THE Oldham RL Heritage cabinet at Gallery Oldham is to be reshaped afresh and it will be ready for public viewing from Tuesday, July 11.
The new display will be centred on locally-born players who have made good in the game and will feature scrum-half Mike Ford, a Great Britain international and a tourist Down Under, who also played for Wigan, Leigh and Castleford. In recent years he has been ‘big’ on the Rugby Union coaching stage, having worked for Ireland, England and several leading club sides, but he is back living locally in the vicinity of his birth and, as managing director, he is the new ‘face’ of Oldham RLFC, which he has previously served with distinction as player, coach and player-coach.
The display will also feature Arthur Lees. George Tyson, Edgar Brooks and Terry Flanagan.
Arthur Lees was born in Lees in 1874 and made his Oldham debut as an 18-year-old. A half-back, he was appointed club captain in 1898 and became the first Lancashire captain to hold the Challenge Cup aloft after victory over Hunslet at Fallowfield. Michael Turner, our official club historian; described Lees as one of the greatest figures in the history of the club,
George Tyson, a winger, was born in the Tommyfield area in 1879. He topped the Oldham try list over three separate seasons and played and scored in every Test for Great Britain on the 1908 tour of Australia.
Edgar Brooks, a hooker, signed from the Watersheddings junior club in 1933. By 1939, he had won the first of his three England caps. He also played for the Probables against the 1936 tour squad, giving an impressive display and scoring a try. A painter and decorator by profession, he lived on Haven Lane, Moorside with his wife Jean, daughter of the Oldham club’s all-time record appearance player, the legendary Joe Ferguson, a Cumbrian.
Terry Flanagan, loose-forward, a ball-handler supreme, signed from Saddleworth Rangers in the face of extreme competition and, aged 19, became the club’s youngest ever captain. Represented GB at Colts and under-24 levels before winning the first of his four full caps. Toured down under in 1984 when Oldham had a record FIVE players on the trip, including Terry and his fellow Oldhamer, Des Foy.
On display in the cabinet will be shirts, caps and medals as well as imagery of the players involved.
The cabinet is situated at the entrance to Gallery One which features the “Oldham Stories” exhibition.
