Carlisle Road

1880-1886

Manningham Rugby Club was formed around 1876 as Manningham Albion. Their embryonic days were amateur in the extreme with sporadic matches and a variety of ‘home’ grounds employed. However, by the 1878/79-season match reports were a regular feature in the local press. Albion were then playing home games in Girlington, but the following season they had decamped to Shipley, ‘near the Branch Hotel’ according to the Bradford Observer.

By 1879 a reserve team had been added, fixtures became well organised and personnel settled. The emergence of the club is confirmed by references to crowds watching their games. From being a club formed so men could fill their leisure time playing the game, they were now advanced to such a state that others chose to use their free time watching the club in action. A reference was made during a game against Undercliffe Junior in November 1879. The Bradford Observer said ‘the spectators were numerous and rather interfered with the game by intruding in the field of play’.

As the club grew, the need for a permanent home became a necessity. In the summer of 1880, the club rented a field in Whetley Hill. The ground took its name from the adjacent Carlisle Road and the Albion tag was dropped in favour of plain Manningham RFC. The transition from mere pastime to serious sporting club was complete.

After playing on a series of bare fields for eight years, in the summer of 1880 Manningham rugby club moved into their first permanent home. They rented a field in Whetley Hill which they named ‘Carlisle Road’ after the adjacent thoroughfare.

The ground was situated where Drummond Road school stands today. The land was owned by James Drummond - whose family owned Drummond Mills on nearby Lumb Lane. However, Manningham rented the field itself from one John S Wilkinson, a furniture broker, who presumably was a tenant of James Drummond.

Though at first little more than an open field, the move to a ‘permanent’ home signalled Manningham’s intention to become a real force in the world of rugby. The first competitive fixture at the new ground came on 9 October 1880. Farsley were soundly beaten ‘in the presence of a large number of spectators’, according to the Bradford Observer. We know little of the facilities at the Carlisle road ground; however, frequent references are made to captains choosing to ‘play with the slope’. A cursory glance down Drummond Road today gives an indication of what an advantage it would have given. The rudimentary nature of the facilities is illustrated by the fact that the players had constructed wooden batons around the field, they were laid so spectators didn’t have to stand on bare earth.

However, the club were now affiliated to the English Rugby Union, hence the standard of opposition was becoming ever higher. During the summer of 1884 improvements were made to the grandstand and field in anticipation of large attendances as a result of the clubs continued progress. The opening game of the 1884/85 campaign on 20 September attracted 5,000 spectators to Carlisle Road to witness the defeat of visitors Hull. Manningham unveiled their new claret and amber colours. The shirt was hooped with the claret hoop being twice the width of the amber; the shorts - or knickers as they were termed – were white. Although of later origin (1891), the well-known painting featured in ‘Street Characters of a Victorian City’ (Bradford Libraries 1993) gives a good representation of the new strip. Sadly no reason is given for the adoption of the startling new colours.

As improvements were made to the Carlisle Road ground events were beginning to cast a shadow over Manningham’s future at the site. The minutes of the Bradford School Board of13 October 1884 recommended that the board ‘take steps to secure land belonging to Messers Drummond and Sleight’s situate between Whetley Hill and Priestman Street on which to erect erect a school’.

Despite the threat the improvements to the ground bore fruit as record receipts of £100 were taken when Batley visited Carlisle Road in October.

The club held its annual meeting at the Belle Vue Junior School on 22 May 1885. Concern was voiced regarding the finances; a new stand had been constructed at a cost of £58 6s 8d. However, the club had taken £373 8s 9d at the gate and still had £58 to hand. At the annual dinner, at Leuchters’ Restaurant on Darley Street, Chairman William Lister expressed great satisfaction at the meteoric rise of the club. Indeed the club had even opened its own news and reading room at Thorncliffe Hotel; no other club in Yorkshire could boast such facilities!

