1124 - A History of Rugby Football in Seaton Carew

Although the present Seaton Carew RUFC can trace its history back to 1921, Rugby was played in the village area as far back as the 1890s.

During that time, a Rugby field was in use at the North End of the village at Carr House Cottages (near the site of Seaton Point by Wainwright Walk) when clubs such as West Hartlepool East End and New Stranton Celtic played their games there, the pitch continued in use for Soccer well into the 20th Century.  At the end of the 1890s a club called Seaton Harlequins played on a field at the bottom of what is now Stanmore Grove, handy for teams arriving by train. They reached the 1899 Junior Cup semi Final that year and one of their wingers was a Gilbert Bunting.

With the formation of the Technical College in 1897 that eventually became Secondary School, the forerunner of West Hartlepool Grammar School,  (the School remained in Lauder Street until 1938 when they moved to Brinkburn) to start the "Grammar" school strand.   By 1905/06 the Technical School XV was playing Henry Smith XV in a curtain raiser at Rovers, both schools starting a long tradtion of providing qualty Rugby players in the town. Earlier in 1905 (4th April), a Rovers poster that day has Galleys Field Old Boys playing Technical Old Boys.

It was in 1920/21 that Old Boys of the School formed Technical Old Boys that was successful eventually in the Pyman League. However, by 1923/24 West Hartlepool RFC had suffered from a lack of players and Technical OB and West merged as West & Tech.   Shortly afterwards the name Tech was dropped but this abandoning Tech’s name did not please everyone with the result that Secondary School Old Boys was reformed in 1924 with people like Norman Hope, Roy Pallister and “Wally” Knox. The club was successful in the “between the Wars” years and Aubrey Lancaster recalled that he joined the club in 1932 as a Secondary Schoolboy. In those days there were no rules laid down that a Schoolboy should not play School and Club games on the same day.

The Secondary School Field in the 30s was at the top of the West Rec., alongside a cinder path approximately where the “Woodcutter” pub stood in Kingsley Avenue. As the School played both Soccer and Rugby they only had one Rugby pitch so the SSOB 2nds played at 1.30 sometimes followed by the 1^st XV. Thus, Aubrey Lancaster was able to play for School in the morning, dash home for Dinner and then play for the 2nds early p.m. and as he was in his strip, well,  he stood by as a Reserve for the 1^st XV, 3 games in one day!

An off shoot of the SSOB Club was a very successful motor cycle section which was created when some 6 or 8 players had motor bikes and would travel to away games by bike.  A prominent player of those days Mick Stockburn got the riders together and formed the “TEX” Motorcycle Club that went from strength to strength, until just before the War they were running grass track events at Elwick which attracted riders from all over the North. The Tex MC Club eventually amalgamated with the Hartlepools Motor Club.

With the end of hostilities, SSOB reformed in 1946/47 season becoming later West Hartlepool Grammar School Old Boys to become one of the most successful “Junior” Clubs of the next 25 years. At one time they were able to boast a fixture card that had 8 Senior Clubs as regular fixtures in North Durham, Horden, Old Bedans, Hartlepool Ath., Darlington RA., Billingham, Consett and Houghton!

And of course, winning the Junior Cup and Pyman Cup at times.

The advent of Comprehensive education in the 70s, and the extinction of the Grammar School put the club into a bit of a dilemma.

It was at this time that Seaton Carew Cricket club was developing its Elizabeth Way project named Petrus Park and the Club was able to negotiate its way to becoming an additional sport, a move that has proven so successful since 1975 when the name, Seaton Carew Rugby Union Football Club became part of the Rugby scene hereabouts.

CMcL260918 Based largely on a memoir written by Aubrey Lancaster in 1987,

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