New research confirms Warrington Wolves were born in 1876

New research by a number of dedicated Wolves supporters has shown that the club was actually formed in 1876 and not 1879 and revealed many other details about the club’s early days.

The club that became Warrington Wolves was founded in the summer of 1876 by seven young men – the so-called Founding Fathers – at a meeting at St Paul’s Church Sunday School on Bewsey Road, Warrington.

St Paul’s was a Church of England church and was built in 1830.

It closed in 1980 and has since been demolished and replaced by an old people’s home, although the church graveyard still remains.

Coincidentally, St Paul’s was just 400 metres away from The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The seven young men, all aged about 20, were William Henry Wallington, his brother Thomas Wallington, G J Browne, G W Edwards, Earnest Early, Ebenezer England and Thomas Rathbone.

William Wallington became the first captain of the club and worked for Warrington Council (Warrington Corporation as it was known at the time), rising to become the market’s superintendent and inspector of weights and measures.

Browne became a director of the boat builders Messrs Clare and Ridgway, who had a boatyard at Sankey Bridges and launched their boats, sideways, into Sankey Canal until 1913.

Edwards became a solicitor in Liverpool, while Early was a railway clerk.

England lived to the grand old age of 81 and was still a keen supporter of the club right up to his death in March 1939.

England was a member of Warrington Rural Council, representing Poulton-with-Fearnhead, and served on Padgate Parish Council.

For reasons which are still unclear, the club that these seven young men founded was called Warrington Zingari.

Zingari is the Italian word for gipsies, and so a zingari club was a wandering or nomadic team.

Warrington Zingari’s first game was played at Wharf Meadow, Wharf Street, which is now home to the Riverside Retail Park, but any record of it has been lost in the mists of time.

The first match we still know about was at Penketh on Saturday, October 28, 1876, and Warrington lost by one goal, one try and two touchdowns to nil.

Confusingly, tries and touch-downs were different things in those days. Tries were scored when a player crossed the try line with the ball in his hands. Touchdowns were scored when the ball was kicked over the try line and a player touched it down.

The Warrington team was T Rathbone, F Monks, W Edwards, T Wallington, H Maybury, P Whittle, J Massey, J Sutton and S Sutton, who were all forwards; W Wallington (captain), T Howard, G J Browne, R Andrews, D Brinsley and J Gaskell, who were all backs.

The triumphant Penketh team composed of forwards J Turner, J Goulden, J Evans, J Mainley, W H Hughes, J Davies, J Welsby, J Sparkes and F Hughes and backs J R Wylde (captain), Thomas Davies, J W Holding, P Johnson, J Gandy and W Waring.

Warrington’s next reported game was three weeks later on Saturday, November 18, against Lymm Wanderers at Lymm.

While Warrington’s first reported match had been a 15-a-side contest, this next game was slightly different.

Lymm Wanderers had 13 players, while Warrington only had 12. All seven of the Founding Fathers were in the team, and Early was the captain.

Lymm Wanderers team on the day was G H Clarke (captain), G Roach, E Clarke, T Broadley, and T Adern (all backs); H Forrest, A Rowson, A Greaves, J Smith, E Rowson, F Leigh, T Browning and H Harrison (all forwards).

Warrington lined up as R Andrews, W Wallington, G J Browne and E England (all backs); E Early (captain), E Jones, T Wallington, P Whittle, T Rathbone, W Edwards, W Grounds and S Sutton (all forwards).

Warrington won by one goal and one touchdown to nil and have not looked back since.

Thanks to this impressive new research, notably carried out independently by supporters Neil Ormston and Gary Slater, the club will be recognising 1876 as its formation date in all official publications and merchandising from now on.

It also means that the club is now in its 135th anniversary year.