Bury Football Club was founded in 1884 and joined the Football League in 1894. In its early years, team management was the responsibility of one or more members of the club committee and the first specialist manager was appointed in 1907. The table below provides a list of all the club's managers to date.
The Bury F.C. website contains a list, drawn from the club's own records, of first team managers from 1890 until David Flitcroft's appointment on 9 December 2013. [1] The page has not been updated since then so all later dates are individually sourced.
| Manager | Caretaker manager | From | To | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tom Hargreaves | 1890 | 1891 | Hargreaves was a member of the club committee given matchday charge of the team in 1890–91. | |
| John T. Ingham | 1891 | 1892 | Ingham was the club chairman but he acted as team manager in 1891–92, during which Bury won the Lancashire Cup and he originated the club nickname (see above). | |
| Albert Duckworth | 1892 | 1893 | Duckworth was a member of the club committee given matchday charge of the team in 1892–93. [1] | |
| unknown | 1893 | 1894 | It is possible that more than one member of the club committee was responsible for the team in 1893–94. | |
| Albert Duckworth | 1894 | 1895 | For the club's first season in the Football League, sole responsibility reverted to Duckworth. The team won the Second Division championship. | |
| management committee | 1895 | 1907 | Management of the team in this period, throughout which Bury were in the First Division, was the responsibility of a three-man committee. [1] According to a Sheffield newspaper report, the committee seems to have included, and may have been headed by, club secretary Harry Spencer Hamer. [2] | |
 Archie Montgomery | 1 February 1907 | 30 April 1915 | The committee stepped aside and the first specialist manager was appointed. Montgomery, then aged 34, had been the club's goalkeeper. Like Cameron and Thompson who succeeded him, he was Scottish. Montgomery managed the team in 316 league games, a total beaten only by Dave Russell. The club site says that, technically, Montgomery was the first Bury manager to be sacked but the reason for it was the club's lack of income in wartime so it was effectively a redundancy. | |
| none | 1 May 1915 | 15 May 1919 | The position was unfilled for the remainder of World War I. | |
| William S. Cameron | 16 May 1919 | 29 May 1923 | Cameron was the club's first player-manager. He was banned from football in 1923 following a match-fixing scandal from three years earlier involving Bury. | |
| James Hunter-Thompson | 11 June 1923 | 10 February 1927 | Hunter-Thompson was the first Bury manager to be sacked because of poor results. The team finished nineteenth in 1926–27, narrowly avoiding relegation. | |
| Percy J. Smith | 24 May 1927 | 4 January 1930 | Smith left to take over at Tottenham Hotspur. | |
| Arthur Paine | 7 January 1930 | 29 December 1935 | Arthur Paine joined Bury in 1923 as club secretary, but then served as team manager for nearly six years before reverting to secretary. Through the Second World War, he took additional employment as a company secretary in industry and decided after the war to remain there permanently. He resigned his job with Bury on 1 July 1946. [3] | |
| Norman Bullock | 30 December 1935 | 21 June 1938 | Bullock played for Bury as a forward from 1920 to 1935, representing England three times. He became a coach and then team manager after he retired from playing. He left to take over at Chesterfield. | |
| Charlie Dean | 21 June 1938 | 14 March 1944 | The club website does not name a manager in this period and it is possible that Dean was appointed on a temporary or part-time basis. He is listed by Soccerbase as manager from June 1938 to March 1944. [4] The club site confirms the exact dates of Bullock's departure and Porter's appointment. | |
| Jimmy Porter | 14 March 1944 | 14 June 1945 | Porter played for Bury as a wing half from 1921 to 1935 and then became a coach. He appears to have been a stand-in as wartime manager because he stepped aside in June 1945 to become assistant manager on Norman Bullock's return. In 1949, Porter became manager at Accrington Stanley for two years. | |
| Norman Bullock | 15 June 1945 | 30 November 1949 | Bullock's second term as Bury manager. He was the first Bury manager to be given sole responsibility for team selection. He left to become manager of Leicester City. | |
| Johnny McNeil | 30 March 1950 | 28 November 1953 | Formerly manager of Torquay United. McNeil left Bury for health reasons. | |
| Dave Russell | 1 December 1953 | 13 December 1961 | Russell managed the team in 352 league games, more than any other manager. Bury were Third Division champions under him in 1960–61. He left to take over at Tranmere Rovers. | |
