The John Charles Centre played host to an event to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first formal game of rugby played in the city and also of the founding of local engineering company, A Taylor & Son.
Dr Kevin Grady of the Leeds Civic Trust gave an illustrated talk about the development of the city of Leeds around the 1860s, with particular emphasis on the engineering works in Hunslet. The rugby league historian, Dr Tony Collins, followed with a description of how the game of rugby developed and a fascinating clip of an early game was shown, followed by a Pathe News reel of Hunslet beating Widnes at Wembley in 1934.
The final speaker was Harry Jepson, who was questioned by Phil Caplan about his memories of the 1938 Championship Final at Elland Road, when Hunslet beat Leeds by 8 points to 2. This was described as the biggest sporting event to take place in the City of Leeds at the time and, as several speakers reiterated, it still is.
The picture shows Hawks stalwart and season ticket holder David Rainsforth, who is also an employee of Taylor & Co, admiring the birthday cake.
