Weston Pagans Rugby League Club
WESTON PAGANS - C GRADE PREMIERS 1912
~ Coalfields Heritage Group
The Weston Pagans Rugby League team was established very early in the life of the town. Needless to say, the name 'Pagans' could not help but have a legend attached! The late Andrew James 'Mick' Frame O.A.M. (1911-2004), born in Weston and a former Deputy Mayor and Freeman of the City of Cessnock, passed on a story to his niece Julie in 2002, about how the Pagans football field and the local league team, got the name:
Mick Frame said that some of the young lads in town who worked in the coal mines mines ‘borrowed’ gelignite from the pit to blow out tree stumps and clear the field for football matches. He said that the local Catholic priest, Father Cullen, an Irishman, used to drive by that way when visiting his parishioners. The young lads would run alongside Father Cullen’s horse and buggy, sometimes swinging off the back to torment him. It is said that Father Cullen would wave his fist at them shouting, ‘you’re a lot o’ pagans…you’re just a lot o’ pagans!’
Above: Mick Frame's recollection of the legend of Father Cullen was supported by this clipping in a 1935 edition of the Cessnock Eagle newspaper.
~ TROVE: Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder
(1913-1954)
Publication: Friday 20 Sep 1935, p.5
THE PAGANS CAFE
The Pagans Cafe in Fourth St., Weston c.1956
At this time the shop was run by Mr Ross Miller
~ Coalfields Heritage Group
Andrew and Eliza Frame of Fourth St., Weston, once owned this shop/cafe on the corner of Kline Street and Fourth Streets Weston. At that time it was named 'the Pagan's Cafe.' Known proprietors of these premises over the years have included: Frame, Tweddle, Sidebottom, Drinkwater, Haywood, Gibson, Lynch, Austin, Bristow and Harrison.
1935: Weston Pagans won the Cunningham Shield.
PAGANS PICNIC AT NELSON BAY c.1944
~ Alex Frame
FIRST PAGANS TEAM FOLLOWING WWII
Above: First Pagans Team following WWII (1946)
Back L-R: -- ?; Billy Stanbridge; Jack Lumsden; Les Rouse; Joe Falk; Jim Crossley; Jim Robson; Bill Brown; Alex Frame
Front L-R: Harry Matthews; Keith Paul; Tom Dodds
~ Alex Frame
1948 - 1950:
PAGANS - RUGBY LEAGUE PREMIERS
~Coalfields Heritage Group
1953:
WESTON RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB
WESTON RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB 1953
~Coalfields Heritage Group