham United as an 18-year-old in 1981.
After making just 11 appearances in two years he returned home to Scotland in September 1983 to play for Motherwell.
After just five months with Well he moved to Morton and from there to Cyprus with Pezoporikos Larnaca in 1985.
He signed for Bristol Rovers in the summer of 1986 after his spell in Cyprus ended and initially played as a winger, but after a year with the club he was converted to a full back.
He went on to play 299 times in the league for Rovers, scoring 10 times.
He retired from the professional game in 1994 at the age of 31 and took over as player-manager of Yate later that year.
He had two years in charge at Lodge Road before leaving in the summer of 1998 and, like Danny Iddles, later managed Gloucestershire County League side Wotton Rovers.
The rise of current Aston Villa and England centre-back Tyrone Mings is one of those marvellous `rags to riches` stories.
Coming from a footballing family – his father Adie Mings was a former striker who enjoyed considerable success in non-League football with the likes of Bath City and Gloucester City – Tyrone joined Southampton as an 8-year-old but, when he turned 16, the Saints had to let him go when their youth budget was axed.
The Bath-born defender returned home and signed for then-Southern League Division One South & West side Yate.
He moved to another of his dad`s former clubs, Southern Premier Division side Chippenham Town in 2012 and Ipswich Town offered him a trial.
He impressed and his reputation during 57 first team appearances for the Tractor Boys grew to the extent that the likes of Arsenal, Newcastle and Aston Villa were among those sides who were linked with him.
However, it was to AFC Bournemouth that Mings eventually went in June 2015 for £8million.
After an injury-hit spell with the Cherries and then a successful loan spell with Aston Villa in the Championship, he made the permanent switch to Villa Park in July 2019 for a fee rising to £25million.
And in October 2019 he won the first of seven full international caps for England.
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