A Living Tradition That Reaches To The Very Heart Of The Game
The story of Blackheath Football Club is unique for many reasons. Non more so than, because Blackheath's own development is much a part of the development of Rugby Football, it is often a history of the sport itself.
It is appropriate that the home of the first of the great independent Rugby clubs should be in Blackheath in South East England. On the Roman road from Dover, part of the ancient borough of Greenwich and 8 miles from central London, Blackheath is steeped in the history of England. It is remarkable that no less than four separate clubs, each the first independent club, covering four different sports of Golf, Hockey, Athletics and Rugby, were all founded in or near Blackheath. All are still in existence, all are still unaffiliated.
Roman Origins
Possibly originally founded by the Romans who left behind them a game resembling football, the popularity of the sport grew considerably over the years but remained in forms barely recognisable by modern standards - contests between towns, villages and districts - unruly, passionate encounters without too many rules, let alone standard ones.
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Blackheath v Richmond, centenary season 1958. The oldest club fixture of its kind in the world
Blackheath Proprietary School
In 1823, the inimitable William Webb-Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it "with a fine disregard for the rules" during a game at Rugby School and in doing so effectively founded the "carrying" game. Eight years later, the Blackheath Proprietary school opened just south of the railway station. The school adopted the new game, and was soon playing the game of Rugby on the heath.
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Blackheath v Newport, the oldest Anglo/Welsh club fixture, first being Nov 20 1879
The Foundation year
In 1858 the Blackheath Football Club was founded by some of the old boys of the school as an open club, and so was born the first rugby club in the world without restricted membership.
Although there has been controversy over the actual year of foundation, the only real doubt that emerges from the confusing records of those early years is that, if Blackheath FC was not founded in 1858, it was born even earlier and the club is even older - to paraphrase the late A.C. Shanahan, one time rugby correspondent.
1863 and all that
Blackheath had a leading role in the formation of both the Football Association and the Rugby Union.
Blackheath decided to pioneer its own code of rules during a period when almost every variation of rules were followed. Printed in 1862, these included the famous Rule 10 which said that, "Though it is lawful to hold any player in a scrimmage, this does not include attempts to throttle or strangle, which are totally opposed to the principles of the game".
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Festival of Britain at the Rectory Field in 1951, played within the rules & dress code of 1862
Until 1863, the game of football had been a single undivided sport, but that was not to last much longer. A meeting of 11 clubs was convened in October 1863 in order to "establish a code of rules for the regulation of the game of football" and these clubs formed themselves into the Football Association, electing Francis Maude Campbell of Blackheath as Treasurer. The Club expected the Football Association would adopt Rugby School rules, but when it was proposed to adopt Cambridge rules, which precluded hacking and running with the ball, Campbell objected and withdrew Blackheath from The Football Association in December 1863. In this way the great divide between soccer and rugby took place and, with Blackheath again playing a leading role, the Rugby Football Union was formed on 26th January 1871; the Club is one of seven of the original twenty clubs to have survived to this day.
A Great Influence On The Game
The Club's 1862 code was the model upon which the games official laws were based. Blackheath introduced the tactic of passing the ball from player to player as an alternative to the solo break and the "kick and follow-up". This had a considerable influence on the evolution of the present team structure with forwards and backs. It is from the rugby played at this time that the modern multi-million pound game has developed to a point where it is played virtually everywhere around the world.
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Unveiling of commemorative plaque at the Princess of Wales in 1992 by Sir Brian Jenkins G.B.E., then Lord Mayor of London, Mickey Skinner, England International & Blackheath Club Captain. In support are Terry Waite, Welsh International Cliff Morgan and Hugh Neely. Club President 1991-93
"Come On The Club"
In the years immediately after the Club's formation, the game was being played mainly by teams with closed membership such as schools, colleges and teaching hospitals. This caused Blackheath to become known as "the Club" to differentiate it from the various institutions against whom they played. The practice continues with supporters still today cheering for "the Club!" rather than "Blackheath".
The Princess of Wales Public House
Well before Blackheath became established at the famous Rectory Field ground, the Club originally played Rugby on the open heath at Blackheath and used the Princess of Wales public house as both headquarters and changing rooms.
It was often the practice in those days for spectators to invade the pitch and, during a very competitive game against Richmond in 1877, the match was abandoned when a number of spectators, as well as players, were injured. Shortly after this the Club moved to a private ground called Richardson's Field at Blackheath and then subsequently to the Rectory Field in 1883, where the club has played ever since.
International Rugby was played at Blackheath well before the establishment of England's national ground at Twickenham in 1910. All the home counties played there, together with Australia and the New Zealand Maoris.
Blackheath organised the first-ever international match, against Scotland in Edinburgh on 27th March 1871. The leading Scottish Clubs issued a challenge for a 20-a-side game against England under Rugby School Rules and it was the Club that accepted the challenge. Captain of this, the first ever English international side, was Frederick Stokes of Blackheath, and there were three other Club players on the team. The England side lost by only one goal.
