by John Dewhirst

In terms of sporting endeavour, Bingley is nowadays probably better known for cross-country running and the Bingley Harriers & Athletic Club or its golf clubs at Beckfoot and St Ives. Yet whilst the merger of the Bingley and Bradford rugby clubs at Wagon Lane in 1982 failed to raise the prominence of the sport, it remains Rugby Union for which Bingley has greatest claim to fame. Even though team triumphs were limited, a total of 11 England caps were won by Bingley players in the five years, 1893-98 which was no mean achievement for a small town club.

As in Bradford however, it was cricket that was originally the principal sport in the town. Bingley can also claim to have been at the forefront of the politicisation of sport in the nineteenth century with Benjamin Disraeli celebrating cricket as a recreational and leisure opportunity for workmen – inducing a cordial interchange of the amenities of life and mutual good feeling amongst all classes – when he visited in October, 1844. At the time of promoting his Young England initiative, Disraeli seized upon the unlikely combination of cricket and allotments as the salve for those facing toil in the mills for Liberal factory owners.

The earliest mention that I have found in connection with team sport in Bingley was with regards the playing of cricket at Bingley Crow Nest cricket ground in Gilstead in 1838. Disraeli spoke of instituting a new Bingley Cricket Club in 1844 and subsequent references allude to the club playing on land provided by William Ferrand next to the river near Ireland Bridge at Beckfoot. Whether there was a direct lineage with the Bingley cricket club that was a member of the Bradford Cricket League from 1910 I cannot say.

By 1871 Bingley had a population of some eighteen thousand, a more than four-fold increase since 1801, of which around seven thousand lived in the centre of the town which was known somewhat romantically as ‘The Throstle Nest of Old England’.

In common with developments elsewhere in the Bradford district, from 1874 the local cricket club became the sponsor of annual athletic festivals and in 1875 Bingley Cricket Club had proudly reinvented itself as Bingley Cricket & Athletic Club. The new fashion of athleticism and pursuit of new outdoor as well as winter activities brought with it the launch of Bingley Athletic & Football Club in 1876 and the first reported mention in the press of Bingley Harriers in 1878.

Bingley FC was in the second wave of emergent clubs in the district that were formed in the second half of the 1870s and it was no coincidence that it came at the same time as new clubs in nearby Shipley and Keighley (both formed in 1876). The club originally played near Gawthorpe Hall, moving to a succession of grounds at Ireland Bridge, Ferncliffe and Royd Nook (Gilstead) before Wagon Lane in 1886.

Its headquarters was variously at the Ferrands Arms, The White Horse and The Midland Hotel in the centre of town. Needless to say, each was a good walk from the club’s Wagon Lane ground such that the arrangement was not necessarily as remunerative for the pubs as might have been hoped.

In the absence of reported connections with either the local Rifle Volunteers (which had relocated to Saltaire in 1871 and disbanded in 1875), Bingley Grammar School or the influence of a local church it seems a reasonable assumption that Bingley FC was closely connected to the cricket club with common social networks quite likely based around prominent pubs in the town. By 1879 the new football club could boast a membership of 40 which was ostensibly sufficient to field two teams.

After 1876 the Bingley Cricket Club dropped reference to athletics in its name. This may suggest that the new football club was launched with the intention of embracing those interested in winter athleticism as well as to appeal to the non-cricketers who had been members of the cricket club. In turn, the emergence of Bingley Harriers appears to coincide with the football club dropping the reference to athletics. All of this implies distinct specialisms between the respective organisations by the 1880s but probably also highlights common roots in the town cricket club (which had similarly been the case in Bradford).

The development of Park Avenue and the relaunch of the original Bradford FC in 1880 impacted the local network of football (that is, rugby) clubs with the disappearance of a number of pioneering sides and a consolidation of survivors. Within the Bradford district as well as West Yorkshire, Bingley thereby assumed the status of an established junior organisation that was sufficient to command respectable fixtures including with the likes of Manningham FC (at least until 1882 after which it began to establish itself as an aspirant challenger to Bradford FC).

The club also derived status and respectability from the fact that two of its former players had subsequently played for Bradford FC at Park Avenue and graduated to become England internationals. Edgar Wilkinson (1880-82) was capped five times between 1886-87 and Laurie Hickson (1879-82), also a cricketer with Bingley CC and later to become president of the Yorkshire RFU, gained six caps between 1887-90. Other players including Sam Asquith (1883) and Alf Leach (1891) moved from Bingley to Bradford, establishing themselves at a higher level.

