This year Huddersfield Town Football Club will be celebrating their centenary. The Galpharm Stadium, which they share with Huddersfield Giants RLFC, is a far cry from Fartown, their original home.
Laurence Gale MSc traces the club’s history and meets Head Groundsman Phil Redgwill
A far cry from I
n the town where Rugby League was born, Association Football was, not surprisingly, a late starter. The FA had tried to wean locals away from the oval ball by staging an FA Cup semi-final at Fartown, the home of the Huddersfield rugby club, in 1882 but, despite a 6,000 crowd, it was not until 1907 that the first moves were made towards forming a professional club. According to various accounts, playing
at Fartown was one option considered by the founders of Huddersfield Town AFC but, from 1905 onwards, the Northern Union (as the Rugby League was then known) specifically discouraged ground sharing with football teams. Had attitudes then been more open, the subsequent development of grounds in northern England might have been quite different, particularly in Huddersfield where, of course, the two clubs now share
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a purpose-built stadium. In 1907, therefore, the Huddersfield Association Football Ground Co. was formed and, with capital of £500, set about purchasing the site.
A pitch was laid out parallel to Leeds
Road (that is, at right angles to the subsequent layout), and was ready to stage its first match, a local semi-final in March 1908. Six months later Huddersfield Town AFC was launched. Its path to the present day has seen many stories unfold. Leeds Road was officially opened in September 1908 with a friendly against Bradford Park Avenue. However, in 1912, the club sank into liquidation and followed that up spectacularly by doing the same in 1919! But, after much investment, the club had a revival and went on to reach the FA Cup Final in 1920, where they lost to Aston Villa, and win promotion to the
FARTOWN!
top flight - Division One. From gates of 3,000 before the 1919 crisis, within five months the Leeds Road terracing had to be raised in order to hold over 47,000 fans for a cup tie against Liverpool. Successive improvements would take this capacity to over 60,000 by the end of the decade. But, for all Huddersfield Town’s success and new-found status, improvements to the ground were surprisingly modest. A wooden ‘Belfast’ roof - later to be known affectionately as the Cowshed - was built over the Leeds Road End in 1929. The directors showed even less adventure two years later by purchasing a 1,300 seat stand from Fleetwood for just £170. That same season Town’s Division One rivals Arsenal spent £45,000 on a stand! But there was one unique feature at Leeds Road during the 1950s. Placed on
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