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England v Wales, Twickenham 1933. The Prince of Wales shaking hands with B.H.Black, captain of Blackheath 1933-34
The first England v Wales Rugby international fixture was played on 19th February 1881 at Richardson's Field, Blackheath. England won by 7 goals to nil, one dropped goal and six tries to nil (in modern terms 82-0!!!). There were four Blackheath players in the side, which was captained by Blackheath's Lennard Stokes. The teams changed at the Princess of Wales public house and walked half a mile to the ground.
A Growing Dominance In A Fast Developing Sport
From the early days following the foundation of the Rugby Football Union in 1871, the Club was all set to become an increasingly dominant force within a fast developing game, with many fine players led by many fine Captains. A few examples will demonstrate the great strength of Blackheath during the periods leading up to the two World Wars:
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Blackheath v Maoris, 1926
1. During the five seasons from 1876-81 that Lennard Stokes captained the Club, Blackheath won 68 games and lost only 6 out of a total 83 played.
2. No less that 9 Blackheath players were included in the England/Scotland international, played at Richmond in 1895.
3. In the season immediately after the 1914-18 war, Blackheath won 23 from 25 games.
4. Under the captaincy of C.D. Aarvolf, the Club was unbeaten during the 1932-33 season. During this season, the Club gained its first success in the Middlesex Seven-a-Side competition, beating Harlequins 18-10 in the final.
Post-War Rebuilding
After the Second World War, rugby football resumed with Blackheath combined with their old friends and rivals Richmond because the Rectory Field ground was not available, having been used as an anti aircraft barrage balloon site as part of the defences of London during the blitz.
The first post war game on September 22nd, 1945, saw some of Blackheath's players in the unfamiliar Richmond strip with the opening game against Northampton being played at Richmond. Next year the Club returned to Blackheath with a match against Guy's Hospital on 28th September, 1946 with a side captained by J.G.W. Davies, continuing where he had left off, captaining the side in the final season before the war.
With the Rectory Field being shared, both the London Irish Club for several years, the Club then entered a long rebuilding period. Highlights from the post-war period include the 1951 Festival of Britain matches staged at the Rectory Field, when a game was played within the spirit, Rules and dress of 1862 as a curtain raiser for a commemorative international match.
Other highlights were:
1. The Hardy and Shuttleworth partnership - the internationally famous England, Army and Blackheath half backs who made a major contribution whenever they turned out for the Club.
2. The retirement of Brigadier H. L. Glyn Hughes in 1955. Known by everyone in the Rugby world as "Hughie", he was President of Blackheath for 25 years and was President of the Barbarians from 1955 to 1973.
3. The centenary season's captaincy of John Williamson; the winning of Scotland's Gala Sevens in 1957 and the Middlesex Sevens in the centenary year of 1958.
4. The centenary season's match against the Barbarians at the White City Stadium on 4th March 1959, won by the Baa Baas by only 21:8, even though they outnumbered the Club by 13 international players to one!
5. The first Women's England v Scotland International Rugby Match. In March 1992 and in line with the Club's pioneering tradition, Blackheath staged the first Women's England v Scotland international match on the heath and centred around The Princess of Wales as part of a Festival of Rugby.
Commemorative plaques marking the founding of the Club in 1858 were unveiled by the then Lord Mayor of London, Sir Brian Jenkins, G.B.E. and Mickey Skinner, Blackheath Club captain and England World Cup International.
The Princess of Wales continues to be a popular Bass Tavern and there is a Blackheath Rugby Bar full of memorabilia to mark the special relationship between the pub, the Club and the game of rugby football that has lasted for so long.
6. Blackheath's South African tour in 1993 - just a year before the end of apartheid - involved an historic match against Zwide United, the only all black team in the first division of the Eastern Province Rugby Union. The Club's side was the first foreign touring team to play the township side.
Despite the upheavals caused by the arrival of professional rugby, the Club remains a significant influence within a sport to which it has contributed so much.
Successfully combining modern professional rugby with the traditional amateur game, the Club's aim continues to be to provide an opportunity for as many as possible to play rugby at the level to which they aspire.
Blackheath is the premier Rugby Club in Kent and the only first class club in South East London. Premier clubs from overseas and many other leading British clubs regularly visit the Rectory Field.
There are a great many amateur teams playing for Blackheath apart from the professional 1st XV squad, including several men's teams, a vigorous youth section, a very successful women's team competing in the National Premier League One and flourishing Junior and Mini Rugby sides.
The Rectory Field
Just as they had been on Richardson's Field, the Club's first opponents at the Rectory Field were Guy's Hospital in an opening match played on 17th January 1883. In 1885 the Blackheath Cricket, Football and Lawn Tennis Company Limited was formed. The Company is still very much in existence and squash has been added to the facilities available. Cricket has been played for well over a hundred years at the Rectory Field which for many years was a Kent County ground.
The original and historic club venue, one of the most revered in the game, has necessarily been extended and developed over the years. It is full of rugby memorabilia and has an atmosphere of venerable hospitality that is " its own and entirely appropriate for a club that is truly one of the patriarchs of Rugby Football.
