South Yorkshire Times,  March 3rd, 1951

Turns Home Into Boys’ Club

Crippled Brampton Miners’ Fine Leadership

For two years a club of about 40 boys has been meeting In the small front room of a bungalow in Knollbeck Avenue, Brampton. Formed during the 1948-49 football season, the club caters for a number of indoor activities as well as boxing, football and cricket.

The club is run by a man once known,    as the “living miracle.- He is Mr. George William Briggs, and his home, the “clubhouse,” is as at 49. Knollbeck Avenue Brampton.

In 1925 Mr. Briggs was injured in an accident at Mitchell Main His spine was fractured and his legs paralysed

After being bed-ridden for almost three years, he obtained a hand- manipulated carriage and later crutches, which he now uses. His disability does not prevent him getting about wherever his boys are playing.

After the death of his wife, Mr. Briggs (“I am very fond of children.”) decided to form a club “to keep the lads from roaming the streets.”

Nearly every night of the week the boys go along to Mr. Briggs’ and have cards and billiards (on a half-size table mounted on the dining-room table). If the boys want to play darts they must wait until the weather is fine and take the board outside, as there is limited accommodation.

The club have three football teams in the Wombwell Boys’ Combination, Barnsley Intermediate League and another in the “Tate” Cup. For training, the little 12ft. square room is cleared of all “non-competitors,” and the boys who are not training have to enjoy themselves in the small kitchen or outside.

Mr. Briggs, former Brampton councillor and at one time a member of 27 committees, pays great tribute, to the women who live nearby

“They are a great help;” he told out reporter, “and if we have any little event outside in the summer they are always willing to support us.