Old Paviors Sports Club, Arnold

The clubs was founded in 1922 when former pupils of the High Pavement Grammar School in Nottingham decided to establish an Old Boys Rugby Club. Little is known of the first few years of High Pavement Rugby Club and the origins of their maroon and green strip but in 1927 a split occurred and from this came Nottingham Casuals. In 1929 High Pavement Rugby Club affiliated to the Rugby Football Union and to Notts Lincs and Derby the following year. The name was changed to Old Paviors Rugby Football Club in 1930 and a further change to our current name occurred in 1976. For much of this time, the club had led a nomadic existence playing games at the Nottingham Rugby Club on their railway pitch, the Nottingham Old High Pavement School playing fields in Strelley, on Highfields and Melbourne Park Nottingham. In 1958 the club finally put down roots at Dale Road, on the top of Carlton Hill. There was a clubhouse of some stature and two pitches that undulated wildly and would have caused many an injury to the super fit players of today. Sadly this site was sold to property developers in 1972. A school in Bestwood Nottingham beckoned so back we went, back because the club had had a previous spell there in 1955/6. The current site was acquired in 1974/1975. The first full season in 1976 was disrupted by a drought and with bleached pitches no games were played until the rain came.

This was organised by the "Old Paviors Sports Club", an organisation that pulled together the rugby, cricket and later the Ladies Hockey Club. They were and remain the owners of the Burntstump site. [http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/paviorsrfc/a/history-7358.html]

[Gedling Borough Council; Calverton Ward / Nottinghamshire County Council; Newstead Ward / Sherwood Parliamentary Constituency]