Rugby football Broughton RUFC formerly Broughton Wasps, was the first Broughton football club in Manchester, and played using the rugby code, founded by members of a club known in 1869 as Broughton College, formed from former pupils of Broughton College, a public school in Salford at the time. It provided a number of early international players and was pivotal in the formation of the Lancashire Football Union. Broughton Park Rugby Union F.C., is one of the oldest rugby union clubs in England and was established in 1882, just one year after the Lancashire County Rugby Union was founded and eleven years after the formation of the national Rugby Football Union. The club has had a number of different grounds in its time, mainly in the Salford/Prestwich areas, but also in the south of Manchester. Since 2004 its present new facility is at Hough End in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Originally the club had only one senior side, but now fields five senior sides and supported by one Colts (U19), four youth (U13-U17) and four mini (U8-U12) teams; a total involvement of some 320 players each week. Broughton Park R.F.C. is the City of Manchester's highest placed representative in the Rugby Union Leagues. Broughton Rangers, founded in 1877 as a rugby union club, became a rugby league club as a founder member of the Northern Union in 1895. In 1946, they moved and renamed themselves Belle Vue Rangers. This folded in 1955. They are now being reformed with the assistance of Salford RLFC. Mancunians RL, founded in 2009, play at Broughton Park. They play in the Rugby League Conference. Association football The Cliff in Higher Broughton was the training ground of English football team, Manchester United F.C. until 1999. The training ground still hosts some Manchester United junior and academy team matches. Notable people People from Broughton include : Astronomer, mathematician and merchant William Crabtree (1610–1644) was one of the two astronomers, who in 1639 were the first to observe, plot and record a transit of the planet Venus across the Sun. Jodrell Professor of Zoology and Comparative anatomy D. M. S. Watson (1886–1973) Cricketer William Hickton (1884–1942) Comedian Al Read (1909–1987) born and brought up at 11 Kipling Street. Singer Elkie Brooks – born Elaine Bookbinder in 1945. Playwright/director Mike Leigh OBE, from Higher Broughton. Playwright Shelagh Delaney (best known for A Taste of Honey). Folk singer/writer Ewan MacColl (best known for