Normanton
Normanton FC played at the highest level of the game, competing with the very best clubs in the land for a brief period. Only a decade or so earlier the village club had been in the third tier within the Rugby Union. However, the club’s demise did not represent the death knell of Northern Union in the town, with two further clubs taking up the mantle in the years leading up to World War One.
The first Normanton FC, nicknamed ‘The Colliers’, was established in 1879, using the Midland Hotel as its base. A meeting on Thursday 24th July that year in the village National School saw the club formally established, and the Rev W M Lane consented to be president. By September, the club reported that a large number of young men had signed on and that a number of them had recently commenced practice. Initial ‘matches’ were between club members, ‘W Hutchinson’s’ side defeating ‘G Stearns’s side’ in October, being one instance. A ground at Mopsey Garth was originally used for its matches. This ground would be used by several other teams in future years, with the Hark To Mopsey Inn soon replacing the Midland Hotel as the club’s headquarters.
Wakefield St Michaels were visitors to Normanton on Saturday 15th November 1879, and came away with a victory by four tries, three disputed tries, five touches down, and one touch-in-cue (sic) to Normanton’s, nil, showing that the newly-formed team still had a way to go before it could become really competitive, but the young team would, in time, become a major force in the locality.
The club was clearly an integral part of the community. In May 1885, the club gave 400 loaves to the families of striking miners, and £1 10s to the Normanton Relief Committee. In October 1886, matches were played at Mopsey Garth in order to raise money for the Altofts Colliery disaster, when several miners were killed by an explosion.
At Normanton’s AGM on Tuesday 4th May 1887, it was announced that Mr Horsfall’s field near the Parish Church had been secured, and was being thoroughly re-laid in preparation for the coming season. The ground, known as Horsfall’s Paddock, was officially opened on Saturday 27th August with a match between two teams consisting of club members. A wooden fence was erected around the new ground in order to fully enclose it.
Tuesday 6th March 1888, a concert to wipe out the club’s debts ‘proved successful beyond anticipations’, and by May the following year, at the club AGM, a small balance in hand was reported by the club secretary Mr Stones, a well known player with the club, who had succeeded R Kitson, himself an ‘energetic and obliging secretary’, four years earlier.
By the 1888/89 season the club had local rivals. Besides Normanton St John’s, there was also Normanton Parish Church FC which played regular fixture against the likes of Normanton United and the St John’s and Normanton FC ‘A’ teams as well as other teams such as Wakefield Parish Church and Bottomboat Trinity.
On Saturday 13th August 1892, a first athletics festival was organised by the club, before a large number of spectators. This event continued for a number of years on the football field.
Normanton FC’s league debut was made in the Yorkshire Rugby Union Intermediate Competition in the 1893/94 season, when it finished seventh of 14 teams. However, this is perhaps not a bad performance when you consider the ongoing miners disputes that would have affected attendances (and which led to local rivals Normanton St John’s suspending activities). The following season saw a ninth place finish in a renamed No 3 Competition.
Promotion was achieved when the Northern Union was formed, leading to the defection of the clubs in the top division, thereby allowing all the teams in Normanton’s division to be elevated to the No 2 Competition. Normanton finished sixth in the 1895/96 season, then third behind Keighley and Alverthorpe the following season, before a rather disappointing eighth out of 13 in the 1897/98 season.
Normanton’s ground was suspended by the Yorkshire Rugby Union in February 1896 after the referee in a match at home to Shipley awarded the away team a late penalty, which won them the match. His claims that he was ill treated by the home spectators held to the ground being until 14th March 1896 as a punishment. This went some way to explaining the financial deficit of around £60 at the end of the season, with several key fixtures being lost due to that.
Normanton AFC proposed an amalgamation with Normanton FC in 1896, the latter rejecting the proposal as it intended to continue running its (loss making) second team the following season, which would leave the pitch unavailable. The association football team had been founded in 1894 and had been a founder member of the West Yorkshire League but needed a ground of some standing to be able to achieve the level of success it craved.
The decision to transfer to the Northern Union was made at a meeting held on Monday 25th April 1898, and the club, by now playing in a black and white striped kit, became a founder member of the Yorkshire Second Competition (Eastern Section) for the 1898/99 season. Sixth place was achieved at the season’s end, in what was a ten team competition.
