The previous blog noted correspondence from the descendant of Victorian club member Jack Thompson. She sent a number of fascinating photographs including the one featured in that blog - namely a photograph of a silver plate given to Jack in 1884 for services rendered to the financially important Whit Sports. There is a magnificent Victorian/Edwardian ledger in the archives covering in detail the arrangements for the sports towards the end of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth. I suspect one of the photographs here is of a Whit Sports in 1884 before the rugby and cricket clubs came to Ashbrooke. The articles displayed are typical of the prizes awarded at these sports which were started by the cricketers in the early 1870s and adopted by the rugby lads after the club's formation in 1873. The other photograph is a real puzzler. It looks like an early 20th century association football team of 11 players with one wearing a SRFC shirt. Any ideas where when and why?
Many of you will be aware of the terrific discovery of a full set of SRFC kit with the family of Victorian SRFC and Durham County rugby player Alfred Hudson. Soon, with the help and support of the World Rugby Museum and the Hudson family, I will be carrying out work to discover whether the whole kit or parts of it are indeed 'the oldest known to' the museum and its archivists. Watch this space.
P.S. I have written an academic article about the relevance of the Whit Sports at Ashbrooke. Please get in touch if you would like details - or indeed if you would like to look at the relevant archive and the notes I made for the article
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