The name of the Free Foresters was chosen to reflect that archery had been popular at the Rectory Park long before cricket was introduced.

[1] The club played its first match on 20 July 1856 against the Pilgrims of the Dee, at the Rectory Ground in Sutton Coldfield.

In 1863, the Free Foresters presented the rector with a silver salver as a token of their esteem.

In 2008, the club established Free Foresters Academy[4] to offer young cricketers matches at a representative level.

Since 2010, the FF Academy has played in Minor Counties U25 competitions (against Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Lincolnshire) in a mixture of two-day, Twenty20 (Beynon Cup) and three-day formats, winning the three-day Tom Orford Trophy on a number of occasions.