This archive contains materials from individuals collected by the Huddersfield Communtity Trust for the Huddersfield Rugby League: A Lasting Legacy project. The materials reflect, commemorate and celebrate some significant anniversaries in Huddersfield's Rugby League history, including the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Huddersfield club in 2014, and the centenary of the club’s Team of all Talents, one of only three teams to win all four available trophies in the same season - 1914-15. The project also marked the anniversary of the start of the First World War and its impact on the people of Huddersfield as well as raising the profile of Huddersfield as the birthplace of rugby league at the George Hotel in 1895.

The archive contains letters, programmes, magazines, yearbooks, commemorate booklets and brochures, scrapbooks and photographs, both contemporary and commemorative, that reflect the stories of individuals and the wider team involved with Rugby League in the Kirklees area. It also contains some china cups and saucers belonging to the old Huddersfield Cricket and Athletic Club.

,Huddersfield rugby league programmes, commemorative publications relating to WW2, photographs of matches and players, ground safety documents depicting map of grounds, press cuttings from various newspapers and correspondence from Keith Burhouse.

Stones Bitter Centenary First Division Special Centenary Edition. Includes short articles on 'Fartown's Centenary Greats' :- Harry Lodge, Milford Sutcliffe, Harold Wagstaff, Len Bowkett, Alex Fiddes, Russ Pepperell, Dave Valentine, Tommy Smales, Mick Shepherd, Gary Hetherington and Greg Shuttleworth. The Rugby Football League Centenary Commemorative Service Huddersfield Town Hall 27 August 1995 and a parade and service of Thanksgiving to mark the 50th Anniversay of the end of the Second World War 20 August 1995.

Includes- Multiple copies Plan of Fartown Cricket Ground and exits, Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 General Safety Certificate Huddersfield Rugby League Football Club, 3 match day records, Suggested Rules for Stewards,West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 General Safety Certificate Huddersfield Barracudas Rugby League Football Club, Fartown Ground Capacity and Plan of Fartown Ground 1991.

Correspondence between Keith Burhouse and Huddesfield Giants Chief Executive, Kirklees Leisure and Recreation Services, Huddersfield Rugby League Football Club, Kirklees Stadium Development Limited and University of Huddersfield Estates Department.

Huddersfield programmes from a variety of leagues and rugby league magazine and brochures.

1 Incomplete collection of Magazine edited by E N Gaulton, volume 4 number 39 October 1970 includes tribute to editor who died. Articles on past games and future fixtures, teams and historical articles.
2 Centenary Brochure Huddersfield Rugby League Football Club 1895-1995.
3 MALC. Malcolm Branch Testimonial Brochure 1969-1979

Bound Copies of Huddersfield Cricket and Athletic Club Football Programmes. Includes Rugby League fixtures and tables and reviews of some matches including charity matches.

Huddersfield v Wakefield challenge Cup Final includes Huddersfield Cricket and Athletic club Rugby League Fixtures card 1961-62, Huddersfield v Moscow Magicians, Professional Sports Meeting at Fartown

A3 Photo montage, Community Song Sheet 1962 Challenge Cup Final, Huddersfield's Lament to Harold Wagstaff, Rugby League diary 1954, A3 Cartoon 'All Black win at Huddersfield, Booklet, 'The Claret and Gold Diggers of Fartown', Press cutting, sketch and verse by Arthur H Cock of Huddersfield, Medal Badge Huddersfield Cricket and Athletic Club SC Committee.

Huddersfield programmes, players' testimonial brochures, rugby league magazine volumes, RFL yearbooks, match souvenir brochure, amateur club programmes and Fartown yearbooks compiled by Peter Whiteley

Vol. 1, no. 6, 8 & 10, vol. 2, no. 13 & 16. Includes rugby league news, articles, obituaries, etc.

Also known as ex-players and past players association

Photograph: Huddersfield Team 1952-1953. Shows Committee members: J. T. Withers, W. Cunningham, H. Lockwood, J. Wood Beever (Vice-Chairman), H. V. Wood esq. (President), W. Stoker (Chairman), B. Gronow, T. Matthewman and Arthur Archbell (Secretary). Team: H. Tiffany (Assistant Trainer), J. Brown, W. Griffin, J. Bowden, J. Large, J. Cooper, E. Slevin, D. D. Valentine, J. Waring (Masseur), W. Smith (Trainer), R. Cracknell, P. Henderson, J. C. Hunter, G. R. Pepperell (Captain), L. Cooper, P. Devery, R. Rylance, W. Banks, G. Curran and P. Ramsden. Also pictured are the Rugby League Challenge Cup and the Yorkshire Challenge Cup.

