Late Victorian Burley Eleven

Between Redcote Lane and the new mills, however, remained the open ground, albeit gradually being taken over by development, of Cardigan Fields, looking on to Cunliffe Wood across the river.In 1864 this area was used as the 1st agricultural showground in Yorkshire. This continued to be a focus for open-air entertainments of all kinds: children's days, processions, ox-roasting (one was recorded in 1887 in which 5,000 people took part: it took two men to turn the spit, and nearly twenty-four hours to cook the ox).

Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley came in person. Annie Oakley drove a coach and horses out from the city centre. The Greenhows, where I lived with my parents, were canvassed for bed and board for the performers. Amongst those who stayed near me were the Bearded lady and the India Rubber Man, who could stretch his skin into fantastic shapes.

While sporting grounds for football, rugby and an area set aside for playing cricket had been created on the fields, it continued to be a venue for visiting performers, the most notable being Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, which came in 1891 and 1903. On the first visit there were Indians, cowboys, rough riders and a herd of bison. The entertainers lived in tents and wigwams while the buffalo grazed on Cardigan Fields and drank from the River Aire. Unfortunately laws to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease meant the buffalo couldn't come in 1903: instead five hundred horses and horsemen came, including U.S. and English cavalry, Cossacks, bucking broncos and a Mexican lassoo team. Stands were erected to accommodate 14,000 people.

(Sketch of Cardigan Fields)

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