However, Normanton won the Eastern Division title in its second Northern Union season, despite having two points deducted for rule infringements, but went down to Heckmondwike (West division winners) 2-9 in a replay on Wednesday 21st March at Dewsbury in a championship decider The teams had drawn 2-2 on Saturday 10th March at the same ground.
In between the two Heckmondwike matches, Normanton caused a surprise by defeating Leeds in the first round of the Northern Union Challenge Cup, 5-0 ,at Horsfall’s Paddock. Batley ended hopes of further progress in the second round, however.
With promotion being denied to the losers of the play-off, Normanton found itself in the same division for the 1900/01 season, and in a two horse race for the Eastern Division title, was pipped at the post this time by York. In the past two seasons, the club had played 42 fixtures, winning 38 of them. The club stepped up to the Yorkshire Senior Division for the following season, albeit only because several clubs had moved on to form a Northern League with the best of the Lancashire clubs.
In 1901 Normanton FC returned to Mopsey Garth after a four year stay at Horsfall’s Paddock. The Mopsey Garth ground had been used by the Normanton St John’s club in the intervening years (and would continue to be in the future). There was also a return to the headquarters at the nearby Hark to Mopsey Inn, Wakefield Road. The ground at Horsfall’s Paddock is now part of a housing estate with a road called The Paddock on the site of the old pitch.
Normanton finished a creditable 8th in the 1901/02 season, just above local rivals Castleford in a 14 team division. At the end of the season, the County Leagues elected 18 teams to join the new Northern Division Two. Normanton was one of those selected, and capped its first season in the professional ranks with a 12th place finish. Unfortunately its second season was something of a disaster, with a 17th place finish, right at the bottom of the table. Normanton won just four of its 32 matches, and with attendances falling, the full implications of playing in the professional game were becoming apparent.
The 1904/05 season was a little better and Normanton managed to finish 10th out of 14 before a major structural change occurred in the game. For the 1905/06 season, the ‘Northern League’ reverted to one single division of 31 clubs, thereby pitting Normanton against the top teams in the sport. A finishing position of 26th was perhaps expected, but the club ended the season in severe financial difficulties. These problems were recognised by the league committee who allowed Millom and Normanton to cancel their game due to the cost of travelling.
On Saturday 24th February 1906 there were more disturbances on the Normanton ground, when the referee in the league match with Huddersfield walked off the pitch after only ten minutes of the second half due to rough play by the forward players from both sides. Additionally, both of the touch-judges were assaulted by spectators. As a result, both teams were found to be guilty of rough play, and both sets of forwards were censured The match was ordered to be replayed in April at Belle Vue, Wakefield.
By the summer of 1906 the club was on its knees, with creditors lining up for payments. The landlord of the Hark To Mopsey successfully sued eleven members of the club committee for a sum of over £20 in June for the provision of refreshments supplied and monies lent. The club’s officers explained in court that its books were being audited, a balance sheet prepared, as well as plans to meet the claims of all creditors. At the 1906 AGM on Saturday 30th June saw only 12 of its 130 members attend, and a decision to fold was made by those who were there. At a creditors meeting later that month it was shown that Normanton FC needed £200 to settle all claims. With further threats of legal action the club moved to offer 10s in the pound, and that the average call upon each club member would be £1 to £2. Two years later, committee members were still being taken to court by creditors, however.
A new club, Hopetown Rovers joined the Wakefield & Dewsbury District League for the 1906/07 season, using the Huntsman Inn as a base and playing on Normanton Common. It is believed that several of the Normanton team went on to play for this club. Rovers finished down in tenth place in the 13-team league and did not reappear the following season.
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However, a new Normanton FC appeared in the Wakefield & Dewsbury District League for the 1907/08 season, playing for four seasons in the league on the Mopsey Garth ground. This was not merely an amateur reformation of the club, but an attempt to return the club to the standard it had played at just a few years earlier.
The ‘new’ club made an immediate impact. In its first season, it made the final of the Yorkshire Junior Cup, after having defeated the likes of Knottingley and Outwood Church en-route. However, Normanton went down 2-15 in the final to Hull White Rose on Tuesday 21st April 1908 at Craven Street, Hull, although the winners medals were initially withheld due to Normanton claims that the Hull team fielded an ineligible player. That appeal was dismissed a few days later.