This item is referred to as the “Lazenby Cup”, however it should be noted that there are several competitions that bear this name. The Cups were the gift of Arthur Thompson Lazenby, who at one time was a member of the board of the Leeds Cricket, Football and Athletic Co., Ltd. However, Mr Lazenby had an interest in junior Rugby League football for many years, and gave many trophies to senior and junior Rugby League football.

The Lazenby Cups were gifts of Mr Lazenby for the encouragement of junior Rugby League football. The Cups were played for annually by Leeds and Hunslet, Dewsbury and Wakefield Trinity, and Keighley and Bradford Northern. The first Lazenby Cup was reportedly played by Dewsbury and Wakefield Trinity on 17 April 1920.

Mr Lazenby died in 1946, aged 73.

References:
A Cup for Dewsbury. 19 April 1920. Leeds Mercury.

Mr A. T. Lazenby: Death of a Rugby League Benefactor. 1 May 1946. Yorkshire Evening Post.

This film has been developed at Heritage Quay to introduce primary age children to the sports collections in the University of Huddersfield’s archives. The film is 3 minutes and 2 seconds in length.

The Rugby Football League was founded in Huddersfield in 1895 and Rugby League is central to the sports archive at Heritage Quay. It includes items of kit as well as rare match programmes, advertising material and player registers and correspondence. Smaller collections on cricket are also held.

Rugby League, Cricket and other sports memorabilia

Records created by the Rugby Football League in the course of its activities as the governing body for rugby league in Britain and Ireland.

The collection includes central administrative records relating to strategic planning. These include: minute books and correspondence; annual general meeting records; annual reports; and records relating to the Rugby Football League's involvement in the All Party Parliamentary Rugby League Group. Other administrative records include central financial records; records relating to the RFL's communication with broadcasters such as the BBC and Sky television; and records relating to governance and ensuring that clubs adhere to the RFL's operational rules.

There are also large numbers of records relating to the Rugby Football League's role as a central body involved in organising competitions and tours which include British or Irish rugby league teams and clubs, including Academy (age-grade) rugby organised via professional clubs. Records relating to competitions include: administrative and financial records relating to individual tours and competitions; programmes; promotional records; kit (clothing), trophies and medals; photographs; and scorebooks.

The Rugby Football League is a central representative for rugby league in Britain and Ireland; it has therefore created and collected large numbers of records as part of its relationships with professional UK clubs, rugby league supporters, amateur rugby league organisations, international rugby league clubs and governing bodies, and other sporting bodies such as the Rugby Football Union. Records created and collected as part of these relationships include administrative records such as correspondence, reports, and policies; programmes; Official Guides (year books); club records such as histories and statistics; photographs; menus; commemorative objects; magazines.

Over the years the Rugby Football League has collected commercial publications as sources of information about the sport; these include magazines, journals and manuals on rugby league. Many of these are preserved in the archive and date from the 1940s to the 2000s. There are also some centrally collected press cuttings in the collection.

Since the 1980s the Rugby Football League has accepted donations of personal archive collections from rugby league players, administrators and supporters. These collections range from single item donations such as Albert Rosenfeld's New South Wales cap; to much larger collections such as David Hinchliffe's administrative collection relating to the All Party Parliamentary Rugby League Group and Dai Jenkins' collection of programmes, photographs, letters and clothing relating to his rugby league career. Within supporter collections there are also a large number of press cutting scrapbooks covering a range of teams, players, countries and themes.

Records in this section represent the function of managing archives and heritage within the Rugby Football League.

This section includes collections of material collected by players, supporters and, occassionally, administrators which have been purchased by or donated to the Rugby Football League.

This section also includes records relating to heritage projects initiated by the Rugby Football League and records which appear to have been retained for heritage reference purposes - for example academic dissertations relating to rugby league - and records relating to rugby league in popular culture such as film, television and literature.

The AV function also includes historical reference books owned by the RFL.

Collections donated by players and administrators of rugby league.