The 1885/86 season opened with the team in patchy form. However, it did not dissuade the public as 8,000 packed into Carlisle Road to see Dewsbury defeated on 17 October. For that game several lorries had to be hired to aid viewing, the following month a new stand was opened which could accommodate a further 1500 spectators. The opening was a grand affair with the Manningham Brass Band in attendance to serenade the 7,000 crowd. The team capped the afternoon by comprehensively defeating the visitors Halifax.

Off the field the School Board was still expressing an interest in the Carlisle Road ground. At a meeting on 14 December 1885, there was ‘consideration of the site for a school at Whetley Hill. A plot of land belonging to Mr Drummond and a piece of land belonging to Mr Sleight in Newport Street’.

When Brighouse Rangers visited Carlisle Road on 24 April 1886, the majority of the 4,000 crowd must have realised that this was to be the last game at the ground. However, although it was common knowledge that the Bradford School Board desired the land for construction of a new school, the rapidity of subsequent events caught everyone by surprise.

Five days after the Brighouse game the records of the Bradford School Board mention the site of the ground. It noted, ‘the land for the school belongs to Mr Drummond and Mr Sleight, the land belonging to Mr Sleight being the key to the site. Mr Sleight had transferred his rights to Mr Drummond’.

Sleight’s land was a mere 497 sq. yards, but it was the key as it was at the site of the junction of Newport Street and the proposed Drummond Road that was to cut through the site and afford access to the new school.

Events moved rapidly. Manningham’s annual dinner, held at the Alexandria Hotel on 7 May 1886, the chairman William Lister informed the gathering of the need to find a new home. He revealed the committee had a new field in mind, but a large amount of money would have to be raised.

Away from the consternation caused by the loss of Carlisle Road, the season had been another great success for the club. 20 games had been won, 2 drawn and 9 lost. 69,000 spectators had witnessed games at Carlisle Road. Despite the heavy expenditure on the new stand and turnstiles, the club had met all its debts and had a balance in hand.

The clubs annual meeting on 21 May at St Pauls Schoolroom, was informed of the compulsory purchase of Carlisle Road for the erection of a school. However, the committee had identified a field at the bottom of Valley Parade, close to the skating rink, which appeared suitable. The chairman had that very night received a telegram from the fields owners, the Midland Railway Company, offering a seven-year lease. The club had already arranged to buy out the existing tenants and all that was required to complete the transaction was the approval of the members.

The members were warned that the new site required a great deal of levelling, which would be an expensive process. But the rent of the new field was very much less than that of Carlisle Road. A Mr Clarkson, a member of the club, had prepared a scheme for the new ground that would cost £900-1,000. If they had to build a wall, which at present they thought they could do without, the cost would be increased.

After much discussion the proposal was unanimously passed on the motion of Mr Benn, seconded by Mr Ryder – Valley Parade was born.

The site of the Carlisle Road ground was purchased by the School Board from James Drummond on 31 May 1886 for the princely sum of £5250. The School Board seemed sympathetic to Manningham’s plight. On 17 June ‘permission was given for the stands of Manningham Football Club to remain on the ground at Whetley Hill for the present’.

In August with the new season looming and work at Valley Parade still on going, Manningham were granted for training, ‘the use of the Drummond Road School site for two evenings (Tuesday and Thursday) per week’.

Carlisle Road faded into history thereafter. Drummond Road School opened on 3 October 1887 and is still in use to this day. How many children, perhaps dreaming of Valley Parade, whilst kicking a ball around the school play ground, will know that on the very site so much endeavour was undertaken in the famous claret and amber? Such were the achievements of Manningham at Carlisle Road there’s no doubt that, what we today know as Drummond Road, was the birthplace of Bradford City.

Home, Early Days: 1880-1910, The Glory Fades: 1920s-1940s, Rock Bottom: 1950s-1970s, Triumph and Tragedy: 1980s-1990s, Premiership and Beyond: 1998-2003, The Great War, Glorious 1911, 11th May 1985, Valley Parade, Site Map, Contact Us