Chapter 6: Trouble At The Mill

The Origins of Bradford City

By David Pendleton

Chapter Six: Trouble At The Mill

1890-91

The season opened with temperatures soaring into the 90s and three straight defeats. The third on 20 September when Manningham were the first visitors to Leeds’ new Headlingley ground.

However, the reverses weren’t due to a lack of commitment, at Brighouse captain Eddie Holmes had to retire after a blow to the head which, according to the Bradford Daily Telegraph, ‘drew his claret’.

Form was erratic right up until Christmas, though once again the loss of Holmes and Isaac Newton during Yorkshire games often denied Manningham their top men. At the seasons halfway point six games had been won, six drawn and six had ended in defeat!

The season was played against a backdrop of nationwide industrial disputes. On Boxing Day Hawick failed to appear at Valley Parade due to 4,000 Scottish railwaymen being on strike. Locally, the famous Manningham Mills strike was beginning to dominate the attention of the newspapers. Indeed, by the time Manningham visited Hawick in February, upwards of forty policemen would be on duty at Manningham Mills to keep apart strikers and blacklegs during shift changes. Even on the pitch trouble was difficult to avoid. Following Manningham’s narrow victory at Leeds Parish Church enraged home supporters invaded the pitch and only the intervention of players and police saved the referee from the mob.

The first round of the Yorkshire Cup saw Manningham drawn away to Hull Britannia on 7 March. Headlines were made when one of the 10,000 crowd dropped dead just before kick off. The challenge of Britannia was overcome and Heckmondwike were the visitors to Valley Parade in round two. Manningham won the tie, but the visitors appealed to the Yorkshire Rugby Union on a number of points. At the appeal Heckmondwike claimed that one try was illegal, there was unfair intervention off the field during its conversion and an unregistered player was fielded.

Prior to Manningham’s winning try one of the corner flags had been knocked down and had not been replaced. Heckmondwike claimed that one of the Manningham players was out of bounds and that the try could not have been scored with the missing flag in place. The committee supported the referee and dismissed the protest. Next Heckmondwike claimed that Manningham secretary - Mr S Naylor – had thrown a pair of drawers onto the field so the goalkicker Firth could clean his boots before converting the try. Naylor conceded that a handkerchief had indeed been thrown on, but certainly not a pair of drawers. As evidence Naylor produced a blue silk hankie and said in his defence that he had thrown the hankie on at the player’s request. The committee considered the incident too trivial for their attention and once again dismissed the objection.

The third and final objection was the fielding of the player Rhodes. No player could be transferred after 1 December without the permission of the Yorkshire Rugby Union. Heckmondwike claimed that Rhodes had played for them at Valley Parade on Christmas Day, but had then transferred to Manningham and made his debut on New Years Day. Manningham claimed that Rhodes had only played in Heckmondwike’s second team, but the committee disagreed. They banned Rhodes for the season and ordered the cup-tie to be replayed on the Wednesday at Halifax.

Manningham won the replay, but went out at Pontefract in the next round. They finished the season with a flourish, winning their last three games. However, attention was elsewhere, as the Manningham Mills riot had taken place – an event that was to change history, as from the strike came the formation of the Independent Labour Party.

Even the often-staid world of rugby was approaching a time of momentous change. The clubs annual meeting was held at the Yeomanry Barracks on 26 May. President James Freeman said that it was ‘only right that a working man who played football for the entertainment of others should be paid’. He received thunderous applause. The scene was being set for a dispute that would split the world of rugby asunder. Perhaps it was fitting that the club in the shadow of Manningham Mills was set to be at the forefront of a revolution whose reverberations we still feel to this day.

Chapter One: Genesis (1872-80)

Chapter Two: Carlisle Road (1880-86)

Chapter Three: Valley Parade's first season (1886-87)

Chapter Four: Death On The Midland Road (1887-9)

Chapter Five: For Club and Country (1889-90)

Chapter Seven: Football Begins to Cast Its Shadow (1891-92)

Chapter Eight: Semi-Finalists and League Pioneers (1892-93)

Chapter Nine: Champions! (1893-94)

Chapter Ten: The Last Season of Rugby Union (1894-95)

Chapter Eleven: Champions of the Rugby League (1895-96)

Chapter Twelve: Death of a Hero (1896-97)

Chapter Thirteen: Dark Clouds Gather (1897-98)