Chapter 1. Early clubs

Long before the start of the game we now know as Rugby League in 1895, there were amateur teams in the Halifax area playing rugby.

The first was Halifax Football and Athletic Club, now Halifax Panthers, formed in 1873. Teams had preceded them in other towns around the country, but they were still one of the earliest to become established. Those others were often formed by ex-pupils of Public Schools or Grammar Schools, where rugby had become established, but Halifax were always more of a community club, choosing rugby over soccer not because they were familiar with it, but because in this area of West Yorkshire that was the predominant form of football being played.

Other local teams soon followed, at various levels of competence. Larger communities were able to develop good sides. Mytholmroyd and Sowerby Bridge had teams by 1877, Brighouse Rangers, Todmorden and Elland around 1878, Hebden Bridge in 1879, and Luddenden Foot by 1880. Teams at Greetland and Stainland were playing in 1881. Within the township of Halifax, the most prominent teams were Salterhebble Athletic (1876) and Halifax Free Wanderers soon afterwards. There was a successful team at Rastrick in the 1880s, and one formed at Bailiffe Bridge in 1888, with a ground behind the Punch Bowl at the junction of Wakefield Road and Bradford Road.

All were amateur clubs. The governing body had strict rules against any form of professionalism, rigidly enforcing them and hounding clubs if any suspicions of payments to players arose. Brighouse Rangers were suspended for a month in 1888 for inducing a Liversedge player to join them, but despite a later purge in the 1890s that saw saw clubs suspended elsewhere in Yorkshire and Lancashire, in Halifax over the years there were to be few other problems. Elland were soon cleared when charges in 1892 were unproven.

So who were these teams, who all continued for some time and could be classed as clubs rather than just teams? All of them were successful for a time, but are all now long gone and have no connection with clubs of today.

Mytholmroyd were started by a few young men connected with the Wesleyan Sunday School, later Mytholmroyd Methodists, training in a field below Greenhill Mill. They obtained a good ground on Burnley Road at Brier Hey rent free, and stuck with Rugby Union for 28 years, continuing when most others left. They went on to win the Yorkshire Cup in 1900, reaching the Final again in 1904, and with fewer Union teams around had several players selected for Yorkshire.

Sowerby Bridge’s original team were the short-lived Sowerby Bridge Church Institute who had connections with the SBCI cricket club that still functions today, but they were gone by the time a general village team appeared around 1886. Sowerby Bridge played at the Beech ground, which is still there not far from Tuel Lane, the location of its terracing still evident. Like Mytholmroyd they became a good side, winning the Halifax Charity Cup in 1890-91 and 1891-92, and Yorkshire Cup in 1899.

The original Brighouse Rangers club played in the Hove Edge area at Fink Hill (now Finkil Street) and on Lightcliffe Road, before acquiring a more permanent base on Waterloo Road at Lane Head, a quality ground with a stand for spectators. They were around for nearly 30 years, good enough on the field, though not really rich or well-supported enough off it, to eventually become a semi-professional club. Rangers had an England international player in Billy Nicholl, and between 1887 and 1892 reached a semi-final and three quarter-finals of the Yorkshire Cup before winning it in 1895. A separate Brighouse team were connected with Brighouse Cricket Club, who operated in the late 1870s under the name Brighouse Cricket and Football Club. The rugby section lasted until around 1884, sharing the same pitch at Clifton Road, now the site of a Sainsbury’s supermarket, attracting particularly large crowds when they played Rangers.

Elland played at Elland Cricket Club for a time, but later moved to a ground equally as good at Old Earth (not then on exactly the same footprint as the modern-day soccer field there, but very close), where they were known as The Nab Enders. They were to become founder members of Rugby Union’s Yorkshire Number 2 Competition, being runners-up that 1892-3 season. B.Jackson, signed from Hebden Bridge, won County honours for Yorkshire in 1891, as did I.Rawnsley in 1896, while George Kitson later starred with Halifax. There was also an Elland Free Wanderers team founded in 1884 who played at Jepson House on Victoria Road.

Todmorden teams included Todmorden Rangers, Todmorden Juniors and Todmorden Rovers, but it was Rangers who were the first and most dominant. Based at Longfield and later Sandholme and playing against Lancashire-based teams as well as those from Halifax, they called themselves simply Todmorden in 1881 and moved to a new ground near Todmorden cricket field on Burnley Road known as The Holme. It was on the opposite side of the road to the cricket ground – Mons Mill was later built there, that too later replaced by housing. The club did not last very long, but was soon replaced by a new Todmorden F.C., also playing at The Holme. Among other Todmorden-based teams in the 1880s were Woodhouse, who played at Hill House in Castle Lane, and Eastwood Rovers.

