GRASSROOTS RUGBY LEAGUE IN SHEFFIELD, ROTHERHAM AND BARNSLEY

This project builds on the award winning Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project managed by the Foundation and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund that ran from 2022 to 2024. This second project looks at the parallel and linked history of amateur, grassroots, community and student rugby league in Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley. The Foundation has already submitted an initial project enquiry form to the Heritage Fund and we are now looking to develop a full application. You can help us by suggesting stories to look at, showing support for the project and completing an online questionnaire by 27th November. The survey can be found HERE.

The Sheffield Eagles faced challenges from 1984 onwards to bring professional league to an area outside the rugby league heartlands. The development of the game in the communities of the city was an equally big challenge. There has been a wealth of rugby league development activity in Sheffield for over 45 years, whether that was the Junior Eagles (still in existence as the Sheffield Hawks), the Sheffield and District Amateur Rugby League Development Association in the 1990s, rugby league in the two Sheffield universities since the 1980s, rugby league fans creating their own team – Sheffield Beagles, teams in the wider area (such as Dodworth Miners or Dearne Valley Bulldogs) or the creation of the first charitable foundation (now known as the Eagles Foundation) in rugby in this country. These all have their own wealth of stories to tell for the first time about developing grassroots rugby league. These stories have never been collected, recorded and shared and the full history of rugby league in the community told. There is a risk that those stories and memories are lost, there is also a lack of recognition of the value of documents, photos, video and other items held by people – all can help to tell the story.

The project will look to research, document and share the history of the development of rugby league in the communities of Sheffield over the last 45 plus years in the following ways:

• Staffing: Employment of a part time heritage officer supported by freelance specialists to deliver the project
• At risk items: Cataloguing and digitisation of at risk material to protect and preserve items.
• Website: Enhancement of the existing Eagles Heritage website and YouTube channel to bring in the heritage of the community game.
• Oral history: Oral history recordings to capture the memories of those involved in the community game over the last 45 years.
• Films, exhibitions and publications: Use of the material collected through the project to create a series of short films, temporary exhibitions and publications.
• Creative in residence: A creative individual working with the project for an extended period to capture and share the heritage in a creative way.
• Schools and Learning: Embedding heritage in the work of the Foundation in schools, community engagement and mental health initiatives.
• Volunteers and training: Development of a core group of volunteers to support the project.
• Events and Engagement: Events for people to share their memories, celebrate the history of rugby league at a community level and learn more about the outcomes of the project.

The Eagles Foundation is a registered charity with the aim of creating opportunities for people to get involved in sport, improve their wellbeing and engage in their local community. The Foundation is governed by a board of trustees which are entirely separate to the Sheffield Eagles’ board of directors. In 2001 the Eagles Foundation (then known as the Sheffield Regional Rugby League Development Partnership Trust) was the first community foundation established by a rugby league club in England. Over its history it has worked with thousands of young people in schools, supporting the development of the game across Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and beyond. After a dormant period from 2020 it re-focused its activities working with the Rugby Football League (RFL), Sheffield City Council and the Sheffield City Trust to appoint a development officer, securing a wide range of funding and supporting the development of rugby league across Sheffield. The Foundation has established women's, wheelchair, learning disability and physical disability teams as well as delivering a range of community engagement activities. This was recognised in 2022 with the Eagles Foundation being awarded by the Championship Foundation of the Year by the RFL.

To help shape and strengthen the bid, as well as showing the National Lottery Heritage Fund the support we have for the project we’d like your help. You may have been involved in grassroots rugby league as a volunteer. You may have played in a community team. You may remember rugby league coaching sessions in your school run by the Eagles and the Foundation. You may have watched community teams. You may have memories to share, stories to tell or items of interest. Everyone can help develop and support the project in several ways:

1. Complete a short online questionnaire that will help us understand more about the people that could get involved and give you a chance to share some of your ideas about the project. The questionnaire closes at 5pm on Friday 27th November 2026. The questionnaire can be found at https://forms.gle/9TpHGoGt9rmRexfE8
2. Email us with your thoughts or ideas about the project, anything we’ve missed, any questions you have, whether it’s something you’d like to get involved in or just to say you support the project. Email richard.king@eaglesfoundation.co.uk
3. Share details of the project with others you think may be interested and can contribute to the project - you can download a document that covers all the information on this page below.

Projects of this type and scale take some time to develop and there is no guarantee that the funding application will be successful. The bid is being developed by volunteers, working around their other commitments. It is hoped that an application could be submitted by the end of December with a decision made by early March 2027, with the project starting in April running for about two years. We’ll keep you updated via social media and the Heritage Project website.