Clock Face Miners ARLFC

An amateur rugby league club at Clock Face, St Helens, founded as Clock Face Rangers in 1919 or 1921, which carries the pit village's miners in its name and plays at Crawford Street, beside the recreation ground that the Wigan Coal and Iron Company laid out for Clock Face Colliery's workers.

The mining history in this record

Clock Face grew up round the colliery that the Wigan Coal and Iron Company brought into production at Bold, and the company planned it as a model village. On 9 January 1914 the Earl of Crawford, the company's chairman, opened the Clock Face Institute, a £2,000 club with a large meeting room, billiards and games rooms, and dressing rooms and baths for the football and cricket teams, set between new football and cricket grounds among the colliery houses. The Institute became the Clock Face Colliery Recreation Club, which ran the colliery's annual sports, a colliery football club and a bowls club on the recreation ground between the main road and Crawford Street. Rugby league ran through the pit: Walter Jones played for St Helens while working full shifts at Clock Face, and Eddie Lea, the colliery's dust suppression officer in 1959, had played for Dewsbury.

Clock Face Miners began as Clock Face Rangers. Wikipedia dates the club to 1921; a rugby club directory gives 1919, in the Northern Union era. Clock Face Colliery closed in 1966.

Legacy today

The recreation ground and club survive as a charity, the Clock Face Colliery Recreation Ground and Club, held for the inhabitants of the area and in particular the mining community. It provides rugby, football, crown green bowling and angling and has a brass band, and in 2012 it won Sport England money to turn 14 acres of farmland into more pitches. Clock Face Miners play in yellow and blue from the Crawford Street community club, with an open-age side in the National Conference League's North West division and junior teams alongside.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The club was originally established in 1921 as Clock Face Rangers. (unverified claim, disputed) ¹
• Clock Face Miners ARLFC was founded in 1919, during the Northern Union era. (unverified claim, disputed) ²
• The Clock Face Institute, opened on 9 January 1914 by the Earl of Crawford, had dressing rooms and baths for the football and cricket teams and stood between the football and cricket grounds. (contemporary account) ³
• The colliery's Recreation Club still operates on the recreation ground, running football and rugby teams. (documented fact) ^3,4
• The Clock Face Colliery Recreation Ground and Club is a charity for the inhabitants of the area, in particular the mining community, providing rugby, football, bowls and angling. (documented fact) ⁴
• Clock Face Miners play at the Crawford Street Community Club, Clock Face. (documented fact) ⁵
• The Crawford Street community club where the Miners play is the former colliery recreation club. (reasonable inference, uncertain) ^3,5
• Walter Jones played rugby league for St Helens while working full shifts at Clock Face Colliery. (later recollection) ³

Mines

• Clock Face Colliery — Merseyside
  Named after the Clock Face miners and based at Crawford Street, by the recreation ground the Wigan Coal and Iron Company laid out with its 1914 colliery institute (Sutton Beauty & Heritage; RFL club profile; Charity Commission).

Sources

1. (secondary) Clock Face, St Helens — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Clock Face Miners ARLFC — UK Rugby Club Directory
3. (secondary) Clock Face Colliery, Part 2 — Sutton Beauty & Heritage
4. (primary) Clock Face Colliery Recreation Ground and Club (charity 521031) — Charity Commission for England and Wales
5. (secondary) Clock Face Miners: club profile — Rugby Football League
6. (secondary) Clock Face Miners ARLFC — Clock Face Miners ARLFC (Pitchero)

Record created: 18 September 2026 · Last researched: 3 October 2026