Hebden Bridge had played at Foster Holme at one point (the landlord of the Shoulder of Mutton made an unsuccessful bid for an occasional licence to serve refreshments therein 1885), but for much of the time had the luxury of using Calder Holmes Park in the town centre, where they became a successful club, though later found themselves on the hills at Old Chamber. Player B.Jackson won Yorkshire county honours in 1890, but left for Elland the following season.

Luddenden Foot also had a good, ideally-located ground, at Station Road on what is now Holmes Park. They folded onceover in 1886, their remaining players joining Mytholmroyd, but reformed to become good enough to reach three Halifax Charity Cup Finals in the 1890s, winning the competition in 1896. There were shorter-lived teams in the area, known as Luddenden Foot Free Wanderers, and Luddenden.

Salterhebble Athletic first came to notice in 1876. They were based at the Punch Bowl Inn, where their changing rooms were located, but their field was in Exley beyond the top of Exley Bank, a tough climb for players without transport. They were the first team to play in Siddal, then a relatively smaller place before later extensive house-building, if without thinking of themselves as Siddalers, and continued until 1893. A star player was full-back Charlie Fox, formerly with St Augustine’s and Halifax; during his time with Salterhebble he was selected for the Yorkshire County side nine times.

Stainland, with headquarters generally at the Red Lion, were originally part of the Stainland Cricket and Football set-up, based then at the bottom of Drury Lane, though they became an independent club from 1890. They continued for another decade after that, winning the Huddersfield section of Rugby Union’s Yorkshire No 2 competition in 1898-9, before folding amid poor support from the village, and following a ban by the Yorkshire Rugby Union for crowd trouble at a match with Bingley in 1899 when the referee was attacked by spectators. “They both kicked and thumped me all the way to the dressing rooms,” the referee told the press, “and stones and sods were flying in all directions.” In their later years they had gained fierce local rivals in Holywell Brook, who competed in the district leagues and won the 1898 Huddersfield Cup Final, but disbanded just as they were about to switch to the Northern Union in 1899. Their ground at Broad Carr was noted for its severe slope.

Greetland, sometimes known as Greetland Rangers, had headquarters at the Rose & Crown Inn on Rochdale Road most of the time. Their field was described as being at “almost unacceptable heights”, but in reality was not too far up the hill from the pub at what was then called Shutts Lane. They won the Halifax Charity Cup in 1890, and in 1891 moved to The Holmes at North Dean in West Vale near North Bridge Station, close to the present-day Heath Old Boys pitch. The rental was said to be £30 a year (the equivalent of £3,000 today), but there was an open stand in course of erection and a covered press box. A star player was half-back George Schofield, who signed for Halifax but returned to take on the role of captain in 1892. The club continued until 1894.

Halifax Free Wanderers played on a field at the corner of Queens Road and Parkinson Lane, later to become St Paul’s Station on the Halifax High Level Railway, then Mayfield Garage, and now Broadway Retail Park. They were Halifax Charity Cup finalists in1888, but had to cease operations in 1889 when the new train line cut straight through their ground. The close proximity of the Halifax club at first Hanson Lane and then Thrum Hall meant they were unable to attract spectators, and any decent players they had tended to be taken by them. One such player was Jack Clowes, who had joined them as a 16-year-old in 1882; three years later he moved on to Halifax, where he won County honours and then selection for the first ever British Lions Tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1888.

The Rastrick team, at first as part of the Rastrick Cricket and Football Club at Round Hill, often played in the Huddersfield area as well as Halifax. They later moved to Lane Head on Lower Edge Road in Rastrick, where they organised tournaments for junior teams. In 1893 West Mount from Halifax beat Birstall Juniorsin the final, joyfully carrying the cup back to their Plummet Line headquarters afterwards.

As well as top end performers, there were also lots of lesser teams, often only around for a brief time. The first was probably St Paul’s, connected with St Paul’s Church at King Cross, which at that time was located opposite what is now the William IV pub – it’s tower is still there; In December 1875, 16 of St Paul’s played against 12 of the senior Halifax club, losing by three tries to one. They played St Mary’s soon afterwards on Savile Park, and later had a field on Battinson Road. Although they didn’t last long, there must have been a continuing interest at the church as a King Cross St Paul’s team was back playing briefly later in the century on a ground at Kingston.

St Mary’s were an early team from the Catholic Church of that name, but were similarly short-lived. Their home games were in Parkinson Lane.

