Holbeck Rugby Club

Holbeck Rugby Club, also known as Holbeck Imps, was a semi-professional rugby league club based in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The club were the original owners of Elland Road football stadium, now the home of Leeds United.

The exact date of Holbeck were formed is unknown but they joined the Northern Union in time for the Northern Union's second season of 1896–97. They played for eight seasons from 1896–97 to 1903–04. At the start of their period in the semi-professional ranks, Holbeck played at the Holbeck Recreation Ground on Elland Road.

The city of Leeds had an abundance of rugby football clubs and although members of the Yorkshire RFU (which was in turn a Constituent Body of the RFU), it was decided to form a ‘more local’ association. It was for this reason that the Leeds & District organization was formalised when a meeting took place at the Green Dragon Hotel, Leeds on 27 September 1888. The foundation clubs were Bramley, Holbeck, Hunslet, Kirkstall, Leeds Parish Church, Leeds St John’s (later to become Leeds Rhinos), and Wortley.

In the 1896–97 season the league was divided into the Yorkshire and Lancashire Senior Completions, Holbeck entered the former section. They finished 15th (and second bottom) with 18 points from 30 games. In 1897 when the lease was not renewed on the Holbeck Recreation Ground, Holbeck bought the Old Peacock Ground from Bentley's Brewery, for £1,100, with a stipulation that it remained a football ground for at least seven years and that all the catering rights should be held, for that period, by the brewery. The site of the Old Peacock Ground, an open grass field, was at the foot of Beeston Hill on the A643 Leeds to Elland Road. The land was known locally as the Old Peacock Ground due to the close proximity to the pub of the same name which it faced.

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