Manningham FC’s upward mobility had come from prowess in the Yorkshire Challenge Cup in which it first competed during the 1881/82 season. Yet whereas Keighley and Shipley secured entry in the 1883/84 competition, Bingley had to wait until 1884/85. Participation in the Yorkshire Challenge Cup was prized and whilst admission was ostensibly about the perceived strength of a club, it also had a lot to do with politics within the Yorkshire RFU and successful lobbying to be invited. The fact that Bingley comfortably defeated Shipley in October, 1884 was sufficient evidence that the clubs were closely ranked.

Whilst Bingley did not progress beyond the first round of the Yorkshire Challenge Cup in its first season of entry, the club could at least boast of being semi-finalists in the inaugural Bradford Charity Cup competition of 1884/85. The Bingley membership was not alone in being overcome by cup fever even though in 1885/86 the ‘Throstlenesters’ were defeated in the first round of both the county cup as well as the Bradford Charity Cup.

The dream of cup glory was sufficient to encourage Bingley FC to commit in 1886 to a new 13 year lease on a new ground at the current Wagon Lane site in Cottingley. The following summer (in 1887), Bingley Cricket Club moved across from Beckfoot.

It was fitting that Bingley FC should invite Manningham FC to play at Wagon Lane on 11th September, 1886 to formally open the new ground. The rise of Manningham FC was an inspiration to other junior sides in the Bradford district (even though no others could realistically hope to emulate their achievement). Of course Manningham FC had its own new ground at Valley Parade having been forced to relocate that summer following redevelopment of its former home at Drummond Road.

The Leeds Times of 2nd October, 1886 reported: ‘The great popularity of the winter pastime is fully attested by the opening of new grounds which has been going on in this district for several weeks. The Bingley Club set the ball rolling in this direction, the Halifax men followed suit, and on Saturday the merry men of Manningham performed the ceremony of opening their extensive and convenient new ground. Football enclosures are coming to be well-appointed and attractive spots, every arrangement being made for the comfort of players and visitors.’

It was typical of the mania of the time and there was a new form of competition between clubs to upgrade facilities. In the Aire Valley for example, the bravado of Bingley was replicated by Shipley FC the following year who committed to ground improvements at its home opposite the Ring of Bells public house.

There was a similarly effusive description of the Wagon Lane site in The Leeds Mercury of 13th September, 1886: ‘a splendid new football field… said to be one of the best in Yorkshire and is very level, being 140 yards from boundary to boundary and 81 yards broad. A stand is not erected, but the committee hope to have one up by next season.’

A crowd of two thousand witnessed a Manningham victory. At the celebratory dinner at the Ferrands Arms following the match, Arthur McWeeney on behalf of the Manningham FC committee toasted the Bingley club adding that ‘he considered the Bingley field was the prettiest in Yorkshire, both for size and situation. He advised the club to pull together and good gates and many wins would follow.’

It was a turning point for Bingley FC, not simply on account of having a more prestigious ground. The club had committed itself to a lease and there was now a commercial imperative to win games and attract spectators. For all the words of encouragement from the Manningham guests, it would need more than simply pulling together to be successful.

Bingley FC remained proud representatives of the town and its players continued to be local celebrities at the centre of the community. However it was unrealistic that the club’s place in the pecking order of Yorkshire football would be transformed. For example there was no league competition at this time and the only way to raise the profile of the club was to progress in the Yorkshire Challenge Cup which was difficult given that the senior clubs were also hungry to win and had a financial imperative to do so. In all likelihood Bingley’s destiny was to remain a feeder club.

What the Bingley FC membership had probably not appreciated was that their club was now to all intents a business. Ten years before the critical success criteria had been a ground to play at, choice of opposition sides to play and sufficient players to raise a team. Now it was about having a good enough standard of players, attracting sufficient spectators and remaining solvent. Whilst the club enjoyed security of tenure at Wagon Lane and there was little prospect of losing the land for housing or industrial development, the one mile distance from the centre of Bingley was a disadvantage in terms of maximising attendances. Compared with its peers in the Bradford district the club’s ground was also the furthest away from a railway station.

Needless to say there was an upbeat mood among the Bingley members, sufficient to attract the former Manningham FC player Harry Inman as club captain in October, 1886. His time at Wagon Lane however was limited and shortly after he joined Bradford FC at Park Avenue.

On 30th October, 1886 Bingley won at Shipley in a first round Bradford Charity Cup match but the result was declared void with Bingley having fielded an ineligible player. The tie was replayed at Manningham’s new Valley Parade ground and in what was described as a rough game, this time it was Shipley that emerged victorious. The aggrieved Bingley players left the field three minutes before the end with the rivalry between the two sides continuing to be known for petty grudges. The two clubs played each other no less than three other times that season with Shipley winning the first round Yorkshire Cup tie at Wagon Lane and the ‘friendly’ fixtures each won by the respective home team.

