ILKLEY RUGBY UNION CLUB

Finally, to further confuse dating the foundation of the Club, not content with the 50th Anniversary celebrations in 1930, we again celebrated 50 years of rugby in 1949 when a 68-page brochure was published to commemorate the Club’s golden jubilee. It is strange that the 1949 celebrations make no reference to those some 19 years earlier.

It seems, however, that it was not until late 1899 that there was a move to establish a permanent club in the town on October 7th of that year.

From the 18th November 1899 rugby union football has been played every season in Ilkley with the exception of the War years.

At the turn of the century the club continued to play in the Yorkshire Division 1 league until gaining promotion to the North 2 East League in 2008. However, as a completely amateur club life was difficult at the higher level and after two tough years the club was relegated back to Yorkshire Division 1 at the end of the 2009/10 season.

In 2006 efforts began to raise sufficient money to replace the old grandstand and clubhouse. It took four years of tremendous effort to get the cash together but in September 2010 a contract was signed to build a new clubhouse and changing rooms at an estimated cost of £1.6million. The new facilities are expected to open in July 2011.