WELCOME TO FRED COOPER'S HISTORY WEBSITE

Photo credit: Seaham Official Handbook 1962

The Ball Alley at Seaham Colliery was used to play a game called “Rugby Fives”. This game is not to be confused with rugby football. Rugby fives is a handball game, similar to squash, played in an enclosed court. The game originated at the public school of Rugby and is similar to games played at Winchester, Wessex and Eton schools in the late 1700’s. The game is mentioned in the novel Tom Brown’s School Days (1857) by the author Thomas Hughes who attended Rugby School. Some Rugby Five courts included only the front wall as at Seaham Colliery but some had two, three (both side walls) and the back wall as well as the playing surface.

The game was played between two people (singles) or two teams of two players each (doubles). The aim of the game was to hit the ball above a “bar” across the front wall in such a way that the opposition cannot return it before a second bounce. The ball was slightly larger than a golf ball, leather-coated and hard. Players wore leather padded gloves on both hands with which they hit the ball. The floor was usually concrete so that the ball would bounce well and the walls would be of stone, brick or concrete but covered in a layer of hard-wearing plaster.

Following the serve, the receiver and server would take alternative turns to strike the ball against the front wall. The ball had to be struck prior to it bouncing twice. A chalk line (the bar), usually 2 feet 6 inches high was drawn on the wall and failing to validly hit the ball against the wall and above the line lost the rally. Games were played either to 11 or 15 points, normally agreed before the game commenced. Some rallies could last three to four minutes with experienced players and games could take between three and four hours to complete.

In some towns in Somerset and the West Country the game of “Church Fives” evolved where the game was played against church walls and in other towns the game was played against pub walls. A recent survey has revealed 416 locations throughout the UK where Rugby Fives has been played since the 1700’s. In the second half of the 19^th century through to the 1930’s there was a thriving fives community in the North-East of England. This was largely colliery based where the game had enormous support. Local newspapers in the 1877 reported crowds of thousands going to watch a bad-tempered, hotly disputed “fives” match at Tudhoe Park, Spennymoor with prize money of £100 (worth about £5,000 in today’s money). Fifteen fives walls (or ball alleys) have been identified in County Durham including the one at Seaham Colliery.

The ball alley was the scene of much heavy gambling on match days between local champions and those of neighbouring collieries. Jackie Mordue, an ex-Sunderland player, was probably the best hand ball player in the local area. Often the local union lodge, the New Seaham Inn, was too small to host a full meeting of the full lodge membership and the ball alley was used as an outdoor meeting place for workmen in dispute with the management. More than 3,000 miners from seven collieries met at the ball alley of Tudhoe Park in April 1879 to hear their leaders recommend that the local dispute with the coal owners should be resolved by arbitration.

Durham Chronicle - April 1879

By the 1930’s the surface of the ball alley at Seaham Colliery had deteriorated so much that matches ceased to be played. In 1950 the local council proposed that the ball alley should be demolished and this iconic social amenity was finally swept away in January 1953.

Sunderland Echo - 9th February 1950

The Durham Chronicle reported an ill-tempered and hotly disputed match in 1877: -

Durham Chronicle - 29th October 1877

The location of the ball alley was at the top of the “black road” at Seaham Colliery just down from the Jubilee Primitive Methodist Chapel and only 50 yards from the new Seaham Union Lodge.

From the left: New Seaham Jubilee Primitive Methodist Church (with the Ball Alley behind), Seaham Miners Lodge and then New Seaham Workmen's Club

Photo courtesy of Colin and Alan Barrett 

Fred Cooper BSc ACMA CGMA