Normanton did win the competition the following season. At Belle Vue, Wakefield on Easter Monday 12th April 1909 they defeated Stanningley in front of 2,000 spectators. The Yorkshire Evening Post printed a short report on the match the following day, ‘Early on Stanningley pressed, and Hudson scored a fine try for Holder to add the extra points. Keen play followed, and Walker (Stanningley) was sent off for rough play. Normanton now had the best of play, and Huskins crossed for Turton to add the goal, while soon after Turton raced over after a capital run. Normanton again attacked, and Bob Ward raced over for Turton to add the goal. Stanningley then pressed, and Townes scored, but Holder missed the goal. Result: Normanton 3 goals and 2 tries (13 points), 1 goal and 2 tries (8 points).’
In the 1908/09 Challenge Cup, Normanton played host to Hull FC on Saturday 27th February 1909. Gate receipts were reported to have been almost £127, with the Hull Daily Mail claiming that the true amount would have been more than that, given that the whole of Normanton turned out to watch the contest, as well as the Altofts Working Men’s Institute Comic Club, who, in their striking costumes, provided much light relief prior to the match. There was little relief for the players during the match however, with the match being described as ‘The battle of Mopsey Garth’, before the Hull team emerged victorious by 20 points to 10..
Normanton reached the Yorkshire Junior Cup final for a third successive season at the end of the 1909/10 season but its appearance ended acrimoniously. The team drew 12-12 with Featherstone in the final, again held at Belle Vue, on Monday 28th March, necessitating a replay on Wednesday 6th April at the same venue. A bad tempered game, that had seen players from both sides sent off, ended 2-2 after extra time. With extra-time declared, several of the Normanton team initially refused to play the extra period, and with only half a dozen players on the field, Featherstone scored a try to lead 5-2. The Normanton players responded by kicking the ball out of the field, and when they did it again straight afterwards the match was terminated. Featherstone were not given the cup on the day as many had not realised that they had actually scored a try.
The following week the Yorkshire committee of the Northern Union awarded the tie to Featherstone, and withheld the runner-up medals from the Normanton team, which was also banned from taking part in the competition the following season, as well as being made to pay the referee’s expenses for the replayed final. Furthermore, Normanton’s E Dooler, sent off in the match, and who had only just returned from a three year ban, was suspended sine die.
Normanton’s under 21’s side was also successful, winning Yorkshire Intermediate Cup in 1910/11 and 1911/12, , defeating Burley Vale 6-3 in the former, and York Leeman 17-0 in the latter
There was no open-age team from 1911-13, and in fact no Intermediate team either for the 1912-13 season (although Normanton St John’s still were providing plenty of opportunities for footballers in the village).
Normanton returned for the 1913/14 season, alongside Normanton St John’s, and won the 1914/15 Leeds & District Union’s League Cup on Saturday 1st May 1915, as reported in the Yorkshire Post the following Monday,
NORMANTON v HARROGATE. The match for the championship of the Leeds and District League was played on the ground of the Headingley Rugby Union Club at Kirkstall Saturday. There was a satisfactory attendance of 2,300 spectators, the receipts amounting to nearly £30. Normanton had the assistance of three of their former players who are now on the register of the Dewsbury flub —Dyson, Rogers, and Kilcommons – while the Harrogate team included the ex-Leeds players, Stacey and Fawcett, and the former Yorkshire Rugby Union County players, Orton and May.
The first half was closely contested, and good passing was witnessed on both sides. Unfortunately, some rough play developed at one stage, and the referee found it necessary to order Howell, of Normanton, and Whitehouse, of Harrogate, off the field. Stacey was several times prominent in the first half, and led to one or two ‘near things,’ but Normanton were, on the whole, the more dangerous side, and they deservedly took the lead just before the interval. Their score was initiated by Dyson, who doubled round a scrummage and passed to Rogers, who in turn transferred to Morgan, the last-named player running over with a try, which Morgan improved upon. Thus Normanton led at the interval by a goal and a try to nil.
Harrogate were handicapped all through the second half by the absence of one their forwards, Townend, who had sustained an injury to his shoulder. That handicap caused them to be altogether over-matched in the forwards, and Normanton, who were very well served at half back by Dyson and Rogers, made practically all the running. Just before close, however. Harrogate made a spurt, and a strong effort by Fawcett nearly led to a score, Stacey having ‘hard lines’ in being unable to gather the ball after following up Fawcett’s kick. Still, the victory was well earned by Normanton, who at the finish received the cup and medals from the hands of Mrs Smalley, of Hunslet. Result: – Normanton 1 goal and 1 try (5 points), Harrogate nil.
