Up The Trams (Feature) - In Development
1994-2000
3 x Premier Leagues
3 x FA Cups
2 x Double Winning seasons
Unbeaten 1999 season (3 years before Arsenal’s Invincibles)
Kerry Davis: First black female player to be selected for Lionesses
Founder and former captain Hope Powell: First female, black and longest serving England manager
6 x players selected for 1995 England Squad (A joint record with Arsenal & Chelsea)
5 x Players in Football Hall of Fame
DISBANDED
WHAT TAKES A TEAM FROM BEING AT THE PEAK OF THEIR POWERS TO CEASING TO EXIST IN THE SAME MONTH?
That’s the story of Croydon Women’s FC: one of the most decorated women’s football teams in the UK that, in the same season they won the domestic double, of the Women’s Premier League and FA Cup (for a second time!), ceased to exist a month later.
Decades later, after a break-in at the clubhouse, custodians of the club reviewed an itinerary of items and realised just how many trophies, cups and medals the disbanded ladies team had earned.
This prompted them to explore the idea of restarting the women's team, and following a groundswell of community support, Croydon women's team was reborn in 2019, fighting from the bottom of the football pyramid once more.
This is the story of a team,
affectionately known as,
‘The Trams’
‘Up the Trams’ is a documentary about the rise and fall of one of the UK’s biggest teams, whose legacy has been largely forgotten. A community club, an underdog in the footballing system, that rose to the very top of the pyramid before unjustly becoming a casualty of outside forces and internal disputes that ultimately lead to their erasure from history.
Amongst its alumni are 5 hall of famers, trailblazers not only for women's football but also women of colour, and people who had a vital role in the professionalisation of women's football and development of the women’s grassroots game. Without them and their stewardship, the growth and success of women's football today and the historic successes of the Lionesses might never have happened
This is not just a story about the loss of a former team, it’s also the story of rebirth, with a grassroots team starting from the bottom again. How the legacy of the former team and its players improved women’s football while also highlighting prevailing attitudes and barriers.
"Up the Trams” is not simply a retrospective, it’s an audit on women’s and grassroots football today;
the highs, the lows, the pressures, prejudices and how far it still has to go.
