CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Stan Fearnley

English rugby league footballer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ7599592
Source-derived summary

Stanley Fearnley (born 21 January 1947) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s. He played at representative level for England, and at club level for Bradford Northern and Leeds, as a loose forward.

Background

Fearnley played rugby league for Clayton Juniors during his youth. He is the son of the former rugby league player and coach, Albert Fearnley.

Playing career

Bradford Northern

At the age of 17, Fearnley joined Bradford Northern in 1964, and made his first team debut for the club in April 1965. He was transferred to Halifax in 1967 as part of a exchange deal for Ken Roberts, before returning to Bradford Northern a year later. He continued playing for Bradford until 1977, scoring 41 tries in 217 games across both spells at the club.

He played loose forward, and scored a try in Bradford Northern's 14–33 defeat by Featherstone Rovers in the 1973 Challenge Cup Final during the 1972–73 season at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 12 May 1973, in front of a crowd of 72,395.

Fearnley played loose forward in Bradford Northern's 3–2 victory over Widnes in the 1974–75 Player's No.6 Trophy Final during the 1974–75 season at Wilderspool Stadium, Warrington on Saturday 25 January 1975.

Leeds

Fearnley played loose forward (replaced by substitute Roy Dickinson) in Leeds' 16–7 victory over Widnes in the 1977 Challenge Cup Final during the 1976–77 season at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 7 May 1977, in front of a crowd of 80,871.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Stan Fearnley” as english rugby league footballer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Stan, Fearnley and English.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1947, 1964, 1965, 1967—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1947-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Stan, Fearnley and English providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Stan Fearnley”, the useful work is to connect “english rugby league footballer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7599592. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1947, 1964, 1965 and 1967.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Stan Fearnley”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Stan Fearnley primary sources, Stan Fearnley archive and Stan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Stan Fearnley”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Stan Fearnley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.