Map of the month – Rugby, men and odd shaped balls.

Rugby School, Warwickshire (MAP: OS Town Plans 1:500 – published in 1887)

Nearly two centuries of Rugby’s history are written in the stones that stand around Rugby School, where in 1823 William Webb Ellis is said to have first picked up the ball and run, hence inventing the game of rugby football.

Although the evidence for the story is doubtful, it was immortalised at the school with a plaque unveiled in 1895.

Webb Ellis was born in Salford, Lancashire in November 1806. After the death of his father, his mother decided to move to Rugby, Warwickshire so that William and his older brother Thomas could receive an education at Rugby School with no cost as a local foundationer (i.e. a pupil living within a radius of 10 miles of the Rugby Clock Tower).

After leaving Rugby in 1826, he went to Brasenose College, Oxford. He played cricket for his college, and for Oxford University After graduation he entered the Church and became chaplain of St George’s Chapel, Albemarle Street, London and then rector of St. Clement Danes in The Strand.

He never married and died in the south of France in 1872. His grave in “le cimetière du vieux château” at Menton in Alpes Maritimes was rediscovered by Ross McWhirter in 1958 and has since been renovated by the French Rugby Federation.

The players then were more numerous: in 1839, when Queen Adelaide visited the School, it was School House versus The Rest.  The School House team numbered 75 boys and The Rest 225.

A significant event in the early development of rugby football was the production of the first written laws of the game at Rugby School in 1845, which was followed by the ‘Cambridge Rules’ drawn up in 1848 leading to the formation of the Rugby Football Union in 1871.

The code was originally known as “rugby football”; it was not until after the schism in England in 1895, which resulted in the separate code of rugby league, that the sport took on the name “rugby union” to differentiate it from the league game. Despite the sport’s full name of rugby union, it is known simply as rugby throughout most of the world.

Despite the doubtful evidence, the current Rugby World Cup trophy is named after Webb Ellis.

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Map of the week – A bat, ball and plenty of gas

Map: Ordnance Survey County Series 1:2500 – 1875 The Oval Cricket Ground.

The Oval is an international cricket ground in Kennington, South London. Home of Surrey County Cricket Club and a historical venue for many other sports.

In 1844, Kennington Oval was a market garden. The Oval was then (and still is) owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. In 1845, the Surry County Cricket Club signed a lease ‘to convert it into a subscription cricket ground’, for 31 years at a rent of £120 per annum plus taxes. Additional costs included 10,000 grass turfs from Tooting Common purchased for £300 to create its first ever playing surface.

By 1868 the game and the ground had grown and 20,000 spectators gathered at the Oval for the first game of the Aboriginal cricket tour of England, the first tour of England by any foreign side. Thanks to C. W. Alcock, the Secretary of Surrey from 1872 to 1907, the first ever Test match in England was played at the Oval in 1880 between England and Australia. The Oval thereby became the second ground to stage a Test, after the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Australia.

In 1882, Australia won the ‘Ashes Test’, at the Oval, by seven runs within two days. The Sporting Times printed a mock obituary notice for English cricket, leading to the creation of the Ashes trophy. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and ‘the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia’. The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to regain the Ashes.

In addition to cricket, it has hosted many other important sporting occasions and can lay claim to be the most historically important general sports ground in the world. In 1870 it staged the first ever England football international, against Scotland. In 1876 it held England v Wales and England v Scotland rugby internationals, and in 1877 rugby’s first Varsity match.

It staged the first FA Cup final in 1872 when the Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1–0. This final was notable for the Engineers’ modern footballing style of teamwork rather than individual play. The ground hosted all subsequent FA Cup finals (1873 excluded) up until 1892.

Other events to be held at the Oval include Hockey, Australian Rules and a was even used as a training ground for a visiting American Football team.

The famous gas holders just outside the Oval’s wall are actually newer than the ground by several years, having been built around 1853. Now disused, there has been much speculation of late as to whether they should be demolished; however, many believe they are an integral part of the Oval’s landscape and therefore their future looks secure.
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Map of the week – Twickenham Stadium

Twickenham Stadium
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Ordnance Survey County Series 1:2500 scale with present-day aerial photo overlay.

This weekend, Twickenham Stadium will host the England – France Rugby Union match – sometimes known as le Crunch. This is the 84^th time the 2 sides have met in the Six Nations (previously Five Nations) Championship.

Although the teams had met from 1906, the first match between the 2 nations in this Championship was played at the Parc des Princes in Paris in 1910 (France winning 11-3).
The following year, they met at Twickenham with an English victory of 37-0.

The map here shows the land prior to being bought by the RFU in 1907 with an overlay of the Stadium today. England had previously hosted their international matches at Crystal Palace, Richmond Athletic Ground or at Welford Road in Leicester.

The RFU, advised by their committee member William Williams and their treasurer William Cail that a new RFU home was needed, decided to buy the land on the east bank of the River Crane near the village of Whitton and to the north of the town of Twickenham.

Part of the land purchased was a market garden growing cabbages – the Stadium today is still affectionately known as the Cabbage Patch.

The first game played at the ground was in 1909 between local teams, Harlequins and Richmond. The first international match was played the following year between England and Wales.

The Stadium’s original capacity was 20,000 spectators, today, after much redevelopment, it can hold 82,000 making it the second largest stadium in the UK after Wembley and the fifth largest in Europe.

Apart from a brief spell as grazing land during WW1, it has remained the world’s largest stadium dedicated solely to rugby – although it has hosted numerous rock concerts and even a BBC Top Gear Car Rugby match…

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