The Robt.Wood collection has enabled the names of some of the many early Rugby clubs in the region to survive, with the popularity of the Rugby Code clubs sprang up in many areas in  the 1880s, as that decade rolled on many either ceased playing (finding a field was a regular problem) some amalgamated and as a such survive today albeit under another name.  

It is remarkable that for 20 seasons between 1884 and 1904, the Tudhoe club, based at Brewery Field, Low Spennymoor, but originally playing at Five Lane Ends),was quite a force in Durham County Rugby, yet remain little known or their exploits recorded.

Formed originally by Paddy Junor, a Glaswegian Scot, who was in the Brewing trade, he was instrumental in the founding of the County Union and Houghton RFC and played for Durham City and County. The club produced a good number of County players (and many who went on to play in the Northern Union) as well as winning the Senior Cup and Second Teams Cup on a number of occasions. County matches and Trials were also played on the Brewery Field and it was Walter Taylor of Tudhoe led the Durham County XV to their first ever Championship win against Devon at Exeter in 1900, to herald the Halcyon Era at the start of the 20^th Century for Durham Rugby.

The club’s demise apparently came in 1904 when West Hartlepool businessman Christopher Furness, based in Baltic Chambers, Surtees Street, bought the Weardale Steel, Coal and Coke Company which owned the Ironworks. Furness decided to open a new Iron Works at Cargo Fleet as part of the South Durham Iron & Steel Co plans and the Tudhoe plant closed in 1904 which signaled the end of the Tudhoe Club. It is also significant that the club founder and leading light, Paddy Junor, died in March of 1904, the Rugby club folded in April and Spennymoor Town FC was formed in the May of that year and moved onto the Brewery Field,where they remain to this day,  all this against a background of Rugby being unpopular in the district which was also the situation in the Hartlepools. The Ironworks did cease for a while but re-opened shortly afterwards under different ownership.

The name of Tudhoe did not die, in 1908, Rugby in Low Spennymoor revived when Tudhoe & Ferryhill United was formed, following a meeting in the Ironworks Hotel appropriately, and acquired a ground just five minutes from the Station, the new club ran until the outbreak of the Great War, reaching the Final of the Couty Junior Cup in 1910.

The Tudhoe & Spennymoor District also saw several Junior Clubs that were equally prominent, in Croxdale, West Cornforth, Byers Green, Ferryhill, Spennymoor Park Rangers (who defeated West Hpool Vulcans in 1896 to lift the County Junior Cup); Merrington Lane, Spennymoor Vulcan Swifts with Spennymoor Salim Juniors. Just a small number of the many clubs that played in the Spennymoor & District Challenge Cup which was restricted to clubs within a 10-mile radius of the town.

A series of images from the Hamsteels club, which was based on the colliery Village of Quebec; the pit had been sunk in 1868. The Burgoyne-Johnson family who owned the Durham Brewery Company also owned the Colliery (and later added the Westoe Brewery Company to its business). It was John Burgoyne Johnson (1868-1920) who had played for Durham City and Durham County that formed the club which was prominent in the years before the Great War.  The club was famous for its forward play, with the pack gaining the nickname of “The Jubilee Putters” ( a putter moved empty or loaded tubs to and from the coal face!), producing several players who went to play for the County. In addition, John Burgoyne Johnson was County President during the years 1905 – 1907.

The club was reported as disbanded in February of 1914 although the name later appeared in County lists in 1919 but did not revive. Another of the rugby playing member of the Johnson family (Chas. Wm., 1870-1907) married a Hartlepool woman Kitty Lohden, of the Shipping and Coal Company,  and became a member of Hartlepool Rovers when he lived at "Ivy Croft" at Seaton Carew, the house still stands and is on The Cliffe as a private residence,  becoming prominent with both West and Seaton Cricket clubs.

Images of some of the many clubs that flourished in South Shields during the 1890s where like the Hartlepools, they could boast 3 Senior Clubs at one stage plus several junior clubs all of which feature in the local Cup and Fixture lists of the era.

Today, the clubs in the District are South Shields & Westoe, South Shields and Jarrovians.

The Towns Senior Rugby Clubs started their programmes from the 1940s onwards by entering the Northern RFC Sevens in September and rounding off the season by taking part in the Billingham RFC Sevens often with success. Billingham Sevens was a formal end to the season and the Competition has been revived in recent years as the Ian Brown Memorial Sevens held at the Billingham club’s Greenwood Roads ground in June. The “Mail” Group photographer of those times has caught a number of our local clubs inaction, if anyone can i/d the various players, the names would be welcomed.

The Gallery is given the mid fifties date of 1955/56 for website purposes, any ideas on the exact year of the Competitions would also be welcomed.