125 Years of Keswick Rugby Club.

Welcome to the Keswick Rugby Club archive website.

This project was to be the culmination of our 125th Season in 2004 / 05. However in January 2005 severe storms & floods hit Cumbria and resulted in the loss of Keswick's Club House. Whilst we still remain without a Club House we have in August 2006 been able to finally get this project underway. Luckily none of the historical records were lost in the floods but it certainly is a stark lesson of the need to record and preserve these very special and unique records. Our special thanks go to the staff at Heritage Lottery for their understanding and help in agreeing to defer the original project dates - we think you will find the wait has been well worth it !

As you may well be aware, the walls of the former clubhouse were adorned with countless pictures, records and artefacts. These images have been digitised and saved for future generations and will be uploaded as time permits. Once complete, this information will make a fabulous resource for those interested in the club and its history.

The fact that Keswick Rugby Club has meeting minutes dating back to the turn of the century makes this project even more remarkable and necessary. As well as an important source of information for those interested in the Club the information we are gathering has a wide local history aspect. For example we suspect that the Rugby Club will have data on about 30% of all male Keswickians going back 125 years. The minute books contain a wealth of other local history - meetings were at the Albion Hotel - how many people know where that was - young people will probably not realise we once had a railway line to Workington - and do you remember that rugby balls had bladders! Some of the historical information contained within them truly has to be seen to be believed.

Keswick Rugby Club needs your help and information to complete the archive project. We require help with scanning and data input as well as any images and information you may have which we could link into the archive.

Please browse through the pages uploaded thus far to give yourself an insight into the past, present and future of Keswick Rugby Club and work we are trying to achieve.

As the project is still in its infancy, the data contained within the site so far is but a fraction of that owned by the club. The site will be updated regularly as more and more information is digitised and our records are embellished by your knowledge of past players and the clubs history.

So please get in touch if you have any spare time to spend on a local historical project. Feel free to come down to the club and help with the workload or share your information with one of our archive technicians.

You can contact the club either through the 'Contact' page or by emailing theteam@krcarchive.co.uk or david@keswickb.com

Many thanks go to the funders of this project:





Site Statistics (in brief).

The month of August brought 932 new visitors to the site. This brings the site total to 10,152 unique visits which is a fantastic number for such a recent venture. Thank your for your support and don't forget to keep coming back.