Hippodrome

After last Saturday’s failed excursion in search of some end of season football I held back from committing to a game until I had some more tangible confirmation that a game was happening. I have learned that fixture lists are not necessarily to be believed at this time of year.

I eventually settled on Wyke Wanderers v Huddersfield Amateur in the West Yorkshire Premier Division, as Wyke confirmed that this was very much a live game; they needed three points to stay up. 

Wyke is at the opposite edge of Bradford to me, more or less due south about nine miles. I’d been through a few times but never stopped off, so this game also gave me a chance to have a bit of a look around. 

This imposing building (main image) drew my attention, set back up a short lane from the main high street, Towngate. Originally built in 1885 as the Wyke Zion Congregational Chapel, it was converted into a cinema in the days of silent film (1926) as the Wyke Hippodrome, and later as the Wyke Star, before closing due to fire and declining attendances in 1959. It has served as various business premises since. [As an aside, with the town of Hipperholme just down the road, I must investigate whether there was ever a Hipperholme Hippodrome.]

The football ground is a new council run 4G cage, part of the Wyke Sports Village which has an impressive club house and a number of cycle tracks. 4G cages can be a bit soulless, but because of its setting on the edge of town, with views east over the chemical works, this place had a bit of character (extra). I also found there were a dozen or so serious groundhoppers in attendance, from as far afield as Scotland and Leicestershire, one of whom had worked with the club to make a programme. I got chatting with this group for most of the game. 

Any worries Wyke Wanderers might have had about not getting the win they needed were settled with a couple of early goals. Their opponents had already been relegated, and were perhaps ‘on the beach.’  It ended up being a one-way affair and a 10-0 win for Wyke.

Earlier, en route to the game, I stopped off in Bradford between buses to check out a new exhibition (extra) at Impressions photography gallery. ‘Everything in the forest is the forest’ by Clare Hewitt is fabulous: imaginative, creative, ethical, scientific and beautiful. It brings together five years of work capturing a circle of woodland within twelve 180 year old oak trees.  Highly recommended, the show continues until late August.

And almost incidentally, my first Red Admiral butterfly of the year, my twelfth species for the year, in Bradford’s newly expanded and replanted Norfolk Gardens.

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Butterfly Journal 2025

12.  17/05/25. Red Admiral, Norfolk Gardens, Bradford. (VC 63)