Ripon Ladies (1994-2002) The club was founded in 1994 After an impressive start after their entry into the Rugby Union league (including three promotions in four seasons), the team needed to look to change their training night to build their squad sufficiently to complete and to allow training to take place for those who played university matches or had regional training. A failure to resolve this issue saw a temporarily proposed resolution of playing at Thirsk, become permanent and the club left Ripon at the end of the 2001-2002 season.
Darlington Mowden Park Sharks (2006 Onwards) The club then moved to Darlington in 2006 and became affiliated to Darlington Mowden Park and changed its name accordingly. In 2020, as part of the league re-tender process and formal agreements were confirmed, they changed their name to
Darlington Mowden Park Durham Sharks to reflect their enhanced partnership with
Durham University, and also played their home games for the latter part of the 2020/21
Allianz Premier 15s season (from February 2021) at Durham's
Maiden Castle ground. In 2022 the club reverted to its previous name of
Darlington Mowden Park Sharks. In 2022, crowd-funding raised £50,000, which enabled the club to compete in the 2022/23 Allianz Premier 15s season. The 2022/23 season was the club's last in the
Allianz Premier 15s, with the club deciding not to bid for membership in the 2023/24 season as it was felt that "the significant financial commitment required was unsustainable in both the short and long term, particularly for a community rugby club". The club was accepted into Championship North for the 2023/24 season but withdrew in August 2023 due to a lack of players, with the stated intention of re-entering the league system in the 2024/25 season. ==Stadium==