Illuminating

Posted on by

Broughton (1869) and Swinton can lay claim to taking the field in the first rugby football game under floodlights when back on Tuesday 29th October 1878 they met at Yew Street in front of an inquisitive crowd, treated to a Manchester first.

A couple of weeks earlier two teams in Sheffield played association rules (football to you and me) under lights at Bramhall Lane and this event showed Manchester was no less pioneering.

Two Gramme’s floodlights were suspended 30 feet in the air as part of the experiment.

Reporting the event, The Manchester Weekly Times (2nd November 1878) said: