old maps

[The Parksider]

carith wrote: thanks Si and parksider, I wonder how many people watched headingley st johns play by standing at the top of cardigan lane on burley road and getting a freebie view of the games played. As good a view if not better would have been from the old Armley railway station. Leeds athletic RFC played at the Fields in 1871 before moving on to be replaced by St.Johns who wanted to play on grass rather than the cinder pitch at the militia barracks near their church headquarters. The fields were the venue for the first floodlit mtach in Leeds as far back as 1878. Grandstands were erected in 1880 and again in 1884 for the Yorkshire cup final watched by 15,000 and probably hundreds of freebie fans from many a vantage point. The Yorkshire Hussars were sent to the ground to keep order that day.