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CRICKET

Local cricketers associated with Wainsgate – Old Town Cricket Club – other local cricket clubs.

FOOTBALL

Wadsworth United AFC – Hebden Bridge AFC – Hangingroyd Shamrocks AFC.

RUGBY

HOCKEY

TENNIS

John Crabtree – Wainsgate Tennis Club – other local tennis clubs.

BOWLING

Old Town Bowling Club.

GOLF

Hebden Bridge Golf Club.

KNUR and SPELL / BILLETS

CRICKET

OLD TOWN CRICKET CLUB

Several people buried or commemorated at Wainsgate were associated with Old Town Cricket Club:

Harry Haigh (1903-1956) – Harry was associated with the Sunday School throughout his life, as scholar, teacher and Superintendent. He was also a keen cricketer, and there is a bench dedicated to him at Old Town Cricket Club. He is buried at Wainsgate with his parents.

There is a framed photograph of Harry at Wainsgate, and the clock on the chapel balcony is dedicated to him ‘In appreciation of services rendered by Harry Haigh 1931-1956’.

Harry was noted as a ‘meticulous’ player, a slow bowler who cleaned his studs and turned his arm twice before releasing each delivery. It was said of his bowling that:

‘He bowled so slowly he could fetch a bad ‘un back.’

He also acted as groundsman when the club played at Old Laithe, a rented field ‘in a bleak and isolated position, 1,100 feet above sea level, occupying one of the last flat patches of land before the moors started.’ Despite Harry’s loving attention it was not the easiest ground to play on:

‘The wicket was good but you did tend to lose the ball in the long grass.’

Ethelbert Redman (1880-1918) – Ethelbert was one of the most prominent players for Old Town Cricket Club and also had a long association with Wainsgate Sunday School, as scholar, teacher and Treasurer, and lived with his wife Mary in Wainsgate Lane. He was a successful batsman and bowler and had been captain of the club.

He was seriously wounded by shrapnel while serving with the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, and died of his wounds on 10th March 1918, aged 37. He is commemorated on his wife’s family headstone at Wainsgate.

Ethelbert Redman’s obituary described him as:

‘…..one of the fairest minded exponents of cricket in the local league. He had a hearty enjoyment of this pastime, and if the fortune of the game went against his team he was sportsman enough to appreciate the supremacy of his opponents.’

Henry William Dewhirst (1895-1917) – Henry lived in Walker Lane and attended Old Town Wesleyan chapel. He was Secretary to Old Town Cricket Club, and was killed in France in 1917, aged 21, while serving with the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.

James Hervey Horsfall (1890-1917) – attended Wainsgate chapel, where he was a Sunday School teacher and choir accompanist, and he had been captain of Old Town Cricket Club. James had lived at Chiserley Fieldside until the family moved to Earby, where he managed a clothing shop. He was reported missing, presumed dead during the Battle of Arras in 1917.

Sam Jackson (1889-1916) – Sam lived in Hebden Bridge and played for Old Town Cricket Club. He was killed in France in 1916 while serving with the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. His younger brother Wilbert Jackson, who played football for Hangingroyd Shamrocks AFC died of pneumonia in London in 1915 while training for service with the Royal Marines Medical Unit.

Wainsgate’s very own Renaissance man, Raymond Ashworth (1899-1974) – choirmaster, author, talented footballer – was also very much involved with Old Town Cricket Club since 1918, as both a player and administrator.

As a player, Raymond is probably best remembered for his spectacular bowling performance of 10 for 7 against Birchcliffe in 1949, when he topped the League bowling averages at 3.5. His commitment to the club was demonstrated when he returned early from his honeymoon in 1927 to play a match against Booth.

Raymond Ashworth, second from right, back row.
Photo from Old Town Cricket Club – a Short History by Ray Riches.

He had been the club’s auditor for many years, and from 1950 was club President. It was largely Raymond Ashworth who provided the inspiration and drive for the move from Old Laithe to the new ground at Boston Hill. He motivated and co-ordinated everyone involved in the three year project with –

‘The energy and vision of a man watching a dream come true.’

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The STORY of OLD TOWN CRICKET CLUB

‘Is there a better place to watch or play village cricket, with the ground nestling at the foot of Wadsworth Moor, having a magnificent view over the Pennines and the best teas in the whole of the valley?’