Joe Brittain in a group of five naval rugby league players (front row, 2nd right).

Joe Britttain and three others with the rugby league challenge cup (front row, left).

Leeds Football Club Dinner to Celebrate the Winning of 'The Rugby League' Challenge Cup at the Griffin Hotel, Leeds.

Idris Towill first played rugby league for Huddersfield (Fartown). Here is a collection of programmes, newspaper cuttings, newsletters, photographs, and dinner menus. The highlight is the memoribilia associated with the1935 Challenge Cup Final, which Huddersfield unfortunately lost.

Huddersfield examiner article, plus photogrpah, describing Idris's longevity (15 seasons) in the game of rugby league. He retired from the game in 1946.

From his early days playing for the Welsh schoolboys at rugby union in the 1920s through his time captaining Bridgend and playing for Glamorgan. His rugby league career covers both his time at Fartown/Huddersfield and Keighley. There are also mementos of

Issue 2.

Issue 7 - containing a letter from Robert Gate, author of an article detailing Idris Towill's career (pages 35 - 37).

Robert Gate, author, signed. The Keighley 1937 challenge cup team, which included Idris Towill, is on page 73.

Many newspaper cuttings of the 1928 tour of Australia, the 1929 Rugby League Cup Final (Wigan 13 Dewsbury 2, at Wembley), the 1930 Australian tour of the UK and miscellaneous domestic games.

The Northern Rugby League Championship Cup and the Irish Hospital Trust Challenge Trophy on display in Dublin.

Wales shirt (red).

Mainly rugby league (14 loose sheets, fragile).

1. Player's union card
2. 4 March 1929 Rugby League Cup Wembley Final ticket stub (Wigan v Dewsbury at Wembley Stadium, London. This was the first Challenge Cup final to be held at Wembley, played on Saturday 4 May 1929, where Wigan beat Dewsbury 13–2)
3. 1939 Yorkshire County Cricket Club Records
4. 1951-1952 Subscription receipt
5. 1952-1953 Leigh player season ticket No. 15.

1. A post card of the (new) home of Hull-Kingston-Rovers. (New) Craven Park which was located on Holderness Road from 1922-1989. The ground was demolished in 1989 and the site is now occupied by supermarket Morrisons.

Several Yorkshire County Cup Final programmes of the 1940s as well as other Wakefield programmes.

The Dai Jenkins collection includes items ranging from his personal life, through Domestic and International Rugby League games. Kit includes a schoolboy international cap and Welsh international cap. Shirts include those from Wales, England, France, Leeds and Streatham & Mitcham club. Several medals awarded to Dai including the Welsh schools Rugby League winners’ medal 1927-1928.

Photographs from domestic and international matches plus ones from his private life. Letters received from family and friends whilst in England and when touring and those informing Dai of his inclusion in internationals.

Items from the Indomitables Rugby League tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1946 including a signed rugby ball and boomerang, shirt and cap, Dai Jenkins’ large travel trunk, pennants from HMS Indomitable, photographs, programmes, newspaper cutting, fixtures and social invitations received.

Rugby League programmes, photographs, newspaper cuttings and fixture cards of both domestic and international matches and 2 X-Rays of Dai Jenkins' broken collar bone.

Personal records collected by Rugby League player Dai Jenkins during his career. The series includes: personal letters, photographs, x-rays of his broken shoulder etc.

Personal letters to and from the Rugby League Player Dai Jenkins

Mentions Leeds rugby league team out of the cup, friend Emrys Richards. Mentions Dai and Edna competing for the loudest singing voice and Betty not missing Edna's cold feet. Signed Mam, Dad and Betty.

'In the presence of the French Rugby League team'. Signed by the Wales team on back cover.

Items collected by Rugby League player Dai Jenkins relating to his time playing Domestic Rugby League. The series of records include: shirts and other kit, photographs, medals awarded, programmes, newspaper cuttings and letters etc.

Dai Jenkins' Rugby League kit. Medium blue and white hoops, number 7 hand sewn on back. Believed to be a Streatham shirt, although some sources describe Streatham's colours as being green and white.

Dai Jenkins' Rugby League kit. Medium blue with 3 gold hoops (central one larger than other 2) around chest and arms, white collar, size 42, Umbro make.

Dai Jenkins' Rugby League kit. Number 7 hand sewn on the back.