Lots of other junior sides followed. Halifax newspapers of 1877 make mention of Harrison Road v St Augustine’s, Halifax Hornets v St Mary’s, Beech Hill Rangers v Halifax Caledonians, Holy Trinity v Crib Lane United, Highroad Well Little Merry Boys v Mile Thorn Gypsies, Halifax Albion v Siddal Hornets, St Sebastians v Akroyden and Craven Edge Rangers v Craven Edge Hornets. There were teams called Broad Street Zingari, Halifax Gipsies, King Cross Lane Rangers, Skircoat Green United, Skircoat Rangers, Crossfield Grasshoppers, Halifax Bouncers, West Hill Rangers, Crib Lane United and Cote Hill Rangers among many others mentioned, far too many to list in full. These were all just groups of lads who played occasional games, rather than clubs, but soon it was almost as if there was a team based on every street corner. Grounds mentioned include Hopwood Lane, Free School Lane, Shibden, Clover Hill and the Militia Field (between Gibbet Street and Hanson Lane, which later became the cattle market and fairground). Several matches took place on Savile Park, which had been made available as a recreation ground in 1866 when it was sold to the local authority by Henry Savile for that purpose. Halifax themselves were the first to use it for rugby in season 1875-6. Later West Mount became one of the longer-standing tenants, but there were lots of others.

In season 1877-78 the Yorkshire Cup was launched. Often it was by invitation only, but even on other occasions it was only the higher-ranked clubs who entered. Salterhebble Athletic, Sowerby Bridge, Halifax Free Wanderers, Elland, Luddenden Foot and Mytholmroyd were usually there alongside Halifax and Brighouse Rangers, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden often as well, but there were also appearances later on for Hipperholme & Lightcliffe and Halifax St Josephs (one of the teams who used the Militia Field, near their Castle Hotel changing rooms), and in 1885 a village team from Ovenden. Greetland were usually involved from 1887, then Stainland in 1890.

Rugby had quickly become an obsession in the town, as it had elsewhere in the wider area. In most other parts of the country, including other areas of Yorkshire, soccer was the game that took hold, but in West Yorkshire it was rugby. Just as cricket held sway in summer, so did rugby in winter. There were no major soccer clubs in the region, just rugby clubs, and this was reflected in junior circles. When a Rugby County Championship was started in 1889, Yorkshire won seven of the first eight competitions, usually with Halifax-born players in the ranks. Yorkshire had the advantage of being the biggest county in terms of size and population, but it was more the passion for rugby in the western part that brought the success. This situation continued for the rest of the century, though by then soccer had fought back and was starting to take over as it had done elsewhere.

There were no leagues, teams arranging their own fixtures against opponents of similar strength. But in season 1885-6 a local cup competition was started, initially called the Halifax Infirmary Charity Football Cup – it is still around in the local rugby league. Sixteen teams took part, including all the top sides plus Heptonstall (who had a team throughout the 1880s, latterly as Heptonstall Cricket Football and Athletic Club) and Halifax Olympic, who had just moved to a new ground in Nursery Lane. Halifax entered their reserves, the “A” team, despite complaints from too some that they would be too strong, though others wanted them there because of the attendances they would attract. As it happened Halifax “A”, having beaten Heptonstall and Greetland, lost in the semi final to Salterhebble Athletic, played on the Brighouse Rangers ground. Salterhebble went on the beat Mytholmroyd in the Final at Hanson Lane (Halifax’s ground at the time, on the other side of Thrum Hall Lane) on Boxing Day.

The Salterhebblers retained the Cup in 1886-7, when Halifax and Brighouse Rangers were barred from entry by a ganging-up of the others, beating Hebden Bridge in the Final. Over the following eight years it was won by Hipperholme & Lightcliffe, the returning Halifax “A” (3 times), Sowerby Bridge (also 3 times) and Greetland. In these years entrants included Woodhouse a few times, and at least once Copley, Northowram (who had a field near the Shoulder of Mutton), Wheatley , Halifax Victoria, Halifax Crescent, Rastrick, Bailiffe Bridge and King Cross Albion.

King Cross Albion reached the semi final in 1890-1, though they were described as a team of mere boys who had got there through byes and good luck. They grew in experience and continued for just under a decade from a base at King Cross Liberal Club, though the King Cross team of the mid-1890s played at Sandhall in Highroad Well, and held players’ meetings at the nearby Horse & Jockey. They had earlier been on a field at Dunkirk in Parkinson Lane.

Copley regularly had sides from the 1870s onwards, but never for a sustained period. There was later a Copley Athletic and a Copley Mills.

Hipperholme & Lightcliffe, known as The Whitehall Lads, had been formed around 1880, an early star player being James Lockwood who went on to play for Halifax and Yorkshire. They gained players from a disbanded Lightcliffe Crescent to create a good side that won the Halifax Charity Cup in 1888, becoming even stronger after 1889 when they acquired several of the defunct Halifax Free Wanderers club’s players. When their ground, on a field close to the church at the crossroads, was lost to building in 1891 they moved to one near the Country House Inn, continuing for several more years as simply Hipperholme.