From Old Town Cricket Club – a Short History by Ray Riches.

Coming soon…..

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OTHER LOCAL CRICKET CLUBS

Three men who were killed during WW1 and are commemorated at Wainsgate played cricket for other local clubs:

Thomas Roger Ashworth played for Pecket Well Cricket Club, as did James Sowden, who had been captain of the club and was also a member of Old Town Bowling Club.
Both men served in the 2nd Bn, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment) and both were killed on the same day, 18th April 1915, during the battle to take Hill 60 near Ypres.

Frederick Dunkley – played for Salem Cricket Club, as well as playing football and rugby for local clubs. He was killed in France in April 1918, aged 37, while serving with the Royal Garrison Artillery.

Salem Cricket Club was almost certainly associated with Salem Wesleyan Chapel in Hebden Bridge, and presumably they played at Salem Fields, now home to Hebden Bridge Cricket Club.

But where did Pecket Well Cricket Club play?

FOOTBALL

WADSWORTH UNITED AFC

1925/6 season – players and officials

Photograph from Cragg Vale History Group Collection – Pennine Horizons Digital Archive

Captain of the team is the multi-talented Raymond Ashworth (1899-1974): a member of the Wainsgate choir, in 1933 he became choirmaster on the death of his father Albert Richard Ashworth, a position he held until his death in 1974. He was also the author of A Short History of the Baptist Church at Wainsgate 1750-1950.

Other people in the photograph who are known to be buried or commemorated at Wainsgate are:

Clifford Greenwood (1904-1977) – Buried in plot K689 with his wife Elizabeth (born Sunderland), who died in 1991 aged 77.

Arthur Dobby (1905-1976) – Not in the burial register, but commemorated on a plaque on the grave (C653) of his father, James Dobby, his mother Ada (born Marsden) and brother Thomas Dobby. Also commemorated on the plaque is his brother Harold Dobby, whose ashes were interred in 1979, so it is likely that Arthur’s ashes were also interred in the plot.

G.Binns is almost certainly George Poole Binns (1903-1973) – Buried in plot F797 with his wife Gladys Mary (born Sheard), who died in 1978 and her mother Jane Elizabeth Sheard, who died in 1926 aged 49.

George was born in Halton East, North Yorkshire, and was an electrical engineer. Their son David Arthur Binns (1940-2017) is also interred at Wainsgate (plot K725).

George and Gladys Binns

HEBDEN BRIDGE AFC

The club is known to have had a memorial commemorating 23 members of the club who were killed in WW1. There are no known images of the memorial, and its whereabouts are unknown.

Three of the men are associated with Wainsgate: Louis Armstrong (who also played for Hebden Bridge Rugby Football Club), Frederick Dunkley (who also played for Hebden Bridge Rugby Football Club and Salem Cricket Club ) and Fred Southwell (who was on the club’s committee).

The other names recorded on the Hebden Bridge AFC war memorial are:

George Booth, Prince Farrar, Arthur Gibson, Fred Gibson, Ben Hodgson, E. Ibbotson, Tom Ingham, Arthur Lee,
F. P. Long, G. A. Lord, Walter Lowe, Arthur N. Morrison, J. A. Nuttall –

Claude S. Redman
Claude Stansfield Redman was the son of Richard and Sarah, and worked at the family firm Redman Bros., wholesale clothiers. He lived with his wife Bertha (born Moss) in Savile Road, Hebden Bridge, and attended Salem Wesleyan Chapel. He was also a member of Caldene Hockey Club. Claude was killed in action in Belgium in 1917, aged 34, and is included in the Wadsworth Roll of Honour.

– J. W. Redman, Albert Shackleton, Arthur Smith, Francis Sutcliffe, Harry Sutcliffe, Sam Uttley.

OTHER FOOTBALL CLUBS

Wilbert Jackson, who died of pneumonia in London in 1915 while training for service with the Royal Marines Medical Unit, played for Hangingroyd Shamrocks AFC. His older brother Sam Jackson, who played for Old Town Cricket Club, was killed in France in 1916.

We don’t know anything about Hangingroyd Shamrocks AFC or where they played, but they may have been connected with Ashworth Shuttles of Royd Works, where Wilbert worked.

