hartlepool history logo
close button

1884 - West Hartlepool RFC - Where it all started.

What we know about this image :

An item, dated 1887, from the Robert Wood Collection, gives a glimpse into the spot where West was officially launched on the world. Like the great majority of Victorian clubs, they had a casual start in life tracing their roots back prior to the “Official” start date of 1881.  By 1884, the rugby world was changing and the West players and officials met at Steins Hotel in Mainsforth Terrace to launch the club. This item for the Hotel shows Mr Carl Stein as the proprietor of not only the Hotel but the lessee of the Gaiety Theatre next door which is managed by a relative? Mr A H Stein.

The picture in the middle of the left hand panel shows the Hotel, later the Palace Hotel and then the Birds Nest, next to the Gaiety Theatre and the Station Hotel, plus a map of “downtown” West Hartlepool.

Not that there was too much of “town” for at the time the built environment would be defined in the North  by Wharton Terrace, the large houses next to Park Square (originally Bellerby Tce) marked the North West edge. Grange Road stretched only to Tankerville Street and both Park and Elwick Roads ended were Charlotte Grange and Richard Court are today. A few Villas marked Westbourne Road top and beyond Foggy Furze was all fields.   Belle Vue and Longhill marked the South East corner of “West Hartlepool”.

Date (of image) : 17/10/1887

Donor : Hartlepool Museums Service

Creator : F.W.Mason,

Part of the "Robert Wood" collection

Location


Related items :