Weymouth Rugby Club is one of the oldest rugby football union clubs in the
country. Research in the County Library produced a newspaper report of the first
Weymouth RFC AGM, which was held in 1872.
The club had probably disbanded during the First World War and started up again
in 1923. During the 20's and 30's the club played at various grounds around the
town including an old "Airfield" at Westham, where there was a grandstand but
no changing or washing facilities.
After the Second World War the club moved to a new municipal sports ground at
Redlands and a small bar was established in an old Nissan hut, which was shared
with the hockey and cricket clubs. The hut had originally been used as a changing
facility with inadequate showers until the Council provided the existing facilities
almost 40 years ago with changing rooms and baths.
Founder Member of Weymouth Sports Club - A "Sports" Club was born out of the shared bar in the Nissan hut and in the mid 1960's the bar was moved to a room adjacent to the Council changing rooms. The "Sports" Club bar flourished and eventually a small multi-purpose sports hall and a squash court was altruistically built by the "Sports" Club (Founder members Weymouth Rugby/Hockey/Cricket Clubs) for use by the local community. Weymouth Rugby Club is proud of its association with the development of the Redlands Sports Club, which at the time, provided much needed "indoor" sports facilities for the local community.
Development of Club in 1970's - The rugby club developed quickly during the 1970's due to success on the field and a happy social life off it but there were increasing difficulties at Redlands due to ground sharing with cricket and hockey. For example there were problems at either end of the season because the cricket outfields overlapped the rugby pitches. Similar problems occurred with the hockey pitches and a very successful Easter Hockey Festival also competed for facilities with its rugby counterpart. (Now days competitive league rugby requires use of pitches from early September to early May).
Move to Monmouth Avenue in 1980's - Land for recreation was at a premium in Weymouth but an opportunity presented itself in the early 1980's. After a series of letters written by the Club to Weymouth & Portland Borough Council the Club was invited to put in a bid to lease some reclaimed land at Lodmoor directly adjacent to the Country Park. "At last" in 1987, after three years of negotiations, during which the Club was repeatedly assured by the Borough Engineer that the pitches would be "first class" the Club signed a 50-year lease with the Borough Council for approximately 16 acres of reclaimed land at the bottom of Monmouth Avenue.
The Club's members, nearly all players or ex-players worked extremely hard to raise £20k which when combined with a SW Sports Council Grant of £10k and WBPC loan of £60k enabled the Club to build and open its present clubhouse in September 1987 (cost £85k). In addition to the Clubhouse the Club had three full size pitches. The clubhouse is built on a raft supported by 13 metre piles and extra piles were installed to enable expansion of the floor area up to 155sqm. During the late 1980's the club flourished and its Mini & Youth section went from strength to strength because of the playing and social facilities. The Club adopted an Equal Opportunities policy and a result formed a very successful ladies team, one of the first in the SW.
In 1990 the Club increased its Council loan by £30k in order to erect floodlights on pitch 3 for training and playing midweek games of youth rugby, construct a children's play area for community use and improve ventilation in the clubhouse.
