The Batley Bulldogs are one of the oldest clubs still in existence, they were formed as Batley Football Club way back in 1880 as a result of various local sports clubs joining forces. The first game the Batley Bulldogs ever played was against the Bradford Zingari team. The Batley Bulldogs had the honour of being able to lift the Yorkshire Challenge Cup high only five short years later, a feat for such a new club. In 1895 Batley Bulldogs were one of twenty-one teams that met at the George Hotel in Huddersfield and formed the Northern Rugby Union which used very different rules to the previously established sport.

In the 1896-1897 season the Batley Bulldogs came a rather respectable sixth in the Yorkshire Senior Competition, and by the end of the next season had worked their way up the league tables to finish a very respectable third. Batley Bulldogs were feared for their prowess in knock out tournaments and in 1897 they were the first winners of the Challenge Cup beating St Helens 10-3 in front of over 13,000 people at Headingley. The following year they beat off competition from Bradford and Batley Bulldogs were able to retain the cup. They managed to perform a similar kind of magic in the 1900-1901 season by taking the Challenge Cup once more.

Batley Bulldogs went on to continued success in various competitions including the Yorkshire Cup in 1912-1913, the Yorkshire League in 1898-1899 and 1923-1924 and were champions that same season as well. Unfortunately modern times have not been so kind on Batley Bulldogs and only a very short spell in the 1990's saw any form of major notable success over the last 70 years when the team took the Trans-Pennine Cup in 1998. The league restructuring in 1960 proved detrimental to the Batley Bulldogs, by splitting the league into two divisions for two seasons the team could never manage to make it into the top flight no matter how hard they tried, although when in top form during the 90's they came very close during a last season game against Doncaster which turned into a play off for a spot in the first division. Unfortunately Batley Bulldogs lost out on this occasion 11-8.

Batley Bulldogs have been through a very bad patch in recent years and at one stage were relegated to the newly formed third division, this caused the club no small measure of financial difficulties. Thankfully a new injection of staff and cash have seen the Batley Bulldogs return to form somewhat, with some 17 new faces arriving at the team during the close season. The team also chose to add the "Bulldogs" title to their name during the 1995-1996 season, having been referred to simply as Batley prior to this.

The team worked through a very tough 2005 season and Batley Bulldogs were placed into the national league one relegation play-offs against Dewsbury Rams. Batley Bulldogs took victory in the finals and the team has managed to stand up against huge giants of well funded teams with aspirations for the Super League. The team has recently added a whole swathe of new youth players with a hope that they will be able to up their game in the forthcoming seasons. Last season saw Batley Bulldogs start their campaign to victory rather poorly after they performed badly in the Northern Rail Cup and the early stages of National League One. Fortunately coach Gary Thornton was able to turn the side around and they managed to make their way into the end of season play-offs with a victory at Leigh against the Centurions and a loss in the next round at Whitehaven which ended their season.