RUGBY

Louis Armstrong (1889-1916) – played for Hebden Bridge Rugby Football Club, and also known as a runner. Louis was also a member of Hebden Bridge Association Football Club. and was listed on the club’s war memorial. He was killed in France in January 1916, aged 26, while serving with the Royal Fusiliers.

Frederick Dunkley (1880-1918) – played for Hebden Bridge Rugby Football Club and also played cricket for Salem Cricket Club. Fred was also a member of Hebden Bridge Association Football Club. and was listed on the club’s war memorial. He was killed in France in April 1918, aged 37, while serving with the Royal Garrison Artillery.

TENNIS

John Crabtree (1915-1942) was a keen tennis player and member of Wainsgate Tennis Club. This photograph shows him with his wife Olive (born Hamer), possibly taken at Paignton.

John married Olive in January 1940, and in October he enlisted with the 41st (Oldham) Royal Tank Regiment. He died in Egypt in October 1942, aged 27, after being fatally wounded during the second battle of El Alamein.

He was buried at El Alamein War Cemetery and is commemorated at Wainsgate on the headstone of the grave of his sister Minnie Crabtree, who died in 1935 aged 23.

Thanks to Susan Wilkinson for the photograph.

Tennis was obviously a far more popular participatory sport in the past than it is today. As well as Wainsgate Tennis Club, there are records of tennis clubs at Birchcliffe, Midgehole (1930s-1950s?), Salem (1939), Hollins (1905), Nazebottom and Cragg Vale. There are also old archive photographs showing tennis courts at Birchcliffe, Slack Top (c1910), Luddendenfoot and Bankfoot, Hebden Bridge. Cragg Vale Tennis Club still seems to be going strong, but the only other local tennis clubs still in existence are Mytholmroyd, Sowerby and Todmorden.

But where did Wainsgate Tennis Club play?The only record of a tennis court in the vicinity is this OS map of 1907, which shows a ‘tennis ground’ where the present bowling green is located (a later map of 1921 shows it as a bowling green).

There was a tennis court in the grounds of the Mitchell family home at Boston Hill (which became the home of Old Town Cricket Club in 1954) – perhaps the family hosted the tennis club at their home?

Wainsgate tennis club (late 1940s?). Front row, right, is Kenneth Crowther: back row, right, is Marjorie Jackson (who married Kenneth in 1952): next to her is her good friend Mary Mortimer (who married Jack Pickles in a double wedding with Marjorie and Kenneth).

Thanks to Kay Deighton for the photograph.

Tennis and bowling at Birchcliffe (dates of photographs unknown)
Photographs from Pennine Horizons Digital Archive – Sandra Lomas Collection.

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BOWLING

Old Town Bowling Club is one of the oldest bowling clubs in the Calder valley, founded in 1904. Situated in Old Town, next to Wadsworth Community Centre, the green is now regarded as one of the best in the upper Calder valley.

Sam Ashworth, greenkeeper at Old Town Bowling Club. Date unknown.
Photograph from Jeanette Thomas Collection – Pennine Horizons Digital Archive

Two people buried or commemorated at Wainsgate are known to have been members of Old Town Bowling Club: Percy Brown Roe, who was killed in the 1920 Oxenhope Charabanc Disaster and James Sowden, who was killed in action in France in 1917.

GOLF

Hebden Bridge Golf Club, which dates back to around 1930, is situated at Mount Skip, over 1,000 feet (300m) above sea level, and is –

‘a challenging nine hole course, with fabulous panoramic views on every hole’.

The challenges come from a combination of the sloping terrain and the prevailing weather conditions.

View from the 9th tee: the green is just over 300 yards away, but 100 feet below you. The course notes warn that ‘the fairway slopes sharply from right to left as you look and, even if you hit it, you will be lucky to keep the ball on it’. 

The Wandering Golfers website describes it as having:

‘among the best views in Yorkshire’

‘a place wonderfully untroubled by the march of time…..a delightful throwback…..it’s not a critically-acclaimed design, the greens aren’t perfect and it’s a little rough around the edges. But it is dripping with charm and quirkiness.’…..

‘When the sun is out and wind behaves, it’s hard to imagine a more breathtaking setting for an inland course in England.’

KNUR and SPELL / BILLETS

Knur and spell, c1890

Coming soon…..