By this time there was also a Hipperholme Rangers, who played on a new ground but still near the church (Rev. Father Worthy kicked off the first match there). Rangers entered the Wyke Challenge Cup, a competition organised by the Wyke club for junior clubs in Bradford and Halifax and played on their ground at the top of Wyke Lane for a couple of seasons. In 1894 they won the first final, beating Halifax Crescent 3-0.

The winners of the Wyke Challenge Cup in 1895 were the short-lived Shaw Lodge, who played at Clipstone Hall in Siddal. Their captain in the final was Samuel Holland, who later had connections with the Siddal club, where he was to become chairman and president.

Other local clubs, including Stainland and Queensbury, also organised such competitions in this period, as did other organisations. The Halifax Racing Company had run one on their Paddock Lane racecourse (now West End Golf Club) in the summer of 1884, the playing area being at the top near Roils Head. They were good fund-raisers in that an entry fee was charged to the clubs taking part, then spectators charged for admission to the games. In exchange the winning teams would usually receive 15 gold medals and the runners-up 15 silvers. Some of these medals will have been handed down through the generations, their current owners having no idea what they represent.

In 1892 a system of leagues began for the first time, Yorkshire leading the way. A Number 1 Competition featured Halifax and Brighouse Rangers, while Elland were in Yorkshire Number 2. The following year a Number 3 Competition was added, including Hebden Bridge, Luddenden Foot , Bailiffe Bridge and Greetland from this area in Group B. An Intermediate (junior) section involved Sowerby Bridge. By 1894 Mytholmroyd had been added. Separate junior leagues emerged in such as Bradford, Huddersfield and Leeds, but there was no actual league in Halifax until 1895, when a Halifax & District League started. The teams competing in it were Salterhebble Rangers, Ambler Thorn, Halifax Gymnasium, St Bernards (from the church in Range Lane), Hipperholme Rangers, Lee Mount, Queens Road United, Shaw Lodge, Stainland and West Mount Crescent.

Salterhebble Rangers had by then been around for some time as an alternative to the higher level Salterhebble Athletic. They played on various grounds around Exley and Siddal, including a new one at Park Nook in 1885, but in 1887 moved to The Crescent, Savile Park Road and changed their name to Halifax Rangers. Dressing rooms were at the Plummet Line Hotel some distance away. There had been an earlier Halifax Rangers, playing from a ground in Gibbet Street in 1882.

Ambler Thorn were a new team in 1892, said to be the first in the Queensbury area for some time, renting a field behind the New Inn at Swamp, and another at Warmleigh Hall in Roper Lane for a junior team. They later acquired the defunct Queensbury club field close to Black Dyke Mills, with headquarters at the old Queenshead Inn which adjoined it.

There was also now a Rugby Union Calder Valley League, which was won by Brookfoot, and also included Brighouse Juniors, Brighouse Parish Church, Elland Juniors, Hebden Bridge seconds, Holywell Brook, Luddenden and Sowerby Bridge Juniors, Lindwell and, strangely, King Cross. Higher-ranked sides Elland, Sowerby Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Luddenden Foot, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden remained in the Number 1, 2 and 3 competitions. Yorkshire Cup entrants in the 1890s included Rastrick, Bailiffe Bridge, Halifax Gymnasium and Luddenden. Other teams playing occasional friendlies included Wall Nook at Greetland, Warley St John’s, Queens Road Amateurs, Lee Mount United (playing at Shroggs Park), Halifax West End (at Longfield, Parkinson Lane), and a new St Mary’s team variously at Pickles Lane, Gibbet Street and Mile Cross.

Halifax Gymnasium were the junior club of future Halifax RLFC Hall of Fame star Archie Rigg, but they still progressed after he left. Using the still-existing field at Kensington some of the time, they reached the Halifax Charity Cup semi-final in 1894-5 and continued for the rest of the century. Among other early big names, Jimmy Dodd learned the game with St Paul’s and Salem Sunday School, Jack Riley at Luddenden, while George Langhorn signed from Queens Road United (based at The Rook Hotel and playing at Sandhall Lane).

Sometimes cricket clubs formed rugby sections. In 1884 St Thomas’s C.C. added a team to play on a field adjoining High Sunderland Farm, soon afterwards Triangle C.C. formed a team to play on the lower part of the cricket field, and a Ripponden Cricket and Football Club was created. As in earlier years, these were joined by several other occasional teams who chose to continue with friendly fixtures rather than join the new leagues, like Highroad Well and Norland Free Wanderers, as the game continued to flourish.