Prior to becoming founder members of the new fourth tier of the Yorkshire league competition in 1893/94, Bingley’s record had been relatively undistinguished. Bingley’s mention in the sporting headlines was invariably for the wrong reasons, the ill-discipline of players being a not infrequent issue. It is impossible to say whether Bingley had a worse reputation than other comparable clubs but it is difficult to avoid the impression that the club was better known for rough play than what was then described as ‘scientific football’. It may have been the case that – as representatives of an independently-minded town – the Bingley players felt a particular duty to uphold its honour and in the absence of skill there was undue resort to brute force.

Unlike Shipley FC which made a name for itself in the Bradford Charity Cup, there was no cup glory for Bingley FC and the highlight of the season tended to be local derbies. For instance there was also a strong rivalry with Keighley FC and to a lesser extent, Saltaire FC (formed in 1883 as Saltaire Trinity and based off Albert Road). Another rival with whom there appears to have been a degree of tension was Guiseley FC and match reports are notable for the repeated reference to rough play. For routine games I doubt that attendances amounted to more than a couple of hundred with maybe just short of a thousand spectators at derby or holiday fixtures. For junior clubs such as Bingley it was cup ties that drew the crowds. Ominously, investment in ground improvements between 1891 and 1892 (including a new grandstand and drainage) coincided with a bad run of form and deterioration in finances.

In 1893/94 Bingley FC was ranked alongside other Airedale clubs Guiseley, Idle, Ingrow, Saltaire, Silsden, Skipton, Stanningley and Windhill. Shipley FC and Keighley FC meanwhile were members of the third tier. Surprisingly perhaps, the season marked the pinnacle achievement for Bingley FC thanks to the contribution of its star player, Tom Broadley and to a lesser extent that of his brother and teammate, Joe.

During 1893/94 Tom was capped three times by England and in 1892/93 he had won his first two caps as a Bingley player. This was a forward at the top of his game, playing in all but one of England’s six internationals in those two seasons and yet there he was in the lowest tier of the YRFU competition.

That season Bingley scored the most points of any side in Yorkshire and of 22 games played in 1893/94, won 19 and lost only once. As winners of (the geographic) Group ‘A’, Bingley faced an end of season play-off with the winners of Group ‘B’, Hebden Bridge at Valley Parade on Good Friday that resulted in a famous victory. The relative success would have been a source of pride and identity for the Bingley townsfolk, remembered and indeed cherished for years to come.

The celebrations must have been remarkable judged from the report in The Bingley Chronicle of 30th March, 1894: ‘Such enthusiasm as that manifested on Friday evening when the Bingley club returned victorious has never been seen in Bingley before. Young and old, grave and gay, were attracted to Main Street, the thoroughfare along which the team had to pass on the way to the Midland Hotel. The cheering was intense, not unlike the return of a popular candidate at an election… A large and enthusiastic crowd met the football team at Leonard’s Place, and the whole of the energies of four police officers were occupied in making a way for the wagonnettes to pass to the club’s head-quarters – the Midland Hotel. The Bingley Mission Band led the way with the strains of ‘See the conquering hero comes!’‘

The following day Bingley FC met Bradford FC in the third round of the Yorkshire Cup at Park Avenue. Never before had Bingley reached the last sixteen of the competition but Tom Broadley alone could not make an improbable dream come to life. Neither would excessive celebrations the previous night have been helpful. True to form it was Bradford FC that progressed to the quarter-finals. The eight thousand crowd was the biggest that Bingley FC had ever played in front of, albeit less than half of what would have been classified a bumper gate at Park Avenue. The previous day at Valley Parade, the gate receipts of £85 would suggest there having been an attendance of between five and six thousand. Earlier in March, 1894 there had been a record crowd of four thousand at Wagon Lane when Bingley had defeated Keighley in the second qualifying round of the competition.

On the Saturday after the Bradford cup defeat Bingley played the traditional end of season champion’s fixture against a select team comprising players from the rest of the division. Victory in that game provided further opportunity to celebrate although surprisingly, the match was reported to have not attracted a large attendance. Nevertheless the relative success of the season and the higher crowds overall provided a financial boost to the club and funded the repayment of debts.

The problem for Bingley was that it was essentially a one man team with undue reliance upon Tom Broadley. With no automatic promotion, at best Bingley could only emulate in 1894/95 what had just been achieved in 1893/94. Whilst playing for Bingley had suited his work commitments, at the end of the season Broadley was tempted to join the West Riding club in Leeds for a fresh challenge. (In 1896 he moved to Bradford FC, becoming the most famous of its players at the turn of the century.) Needless to say, in 1894/95 Bingley’s results collapsed. Neither was there any cup glory for Bingley with elimination in the first round of the Yorkshire Cup in 1894/95, the last season in which the senior clubs participated prior to the launch of the Northern Union the following August.

