Taken from: Hellfire Awaits-150 years of Redruth RFC. Written by Nick Serpell and published by Pitch Publishing. Copies available from nick@serpell.org

Redruth RFC was founded in the autumn of 1875 . Their first ground was a field lent free of charge by the local brewery. It was one of a number of Cornish clubs founded in the 1870s by men who had learned the game while at public school. The wealth created by the tin and copper mining industry in Cornwall had seen the growth of a new middle class which could afford to send its sons to public school. There they learned various forms of football and brought their enthusiasm back to Cornwall.

The two founders were Henry Grylls a Redruth banker’s son who had attended Clifton College and William Willimot, the son of a vicar, who had been educated at Marlborough Rugby, as practiced by the RFU, was a game of the professional classes but, as Henry Grylls put it, ‘professors from Marlborough are rare on the ground in Redruth. They therefore recruited clerks and tradesmen, factory workers and miners, many of whom had never seen a football, and drilled them in the intricacies of the game. Rugby in Cornwall, as in South Wales, has always been a working class sport.

It was also a tough sport. Many men played in the iron shod boots they wore to work. Injuries were common and often severe. The game also became a vehicle for the bitter rivalries that have always existed between Cornish communities. Matches between Redruth, and their nearest rivals, Camborne, often resulted in fists and boots flying with the two sets of supporters happy to join in the mayhem.

Cornwall has always been a centre of industrial innovation and, on January 13th 1879, the first-ever floodlit rugby match in Cornwall was organised by the Redruth club on a field at the northern edge of the town. In the days before mains electricity the lights were powered by a stationary steam engine connected to a generator. More than 3,500 spectators turned up to watch an exhibition match, many of them arriving on special trains laid on by the Great Western Railway. It was on this field, just four years later, that Redruth would create the ground where they have remained ever since.

Redruth quickly established itself as one of Cornwall’s leading clubs. It regularly topped the unofficial merit tables printed in the local press and produced the first Cornish-born rugby international in William Michell Grylls, the son of Redruth’s co-founder, who played for England against Ireland in 1905.

Three years later Redruth hosted the final of the County Championship which saw Cornwall overcome Durham to lift the trophy for the very first time. The star of the match was Redruth’s Bert Solomon, who also played for England.

In the years leading up to the First World War Redruth suffered from the collapse of the mining industry which saw thousands of men emigrate to find work overseas, taking their Cornish customs, and their rugby with them. Things did not improve after the war with mines continuing to close and depression hitting the area. The club barely survived this period but, somehow, managed to keep going.

The 1930s saw Redruth recover to dominate Cornish rugby through the decade. Their success was epitomised in the form of Roy Jennings, possibly the greatest player that ever donned the red shirt. A center of outstanding power he was selected for the Lions tour of New Zealand & Australia in 1930, one of a handful of players picked by the Lions who had never won an international cap.

The 1935/36 season was the most successful in the club’s history. They lost just three of the 40 games they played and scored 864 points, the highest total of any club in England. Redruth Reserves emulated that success, losing just two of their 22 games.

The club was back in action after the Second World War and, in 1948, Redruth’s Keith Scott became the first Cornishman to captain the England side when he led them out against Ireland at Twickenham on 14 February.

The club enjoyed a good run of success in the 1950s and the opportunity was taken to make major improvements to facilities at the Recreation Ground and a new clubhouse was opened in 1956 which, for the first time, provided bar facilities. At the end of the decade a new star burst onto the Redruth scene in the person of Richard Sharp, a mercurial fly half gifted with the ability to glide, seemingly effortlessly, through the opponents defence. He would become the second Redruth player, and the third Cornishman to captain England. He led England to the Five Nations Championship in 1963, a year after he had toured with the Lions in South Africa.

Off the rugby field his name was immortalised as the hero in Bernard Cornwell’s successful books about a rifleman in the Napoleonic wars. Cornwell, who was a great admirer, added an ‘e’ to create Richard Sharpe.

When the league system was introduced in 1987 Redruth were placed in Area League South coming fourth in their first season and reaching the third round of the John Player Cup. In the 1990/91 season they were unbeaten in the league and promoted to National Division Three, then the third tier of the English league system. To put icing on the cake they beat old rivals Camborne in the final of the Cornwall Cup.

Five Redruth players were in the Cornwall squad that travelled to a sold-out Twickenham on 20 April 1991 to beat Yorkshire in a pulsating County Championship final and lift the trophy for the first time since 1908.

The 1990s saw Redruth having to make long journeys to play clubs in Lancashire and Yorkshire which placed huge pressure on finances. Despite that they appointed their first, salaried full time coach. However, the costs and logistics of travelling placed a huge burden on the club and its players and Redruth were relegated to National Two South ate the end of the 1996/7 season.

The club remained at that level until 2005 when a second place finish gave them the chance of a play-off against Macclesfield, the second placed club in National Three North. More than 4,000 people saw Redruth win the home encounter and go back into the third tier off English rugby.

At the end of the 2008/09 season, Redruth finished third in National League Two, the highest position they would reach in the league system. Long journeys to places like Northumberland, and games against clubs that were far better resourced took their toll and Redruth finished just one point short of National Two survival at the end of the 2010/11 season.

The club have remained in Tier 4 of the league system ever since. The closest they came to promotion again was at the end of the 2021/22 season when they finished in second place to Esher. That should have given them the chance of a play off but the RFU decided to restructure the leagues and no play-offs took place.

In season 2024/25 Redruth celebrated its 150th anniversary and became the Cornish club with the longest, continuous history.