Teams:- Normanton —Green, back: Webster, Howell, Stead, and Hanley, three-quarter backs: Dyson and Rogers, half back; Morgan. Senior, Winstone, Walker, Wood, and Kilcommons, forwards.
Harrogate—Fawcett, back; Stacey, Orton, Mitchell, and Watson, three-quarter backs; May and Kershaw, half backs; Ford, Wood, Booth, Townend, Whitehouse, and Varley, forwards. Referee, A Brown, Wakefield,
The ‘new’ Normanton club sadly failed to emulate the original Normanton FC by playing at the highest level of the sport, but Northern Union/Rugby League has continued to be played in Normanton to a high standard since the end of World War One.
Normanton St John’s
Wakefield Free Press, Saturday 8th October 1887
NORMANTON ST JOHN’S FOOTBALL CLUB – TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREE PRESS
‘Sir – Will you please allow me a short space in your paper respecting the above club? It was started by the Rev Father Herfkins, not in opposition to any other club, for we wish to be friendly with all, but simply for the welfare of the young men committed to his care in a temporal point of view, so as to find them innocent recreation, keep them together, and avoid bad company. As we are under certain rules of the church, he is able to keep a strict watch on our movements; and I must say he has spared neither time, trouble, nor expense for our benefit, and our heartfelt wish and prevent prayer is that Divine Provenance may bestow on him all those favours he so richly deserves. We also feel grateful to Mr G Rush, in trying so nobly to assist Father Herfkins to make St John’s Club a success. We also beg to return our thanks to all the gentlemen who have so kindly assisted us, as also to Mr Lodge for the use of the field, and we hope by strict attention and good behaviour on our part to gain the esteem and patronage of the public at large. – Yours truly, George Burton, Secretary, 20 Alpha Terrace, Normanton
By the time the Normanton St John’s club was formed, the village already had an established football team in Normanton FC, but as the letter above states, St John’s was not founded in order to take on the best in the sport, but as a means of ensuring the welfare of the young men in the district. The Rev Herfkins would, of course, have appreciated the benefits of organising a football team as a means of increasing his congregation too. St John’s used the Mopsey Garth ground, the site of which is now covered by Garth Avenue.
An early opponent of the club was Normanton United, with the teams meeting on Saturday 20th October 1887 in the First round of the Wakefield Express Challenge Cup, United winning by one goal and two tries, to one try. Other opponents in that first season included Wakefield Albion, the Normanton FC ‘A’ team, and Upper Wortley, the latter of which was defeated heavily by 4 goal, 5 tries and 8 minors to nil on Saturday 5th November 1887.
At the club AGM in May 1890 it was reported that there was a debit balance of £2 1s 2d, but that a Mrs Elsenshon had presented the club with the sum of £82. This money was put towards the building of a new reading-room for the club, one which would benefit not only the players themselves, but the whole St John’s congregation, as a desirable alternative to the local public houses.
Normanton St John’s first piece of silverware was in winning the Barnsley Beckett Hospital Cup, defeating Doncaster 7-0 in the final on Saturday 31st October 1891 at Shaw Lane, Barnsley. The victors scored one goal, one try and four minors, to Doncaster’s three minors. St John’s had actually been defeated in the Semi-final by Shepley on the same ground on Saturday 24th October, but on appeal the game was replayed, on the grounds that the referee had misinterpreted the rules of the game during the match. The match was ordered to be replayed at Honeywell Lane, the ground of the Barnsley club, the following Thursday but Shepley refused to attend, and Normanton St John’s claimed the tie. Normanton FC had also entered the competition, but after defeating Cudworth in the First Round, they were disqualified for having fielded an ineligible player.
The 1893/94 season ended prematurely for the St John’s club. In November 1893, after having played six matches, four of which were won, the club officials declared in that due to the ongoing miners strike, the club would have to suspend activities for the rest of the season. Poor gates meant that the club just could not continue, due to expenses being so high. Those ‘expenses’ were not explained, but it does reflect the shift from the club’s original aims of merely providing a pastime for local youths to one which was being run on more formal, businesslike lines.
