According to Wikipedia (but with no accreditation), Watersheddings is "Reportedly the highest professional RL ground in the UK at 770 ft above sea level, which would also list it as the highest ground of any professional sport in the UK."
It's probably no coincidence that if you asked most football fans which was the highest football ground in England, the consensus would be that it's Boundary Park, home to Oldham Athletic FC. I've asked a few, and this is by far the most popular answer.
In fact, as any quizzer should know, that honour actually goes to The Hawthorns, home of West Bromwich Albion (168 metres, or 551 feet, above sea level). Vale Park, home of Port Vale, is second (160 metres, 524 feet); Boundary Park is only third, at 150 metres (492 feet). But I have to say that having been to all three, Boundary Park on a Tuesday evening in January does feel like the highest.
Watersheddings, however, does appear to have been in a different league altogether – figuratively as well as literally. It's not there any more, but there is a Watersheddings Street. It's off Ripponden Road, about two miles east of Oldham town centre – which is where Wikipedia places the rugby ground. And it is indeed at about 235 metres, or 770 feet, above sea level. That's 67 metres, or about 220 feet, higher than The Hawthorns – not far off half as high again.
Oldham Bears RLFC went out of business in 1997, and that was when Watersheddings was closed. The club was resurrected in 1998 as Oldham Roughyeds, and since then they have had no fewer than five different home grounds. In 2016 they played at Bower Fold, home of Stalybridge Celtic FC.
© Haydn Thompson 2017