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STAINLAND CC

Memorial Ground, Buxton Lane, Stainland, Halifax HX4 9AJ   Map

Altitude: 208 Metres/682 Feet

Halifax League

Volunteer Contacts:

Ian Batchelor & Brian Whiteley

Club Website 1

Club Website 2

 
  Club Image
 

Founded: 1884
Previous Ground: Drury Lane
Nearest Railway Station: Sowerby Bridge
By Bus: 537/538/539 from Huddersfield or Halifax bus stations
Nearest Other Club: Elland CC

Club

People

Team Photos

Ground

Oral History

Local Context

Further Reading

Club

Timeline (40kb PDF)

Early Years (978kb PDF)
Later Years (961kb PDF)
Halifax Courier Club History (2006) (104kb PDF)

History of Ground and Club - Extract from Home Soil (28kb PDF)

Concise History of Club (9kb PDF)

1886 Athletic News - Club Contact (41kb PDF)

1891 Parish Cup Ground Report: 'No Seating and Accommodation' (283kb PDF)

1890s 1st XI & 2nd XI Averages (34kb PDF)

1899-1910 Stainland in Parish Cup Finals (88kb PDF)

1901 Parish Cup Semi-Final/Final Expenses & Final Winners v Lord Nelson (370kb PDF)

1908 Halifax Parish Cup - Club Contact (119kb PDF)

1908 Halifax Parish Cup Final Winners

1922 Halifax Parish Cup Final Winners - Team Photo (89kb PDF)

1933 Halifax Parish Cup Final Winners v Copley at Thrum Hall - Report (web link)

1935 Halifax Parish Cup Final Winners v Siddal at Thrum Hall - Report (web link)

1935 Halifax Parish Cup Final Winners - 'Congratulations' Minute (501kb PDF)

1959 Halifax League Division 2 'Triple Tie' - Newspaper Report (397kb PDF)

1968 Crossley Shield Final Winners v Stones at Barkisland - Report (115kb PDF)

1969 Halifax League 2nd XI Division 2 Champions - Report & Tables (220kb PDF)

1973 Parish Cup Final Runners-Up v Copley at King Cross - Report (web link)

1973 Parish Cup Final Runners-Up v Copley at King Cross - Scorecard (web link)

1973 Parish Cup Final Runners-Up v Copley at King Cross - Team Photo (436kb PDF)

1979 Halifax League 1st XI Division 2 Champions - Report (40kb PDF)

1981 (15 Aug) Scorebook Away v Luddendenfoot (198kb PDF)

1985 Scorebook v RAFA at Stainland (163kb PDF)

1985 Halifax League 1st XI Division 2 Champions - Report & Table (181kb PDF)

1987 (5 Aug) Parish Cup Final Preview v Barkisland at Copley (56kb PDF)

1988 Membership Card inc. Officials & Fixtures (172kb PDF)

1988 (9 Jul) Scorebook v Booth at Stainland (135kb PDF)

2002 Halifax League 1st XI Division 2 Champions - Team Photo (507kb PDF)

2005 Heritage Exhibition Launch Event - Photos (194kb PDF)

Club Badge (26kb PDF)

Club Cap (59kb PDF)

Cup Winners - undated (824kb PDF)

Fancy Dress - undated (65kb PDF)

Shield Winners - Undated (230kb PDF)

LEAGUES: Halifax League (web link)

People

Who's Who (234kb PDF)
Memorials, Plaques & Dedications (109kb PDF)

Ian Batchelor   Committee Member & Vice President (37kb PDF)   Oral History

Paul Carter   Club Secretary (19kb PDF)

John Ellis   Bench Dedication (51kb PDF)

Sheila & Godfrey Ellis   Bench Dedication (27kb PDF)

Brian Evans   Chairman (14kb PDF)

Don Fletcher   Batsman (41kb PDF)

Sonny Fletcher   2005 Prize Winner (14kb PDF)

J.Lewthwaite   Crossley Shield-Winning Captain in 1968 (7kb PDF)

Eddie Longbottom   Captain in 1959 (15kb PDF)

Ken Mager   Bench Dedication (22kb PDF)

R.Mallinson   Captain in 1979 (7kb PDF)

Richard Morris   Memorial Ground Planner (7kb PDF)

Alec & Maureen Norcliffe   Club Stalwarts (7kb PDF)

B.Norcliffe   Promotion-Winning 2nd XI Captain in 1969 (7kb PDF)

Len Norcliffe   Club Stawart (16kb PDF)   Oral History

Trevor Severn   1968 Crossley Shield Final (64kb PDF)

Barry Smithies   'Park Garage - West Vale' (21kb PDF)

The Whiteleys   Bench Dedication (35kb PDF)

Team Photos

1930s (47kb PDF)

1960s (55kb PDF)

1970s (47kb PDF)

2000s (76kb PDF)

Undated (247kb PDF)

Ground

Story of Memorial Ground (595kb PDF)

2001 Opening of New Pavilion - Photos (254kb PDF)

2007 (5 May) Stainland v Denholme Clough (1.6mb PDF)

2008 (28 Jun) Stainland v Stones (895kb PDF)
Map of Ground (100kb PDF)

3D Map & Aerial Photograph (250kb PDF)

Old and New Maps (54kb PDF)
Line Drawing by Sue Brant

Action (407kb PDF)

Car Park (292kb PDF)

Environs (413kb PDF)

General Views (660kb PDF)

Groundsmen (170kb PDF)

New Scorebox (115kb PDF)

On the Boundary (873kb PDF)

Pavilion (303kb PDF)

Players (209kb PDF)

Scorers (55kb PDF)