The club was back the following season, and continued to take part in cup competitions as well as, for the first time, league competition in the form of the ultimately short-lived 1894/95 West Yorkshire Competition. There was also an equally short-lived West Riding Competition that season, both of which contained clubs deemed not quite strong enough to take part in the newly constituted Yorkshire Leagues. Both West Yorkshire and West Riding leagues fell apart at the end of the season, with fixtures being left unfulfilled in both competitions. St John’s did not make impact in the former, which was eventually won by Keighley Shamrocks, although having four points deducted for non-appearances at Keighley and Thornhill Lees on December 22nd and 26th respectively did their cause no good at all.
St John’s switched to the Barnsley & District League for the 1895/96 season, but the season was possibly its worst yet, with a finishing position at the foot of the eleven-team competition.
The club shut down for three seasons, but made a brief return for the 1899/1900 season, with a team in the Wakefield & District League (although it was very nearly excluded when the club’s representative missed the first league meeting of the season, and once the season was in full swing the team made no impression on the leading positions in the competition) before it again becoming dormant until 1908.
Conversely, the revived St John’s team – for the first time affiliated with the Northern Union – made a huge impression. Not only was a team entered into the in the Dewsbury, Wakefield & District League for the 1908/09 season, alongside a re-formed Normanton FC, but the club also placed a team in the Wakefield Intermediate League. Both teams were also in the same leagues the following season, with St John’s winning the Dewsbury, Wakefield & District League. Father Herfkins himself treated the club members to supper, where he presented the players with medals, on Saturday 18th June 1910.
Rev Herfkins would, I’m sure, have been less than delighted with the regular sanctions and fines applied to the St John’s players in the years leading up to World War One. Fighting, wrestling, and swearing at the referee among the misdemeanours for the players, who were playing, not to keep out of trouble, or to impress God, but because they were being paid to do so, expenses at the very least. A report in the Halifax Courier in February 1911 referred to the club, stating that it had attracted players from such clubs as Leeds, Dewsbury, Wakefield, Batley, and Hunslet on account of being found employment in the pits and about Normanton. The club’s very raison d’être had certainly shifted.
The 1910/11 season saw the club’s first team in the Leeds & District League, where it finished as runner-up behind Halifax ‘A’. St John’s own ‘A’ team meanwhile stepped up to the Dewsbury, Wakefield & District League
The following season both Normanton St John’s teams stepped up further – the first team into the Yorkshire Combination league, which consisted of many ‘A’ teams of senior teams, which also played in their local leagues. The club’s ‘A’ team effectively moved into the Leeds League, although strictly speaking it was a first team that was run in both leagues . Significantly, Normanton FC had temporarily disbanded its open-age team.
Following three appearances in the final of the Yorkshire Junior Cup for its rivals Normanton FC, it was Normanton St John’s turn to reach that stage in the 1911/12 season. However, that final was lost, 8-12, to Yorkshire Combination rivals Purston White Horse on Saturday 27th April 1912.
The St John’s team surprised Warrington in the Northern Union Challenge Cup that season, holding the Lancashire team to a 6-6 draw at Mopsey Garth on Saturday 17th February 1912. However, the Normanton team were thrashed 0-75 in the replay, played just 48 hours later.
For the 1912/13 season, the Yorkshire Combination clubs merged with its Lancashire counterparts to form a new Northern Combination. St John’s finished well down the table, 27th out of 28 teams, in a league that determined places on percentage. Millom, who finished at the bottom of the table, played just two fixtures, Beverley in 12th played six, Normanton St John’s played 17 (winning three), while Wigan, who finished top, played 30 games.
Featherstone Rovers and Purston White Horse were also playing in the Northern Combination. Fixtures were also played by St John’s in the Leeds & District League, with a further team playing in the Wakefield Intermediate League again for a single season.
For the 1913/14 season, St John’s finished one place higher in the Combination, with Brighouse Rangers and Leigh Shamrocks below them. The team won four of it 15 fixtures, while Wigan ‘A’ finished top and they played 35 fixtures. The Leeds & District League team was retained for the season too. Success in the Combination could well have been the stepping stone to a place in the senior ranks of the Northern Union, something that Featherstone Rovers achieved, but in which the Normanton club was certainly struggled to hold its own. The outbreak of World War One, however, put paid to the ambitions of all clubs, at all levels.
A full list of sources used here can be found in the book West Yorkshire’s Long Lost Football Books, available on amazon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/WEST-YORKSHIRES-LONG-RUGBY-CLUBS/dp/B0B92R8NZJ/