Bingley’s performances deteriorated further in 1895/96 but the following season the club won its division in a much weakened Yorkshire league structure. Defections of other clubs to the Northern Union allowed Bingley FC to be graded at a higher level in 1897/98 and again in 1898/99 but it failed to raise public interest in the club’s affairs and besides, results were poor. The hopelessness of the club’s viability would soon became apparent.

What had compounded matters was the 1895 schism in English rugby and the breakaway of the senior Yorkshire and Lancashire clubs. By 1897 junior rugby clubs in the north of England were either disappearing under financial difficulties or defecting to the Northern Union to try and improve their circumstances. Collectively it meant a loss of opposition, higher travel costs to play matches and a lack of spectator interest. And neither was there the possibility of a glamorous cup tie.

Even if the outlook was bleak, Bingley FC could still boast two other England internationals in its side. James Barron won his first cap in March, 1896 and played alongside Tom Broadley who was awarded his sixth cap (then with West Riding but still a registered Bingley player) for England in Scotland. Barron won two more caps the following season and in 1897/98 the achievement was emulated by Harold Ramsden who won two caps. Barron and Ramsden (who were from Micklethwaite and Harden respectively) had both rejoined Bingley from Bradford FC in 1895 to preserve their amateur status. By playing for junior Yorkshire clubs within the Rugby Union the best players could remain legible for international call-up and this alone discouraged a few of the best players from registering with a Northern Union club (and in the immediate aftermath of 1895 it was easier for them to get selected for England with most of the star players now in the Northern Union).

Of Bingley’s local rivals, Saltaire FC was dissolved in 1898. The following year, Shipley FC defected from the Rugby Union but that club was then wound-up in 1901 after its Ring of Bells ground was scheduled to be redeveloped for housing. Keighley joined the Northern Union in 1900 and it is the same club that has survived to this day.

In 1899 Bingley left Wagon Lane and returned to Royd Nook which was also used by Bingley Juniors. The club remained within the Rugby Union until 1900, possibly seeking to differentiate itself as a bastion of the amateur code and hence holding out for as long as it could until other teams to play had disappeared. For the start of the 1900/01 season the club moved again, this time to Healey Lane. Sadly the club would fail to reach the 25th anniversary of its formation and in January, 1901 was wound-up. The end of Bingley FC was ignominious with the goalposts distrained by the landlord in December, 1900 on account of unpaid rent!

The final experience of Bingley FC may explain why there was subsequently never any attempt to launch a junior or semi-professional association football club in Bingley. The financial difficulties of Bingley FC would hardly have encouraged people to invest money in launching a new club and so too the example of the rugby club had demonstrated the difficulty of competing against bigger neighbours. Initiatives to promote soccer in Bingley at the turn of the twentieth century therefore tended to be limited to schoolboy sides or linked to local churches.

Ultimately Bingley would revert to becoming a rugby town even though the revived club has remained low profile. A new club, Bingley RFC was formed at Wagon Lane in 1922 as part of the local revival of rugby union that occurred immediately after World War One. By coincidence, in the same year a new cricket pavilion was built at the ground. In 1982 Bingley RFC merged with Bradford RFC to become Bradford & Bingley RUFC – the ‘Bees’ – who remain at Wagon Lane. Meanwhile, Bingley Cricket Club merged with Bradford CC to become Bradford & Bingley CC in 1987. The Wagon Lane venue is thus one of the oldest surviving sports grounds in the Bradford district which has also established a reputation for itself as a versatile multi-purpose recreational facility for both locals and visitors.

Like so many other junior sides of its era, Bingley FC could hardly be described as having been successful. Nonetheless it carried the dreams of its members who enjoyed the brief moments of glory. Most importantly the club made up the numbers that allowed competition to be possible. In its own way therefore Bingley FC played an important part in the sporting revolution of late Victorian England and deserves to be remembered.

The author’s blog can be found from this link and his Twitter address is @jpdewhirst

Other related features on VINCIT:

The political origins of Bradford Cricket Club by John Dewhirst

Cricket as the DNA of Bradford sport by John Dewhirst

Athletics festivals in Victorian Bradford by John Dewhirst

Social networks and the early development of Bradford sport by John Dewhirst

The role of the railways in developing Bradford sport by John Dewhirst

The history of the Bradford Charity Cup by John Dewhirst

The story of Shipley FC and other junior clubs in the Bradford district by John Dewhirst

The story of Skipton RFC by Ian Lockwood

The revival of rugby union in the Bradford district after World War One by John Dewhirst