Silver Royd, Scarborough

The field which now bears the name Silver Royd is actually one field further north than the original Silver Royd which was purchased for the Rugby Club in 1965. 

In the 1964-65 season Scarborough Rugby Club was running three senior sides and a Colts side and the Club was struggling to find grounds to accommodate these teams. A small-holding of 10 acres including a house, three-quarters of a mile from the Clubhouse in Newby was duly purchased and work was started to prepare the land. Old Buidlings were cleared, hedges pulled up, the ground ploughed and finally reseeded. The original plans, drawn up in March 1965 show space for three pitches, however, by the time the groundworks were completed only two new pitches were created. The house on the site was also sold which helped cut the cost of the development.

In 1975, a small portion of the land at Silver Royd was sold to fund some development works at the Clubhouse inlcuding new wiring, a boiler and drainage of the main pitch.

In 1979, plans were drawn up by ex-Scarborough 1st XV player Howard Acklam to update the facilities at Silver Royd which included making one of the pitches into a training area complete with electric floodlights as well as building a new shed for the storage of "the rugby pitch white-lining machine, corner flags, first aid bucket (!) and electric meter/switch unit".

Ever since Scarborough Rugby Club moved to their ground in Newby in the late 1920's they have aspired to bigger and better things and looked for somewhere new to call home. As the Club grew  and teams of all age groups were added, there became a need for more pitches, more changing rooms, more showers, more everything! A number of possible new locations were put forward through the years and plans were even drawn up to extend the existing site at Newby. Many of these plans fell foul of the 'NIMBY' brigade and it wan't until the turn of the 21st Century that the Club could finally move to a site worthy of the Club's ambitions.

When the Club finally secured the new land at Scalby, the 8 acres of the existing Silver Royd was sold to help with the purchase of the 32 acres on which the Clubhouse now sits. The rest, as they say, 'is history'!

Scarborough Rugby Club and its progression from a meeting of like-minded fellows in 1926 to the modern day complex we have today is one of fellowship, generosity and hard-work. Without these virtues, the Silver Royd we see today would not exist