| Bob Stokoe | 13 December 1961 | 11 August 1965 | After Cameron and Bullock, Stokoe was the club's third player-manager. He left to take over at Charlton Athletic. | |
| Bert Head | 16 August 1965 | 10 April 1966 | Head left to take over at Crystal Palace. | |
| Les Shannon | 11 July 1966 | 29 May 1969 | Shannon managed the club's 1967–68 immediate re-promotion to the Second Division. He left to take over at Blackpool. | |
| Jack Marshall | 1 July 1969 | 16 September 1969 | Marshall was in charge for a mere seven games before being sacked and his term was the shortest of any Bury manager. | |
| Les Hart | 16 September 1969 | 17 September 1970 | Hart was only the third Bury manager to be sacked for poor results and there have been several more sackings since then. | |
| Colin McDonald | 17 September 1970 | 10 November 1970 | A local man whose career as a goalkeeper was mostly with Burnley. He held an executive post with Bury after he retired from playing and agreed to stand in as temporary team manager after Hart's dismissal, until McAnearney's appointment. He was afterwards the club's general manager for a time. | |
| Tommy McAnearney | 10 November 1970 | 8 May 1972 | McAnearney left to take over at Aldershot. | |
| Allan Brown | 20 June 1972 | 19 December 1973 | Brown left to take over at Nottingham Forest where, until 3 January 1975, he was Brian Clough's predecessor. | |
| Bobby Smith | 19 December 1973 | 17 November 1977 | Won promotion from Fourth Division in 1974. Sacked. | |
| Bob Stokoe | 17 November 1977 | 21 May 1978 | Stokoe's second term at Bury. He left to take over at Blackpool. | |
| Dave Hatton | 1 June 1978 | 30 October 1979 | Arrived as player-manager. Sacked. | |
| Dave Connor | 9 November 1979 | 13 June 1980 | Sacked. | |
| Jim Iley | 1 July 1980 | 14 February 1984 | Sacked. | |
| Martin Dobson | 14 March 1984 | 1 April 1989 | Arrived as player-manager. Won promotion from Fourth Division in 1985. Sacked. | |
| Sam Ellis | 16 May 1989 | 11 December 1990 | Ellis left to take over at Manchester City. | |
| Mike Walsh | 11 December 1990 | 4 September 1995 | Sacked. | |
| Stan Ternent | 18 September 1995 | 30 May 1998 | Arguably the club's most successful manager as he led the team to successive promotions from fourth tier to third in 1995–96 and, as champions, from third to second in 1996–97. He left to take over at Burnley. | |
| Neil Warnock | 16 June 1998 | 2 December 1999 | Warnock left to take over at Sheffield United. | |
| Andy Preece & Steve Redmond | 3 December 1999 | 1 June 2000 | Preece and Redmond shared management duties after Warnock departed until Preece was formally appointed. | |
| Andy Preece | 1 June 2000 | 16 December 2003 | Initially player-manager. Sacked. | |
| Graham Barrow | 16 December 2003 | 19 September 2005 | Sacked. | |
| Chris Casper | 19 September 2005 | 14 January 2008 | Sacked. | |
| Chris Brass | 15 January 2008 | 4 February 2008 | ||
| Alan Knill | 4 February 2008 | 31 March 2011 | Knill left to take over at Scunthorpe United. | |
| Richie Barker | 1 April 2011 | 1 June 2011 | Secured the club's 2010–11 promotion in the last month of the season. | |
| Richie Barker | 14 June 2011 | 7 August 2012 | Barker left to take over as manager of Crawley Town. | |
| Peter Shirtliff | 7 August 2012 [5] | 26 September 2012 | Shirtliff was the first-team coach and filled the gap between Barker and Blackwell as the 2012–13 season began. | |
| Kevin Blackwell | 26 September 2012 | 14 October 2013 | Sacked. | |
| Ronnie Jepson | 14 October 2013 | 9 December 2013 [6] | Jepson was on a short-term caretaker contract which ended early when Flitcroft was appointed. | |
| David Flitcroft | 9 December 2013 | 16 November 2016 [7] | Won promotion from League Two in 2015. Sacked. | |
| Chris Brass | 15 December 2016 [8] | 15 February 2017 [9] | Brass was on a short-term contract as head coach, not manager as such, and this was terminated early when Lee Clark became available. | |
| Lee Clark | 15 February 2017 [9] | 30 October 2017 [10] | Sacked. | |
| Ryan Lowe | 30 October 2017 [10] | 22 November 2017 [11] | ||
| Chris Lucketti | 22 November 2017 [11] | 15 January 2018 [12] | Sacked. | |
| Ryan Lowe | 15 January 2018 [12] | 10 May 2018 [13] | ||
| Ryan Lowe | 10 May 2018 [13] | 5 June 2019 [14] | Having won promotion to League One, accepted offer to manage Plymouth Argyle. | |
| Paul Wilkinson | 2 July 2019 [15] | c. November 2019[ citation needed ] | Formerly caretaker manager at Truro City. It is understood that Wilkinson left several weeks after the club was expelled from the EFL.[ citation needed ] | |
| Andy Welsh | 29 July 2020 | 17 September 2023 [16] | On 5 June 2023, upon the merger of Bury F.C. and Bury A.F.C., the two team's histories were combined — retroactively counting A.F.C's seasons as seasons for Bury F.C. and also retroactively counting Welsh as Bury F.C. manager since 29 July 2020. | |
| Dave McNabb | 26 September 2023 [17] | present | ||
