Clubs > Siddal > The Siddal Clubhouses
The Siddal Clubhouses
For many decades, the Siddal club lead a nomadic existence much like many other clubs in Halifax. They moved from pub to pub around the Siddal village. The Siddal Place Hotel, the Exley Park, the Siddal Tavern and the Cross Keys all hosted the Siddal Rugby League club for some period.
By the start of the 1960 and with a strong and active committee, the committee decided that they needed a clubhouse, a home of their own. It was Chairman Dennis Bradley who took the lead. He was a local builder as well as a former professional Rugby League player and dedicated Siddal supporter. The club sought out a suitable premises. Eventually in 1963, three dwelling houses in Backhold Street, numbers 78.80 and 82 were bought for the Club by Dennis.
He worked on the plans with the committee and they came up with a design to submit for planning approval. The plans showed internal alterations to the building to make two changing rooms on the ground floor, a club room on the first floor and a committee room in the second-floor room.
The plans were approved on the 7th June 1963 and the work could start in earnest.
The houses were destined to be Siddal’s first clubhouse but back in the early 1960’s they were also the playground for Dennis’ son and future Siddal player, Graham. He told of his days..
“as a 4or 5-year-old playing around in the ripped out houses”.
Graham recalls the furniture for the club room came from a pub being demolished up on Gibbet Street in Halifax.
The changing rooms on the ground floor had a gas water boiler and one concrete bath. Mick Scott remembers the “swim schools”.
Mick Scott’s father was on the Siddal committee and also worked on the clubhouse build before he became the barman at the club.
New Year’s Eve at the club soon became a tradition. It was a fiver to get in and there was an open bar.
Raising money to pay for the clubhouse work and upkeep was a constant task. The club ran a weekly “double draw,” tickets for which were sold by a network of collectors around Halifax. The draw took place on a Tuesday in the local pubs of Siddal.
In the early seventies, it was apparent that the clubhouse needed enlarging. So, an extension was added at the rear of the clubhouse extending both the clubroom and the changing rooms. The extension can be seen in the lighter stone behind Luke Robinson, Chris Guest and Shaun Gibbons.
The clubhouse in Backhold was a great clubhouse with a real atmosphere and remembered by all who played there. Not just the long walk to Chevinedge to play the games and longer sometimes wet and muddy trek back but also the clubhouse itself. A recent conversation with Anthony Atherton who once played against Siddal as a junior remembers the Siddal clubhouse well.
“I remember the clubhouse with the walk down the narrow stone steps into the bottom of the building. There were a couple of changing rooms and a concrete bath!”
Pat Moore, now a Siddal Masters player, recalls a story about the bath.
“There had been an unfortunate incident after the game on Saturday and the bath needed cleaning. The players all trained on the Tuesday following and jumped in the bath afterwards. After 10 minutes in the bar, they were all scratching their skin as it had been irritated by something. They established that Mal Burk had put lots of toilet blue bleach in the bath to clean it”.
Not a good look at the bar?
Towards the end of the 1990’s with the junior section growing the committee realised larger premises were needed. It was originally hoped to have National Lottery Funding. There then followed a 5-year search to find the money to pay for it. Led by Eddie Golding-Smith who had just rejoined the committee as President, tried all funding sources, Sadly, the National Lottery had over committed and stop their funding and Siddal had to look elsewhere. For grants. Eventually after many meetings ,“Action Halifax” gave grant leading to others, such as Sport England, following. This together with the sale of the old clubhouse not to mention the many fundraising events and the amazing fundraising by club members, Siddal was able to realise the dream of the club for many years: to have their own clubhouse directly by the pitch at Chevinedge.
Jason B Wade Ltd in Sowerby Bridge were given the job of designing the new clubhouse with oversight from Sport England who demanded strict design criteria as they were providing partial funding.
(pictures from Jason B Wade)
Graham Bradley, former Siddal player and son of original clubhouse builder Dennis, was approached by Eddie Golding-Smith in the Shears public house in around 2004 and asked it he could build the new Siddal clubhouse. Graham recalled ,
“ Eddie asked when we get funding, can you build it? We built it from scratch between November and April”.
Graham, by now himself a building contractor, used his connections in the building trade and gave his own time and effort for free to lead the build. There were other tradesman who also freely gave their time. The new clubhouse was built in 2008 and ready for business.
Eddie Golding-Smith expressed his gratitude to Graham.
“If Brad hadn’t built it, it would not have been built”.
Eddie also paid tribute to Andrew Thornton for his help in realising the project. Eddie himself provided all the furnishings through his business. Halifax Action was so impressed with the result which their initial funding had brought about, the chipped in a little more to equip the kitchen!
Subsequently, Graham was also responsible for the construction of the extension and the balcony on the clubhouse.
The club room in the new clubhouse with its beautiful partition is now named after Eddie Golding-Smith, immortalising his efforts for the Siddal club.
