The Laws of 1871

The original manuscript of the 1871 Laws, drawn up for the RFU, is held in the Reference Library at Twickenham. It was on foolscap paper, which is slightly longer than, but not as wide as A4. In scanning in a photocopy, I have reduced it in size slightly so that each page can be printed on one A4 sheet of paper.

I have recently discovered that the photocopy I was using had not picked up a number of pencil amendments, particularly those in blue, and did not include the amendments written on the back of one page. I shall endeavour to include these in the future, and I have already made some changes to my transcript.

I have not put any links on the pages, so you will either have to keep returning to this index, or modify the web address to get from one page to another. The address scheme is an obvious sequence, except for the title page, and the plan of the field.

In addition, there is my transcript of the laws, and a note on how they came to be written.

Page updated 18 March 2008 by Peter Shortell