By The Shaggy Dog
August 12 2003

He's back! After a long wait while he dusted his textbooks, the Shaggy Dog finally returns with another slice of history. This time, it's how a football match in 1841 had huge implications for the area of Hartlepool - and meant the name of Ralph Ward Jackson entered the history books. A lot of people know that what is now Hartlepool used to be Old Hartlepool and West Hartlepool, and some even know that West Hartlepool came about because of Ralph Ward Jackson disagreeing with the owners of the Victoria Dock; however, what is much less well known is the role that Football had to play in the founding of the town of West Hartlepool.

The Hartlepool Dock and Railway Company had a monopoly on the use of the dock; and if anyone else wanted to use it, they had a highly unusual way of deciding on charges. Anyone who wanted to use the Victoria Dock had to raise a Football Team, and then challenge the Dock and Railway Company to a match; the score of the match would then be used to decide how much per ton of goods would have to be paid.

A win for the challengers would see them charged a shilling per ton; a draw, half a crown per ton; and victory for the Dock and Railway team would see the charge set at five shillings, with an extra shilling added on for each goal ahead they were. With so much money at stake, the Dock and Railway company always made sure that they had a good squad at their disposal - and were not averse to using underhand tactics. One unfortunate company from Darlington were beaten so comprehensively that they ended up having to pay fifteen shillings a ton - a considerable amount at the time.

When a link from Stockton to Hartlepool was opened in 1841, Ralph Ward Jackson was put in charge of the team representing the Stockton and Hartlepool Railway company. Wanting to get as good a deal as possible, he scoured the country looking for players that would be able to take on the formidable Dock and Railway squad. He didn't find it easy - players would agree to join, only to later say they weren't interested anymore. Ward Jackson didn't know it, but an agent of the Dock and Railway company was following him around, and offering deals to the players after he'd seen them. Eventually though he got together a team that he thought would at least manage a draw, and gathered them for intensive training in Billingham.

The day of the match finally arrived, and Ward Jackson's team turned up at the pitch wearing their smart new kit - a blue and white hooped jersey, knee-length white trousers, long blue socks, and Ward Jackson's secret weapon: specially-made boots of fairly soft leather, with soles containing a special invention of his own - studs. The Dock and Railway Company team trooped out of their dressing room wearing red jerseys, trousers and socks, and with traditional docker's boots. The historic game began.

Ward Jackson's revolutionary boots proved to be a great success during the first half. His players were able to twist and turn, and dribble with ease past the opposition, and come half time his team were leading by two goals. However, there was to be yet more skullduggery from the Dock and Railway team.

The tone for the rest of the game was set early in the second half, when the Dock and Railway Right Half swung a kick at the outside left of Ward Jackson's team. It connected in a very delicate area indeed, leaving the unfortunate player whimpering on the ground. The whistle was blown, but instead of penalising the kicker, the Ref booked the writhing outside left, accusing him of play acting - despite the fact that he had to crawl off the pitch on hands and knees, and couldn't return for at least 15 minutes afterwards.

It was the first of a series of similar incidents. At one point no less than four players were on the sidelines receiving treatment; whenever they got into the opposition's half they were kicked up in the air with no whistle. Dock and Railway scored twice, and then another that was a long way offside to move into the lead; and when the Ref sent off one of his players for obstruction (he was lying unconscious on the ground after a right hook and was trampled) Ralph was going spare. There was no doubt in his mind that the ref had been got at during the break, and he was right. However all his protests and accusations fell on deaf ears, and when the final whistle went his team had lost 9-4, and suffered two red cards, six bookings, three broken legs and a broken nose.

Ten Shillings a ton was more than a bit steep in those days, and Ward Jackson had no intention of paying it for long; however, news had spread of the mauling - physical and in terms of result - and he couldn't find anyone prepared to play for him in another challenge. Driven to desperate measures, he finally gave up on playing another match and instead hit on the idea of building his own docks. And so West Hartlepool came into being because of the underhand tactics of the Hartlepool Dock and Railway company - and started a rift between the two towns that took until 1966 to resolve.