Signage (29kb PDF)

Tea Room (107kb PDF)

Wicket & Square (56kb PDF)

Oral History

Ian Batchelor

Born and Bred (32kb PDF)

Flat and Fantastic (26kb PDF)

Love of the Club (14kb PDF)

Vital Sponsorship (39kb PDF)

Wanted: Juniors (16kb PDF)

Len Norcliffe

Army Service (audio)
Becoming Involved (audio)
Changing Game (audio)
Ethnic Minorities (audio)
Future of the Club (audio)
Junior Section (audio)

Memorable Moments (audio)
Money Matters (audio)
Parish Cup Final (audio)
Social Events (audio)

Local Context

Profile of Stainland (218kb PDF)

Stainland Library (web link)

Bowling Green Primary School (web link)

Stainland United FC (web link)

Stainland Stags RLFC (web link)

Stainland Lions Running Club (web link)

History of Village (web link)

Former Cricket Clubs in Local Area (web link)

Further Reading

B.Hargreaves, Elland (Tempus, 2005)

B.Hargreaves, Elland Revisited (Tempus, 2006)

Halifax Courier (Stainland News)

 

With grateful thanks to Ian Batchelor and Len Norcliffe (SCC) and Nigel Buckley (University of Huddersfield).

If you have any information about this club or any others in this area that could be of use please feel free to contact us via p.j.davies@hud.ac.uk.

Note:
You will need the Adobe Acrobat Plug-in to view these files.

 

 

 

   


 

Select Images to View Below:

The Ground
  Archive Images

 

Greatest Moment

1901 – winning the Parish Cup.

Local Hero

Len Norcliffe – veteran club stalwart.

Bizarre Fact

The Memorial Ground was given to the club as a gift following the Great War.

Mumps and Scarlet Fever

John Wesley visited the place in 1759, the Halifax Permanent Building Society opened a Stainland branch in 1855, and in the early twentieth century, villagers succumbed to two nasty epidemics (mumps - 1907; scarlet fever - 1912). These events apart, things have always remained pretty quiet in Stainland.


When one jumps off the bus in the centre of Stainland, one is swiftly acquainted with all the hallmarks of a quintessential Yorkshire village: the parish church, the two public houses, the general store and the charming old fashioned cottages that line the narrow and meandering main street (one actually dates from 1703). And then there's the cricket ground.


Stainland's home patch is set back a few hundred yards from the road, beyond the Red Lion pub, the adjoining car park and the pretty, flower-adorned bowling green that backs onto the cricket ground. There are also swings, slides and tennis courts nearby.

Archetypal Village Venue

The main road feels a long distance away from the cricket field - all that can be heard is the gentle buzz of cars and buses travelling to and from Holywell Green and Sowood.

In many ways it is the archetypal village cricket venue: a low, semi-whitewashed dry stone wall at one end, a herd of cows wandering aimlessly in a large adjacent field, and vast swathes of farmland for almost as far as the eye can see.

Almost all the benches round the ground's perimeter are dedicated to friends and followers of the team.
Stainland CC was established in 1884.

For the best part of 40 years, they played at Drury Lane - a venue famous for its bandstand. In 1922, the club received their current ground, on Stainland Road, as a post-war gift. The working men of the village had a new recreation area, and the folk at the British Legion were named as trustees.

Semi-Rural Setting

The Memorial Ground, a peaceful, semi-rural setting, now boasts a spanking new beige-and-green pavilion (which is also utilised by the hardworking bowls players when they are in action).

Club secretary Paul Carter explains: 'Fire ripped down the old building in 1996. In the years that followed we had to decide what to do. The council provided us with some temporary changing facilities and a portakabin to use as a tea room, but we had to think long-term. We applied for Lottery funding with other sports organisations in the village, but all our applications failed.'

In the end, the cricket club decided to go it alone, and by May 2001 a permanent building had been erected and officially opened.

Local Rivals

On matchdays, the new pavilion bustles with activity: sandwich-makers doing their stuff on the first floor, those waiting to bat sitting impatiently on the balcony, and kiddies and their parents playing merrily at the bottom of the pavilion steps.

And a nice symbolic touch: the SCC badge is painted onto the pavilion front - a white rose against a yellow and blue background.

From the middle, one can see the town-centre office blocks of Halifax on the far horizon, the ornate architecture of Stainland church only a few hundred yards away, and Blackley CC's hillside ground in the medium distance. (Stainland players declare that Blackley and Outlane are the two big local rivals; they say the rivalry with Greetland 'is not as intense').

Big and Flat


Stainland have never won the Halifax League, but they did claim the Division 2 title in 1979 and, more recently, in 2002. Their ground is one of the biggest in the Halifax League and very flat.

Carter says there has been a big improvement in recent years: 'In the early 1990s our outfield used to get bad reports. The council was responsible for cutting it, but their people used to leave four-inch tractor marks all over the place.

However, in 2002 we bought an outfield mower, and today the playing surface is like a billiard table. Once upon a time a par score on this ground was 180; now it is 200-plus, and that is all because the quality of the outfield has been enhanced. We also hire Fletchers, a local company, to look after our square, and they take good care of it.'


The ground is set back so far from the main road that the first-time visitor may not know it's there at all. So a bit of advice: look out for the pub on the corner and the image of the huge red lion. This particular hostelry looks more than welcoming - ideal for a pre-match pint or a post-match victory drink, or both. And as the blackboard by the pub's entrance states: 'PLAICE, CHIPS, PEAS & SALAD - £2.50'. Not bad at all.

Disclaimer - Designed and programmed by Lee Booth.

 
Heritage Lottry Fund University of Huddersfield