History
Taken from the Steeple Bumpstead Bowls Club 1936-1996 Member's Book from 1996...
Foreword:-
​
I feel, that as this year 1996 us the Diamond Jubilee of our Club, some record should be made of events and persons connected with the Club. The unfortunate thing is, that there are no records of the minutes before 1974, so the period of time prior to that is covered by my own recollections with the help of one or two other people.
​
G Westrope 1996
​
I was a 13 year old schoolboy when i first became involved in the bowling world. A number of men from the village, namely Bert Knight, Cecil Westrope (my father), Walter Westrope (his uncle), and no doubt several others, decided they would like to have a bowling green, so they decided to make their own.
​
The creation of this green took place behind the old Village Hall in Chapel Street. This piece of land sloped from back to front and so soil had to be transferred, by wheelbarrow, from one end of the site to the other, in order to make it sufficiently level to play bowls on. There was no drainage and the area was seeded.
​
The day finally arrived when the first woods were to be bowled, and I can clearly remember being there with my father and taking part in the first game ever played on the Club Bowling Green. All in all, it was not considered very satisfactory.
The Club Officers were:-
President, Mr Gibson
Chairman, Bert Knight
Secretary, Cecil Westrope
Treasurer, Walter Westrope
​
Greene King, the brewers, who owned the Red Lion in Church Street, had a policy in those days of creating bowling greens behind their public houses. They were approached to see would they consider laying such a green behind the Red Lion.
​
They agreed, and all i really recall about the creation of the green, was that, many tons of clinker from the Gasworks were brought in, to form the base and the drainage for the green.
​
It is rather difficult for me to recall the actual sequence of events, but certainly a few facts were as follows.
​
In 1938 Club Competitions were played for the first time. These were definitely recorded. The winner of the singles was Walter Westrope, the Cup being given by Mr Gibson, the Club President. The Pairs was won by my father Cicil Westrope and myself, the Cups being given by Mr Ferris and Mr McWharrie, the Pairs winners were also each given an embroided table cloth each, which Muriel, my wife, has to this day.
​
These last two gentlemen were friends of Mr Bennett Whiting, a former native of Haverhil, who, with his partner, owned Old Hall Farm.
​
Mr Whiting and his friends were great supporters of our Club at this time, although their own Club was Acton Bowls Club in West London. They brought us something in the region of 20 pairs of second hand woods, of the Lignum Vitae variety, for the Club members to use. Mr Whiting also gave us the new pavilion.
​
We had quite a good number of players from the village. Names like: - Mr Midson and Alec Basham from the Lion, John Westrope and Dalby Westrope, Reg Hardy, Les Humphrey, John Harding and Charlie Tillbrook, and quite a number from Haverhill. Our Green was considered to be quite good in those days, and others such as Mr. Fulller and Mr. Hartop (they were the Village School Masters), also Mr. underwood, Head Master of Haverhill Council School and Mr. Corkindale, Mr January from Helions Bumpstead and Mr. Payne the dentist, all played for our Club.
Tom Barnes, who lived in the Crescent, was green keeper and was provided with a new Ransomes hand mower, the very best to be had, with which to cut the green, he also had a large bowling green roller. Tom also looked after the surrounds and the flower beds. The whole place always looked most attractive.
​
There was no League in those days, but we had a number of friendly matches. These were with Castle Hedingham, Stoke-by-Clare, Wenden Fighting Cocks, Saffron Walden Comrades and The Gate, we also played on a bowling green at Ashdon.
​
In either 1938 or 1939 The Club was invited to play against Mr. WHITING's Club at Acton. I well remember travelling to Acton with others in Mr Payne's car, quite a journey. We had a very nice lunch on arrival, a very nice tea at teatime, but due to rain no actual bowling was done. I doubt anyone had even heard of waterproofs in those days, let alone actually own any.
​
This took us up to the end of the 1939 season when WWIl broke out and I joined the RAF.
​
Les Humphrey told me later that there was very little activity during the War, but he paid Tom Barnes a small amount, about 6d. an hour to keep the green tidy, and to prevent it getting over grown.
As the war in Europe was coming to an end, the Bowls Club started up again. Dr Dunlop, the local GP, became President for a number of years, although whether he actually played Bowls I am not quite sure. Apart from the Club restarting, the main thing that happened in 1945 was the formation of The Steeple Bumpstead and District Bowls League. The initiative for this move was made by the Steeple Bumpstead Club. The Clubs involved were, Steeple Bumpstead, Stoke by Clare, Haverhill Town and Castle Camps. The Steeple Bumpstead Club gave their Handicap Single's Trophy, which originally had been given to the Club by Mr. Bennett Whiting, to be used as the Leagues first Trophy. The actual Trophy is the one now used for the winners of the First Division.
​
So the League had been founded by our Club and the format was two rinks of four players with home and away fixtures.
Dr. Dunlop continued as President for six years when Mr. Tom Bolton took over the honour then passing it to Mr. Vic Hardy.
​
I came on the scene again in 1953 when I retired from the RAF, having been away from bowls for 14 years. I found that the Club had a small number of members, probably no more than 20, all men of course. We had one or two friendly fixtures, but mainly it was League, which still consisted of two rinks of four players. The Steeple Bumpstead two rinks were usually: -
G Clarke (Capt.) J Bacon
T Bolton A Basham
G Westrope W Midson
L Humphrey V Hardy
​
In those days we saw individual players carrying their two woods in a leather case which had no room for shoes. As far as we were concerned all the other accessories which the players of today consider as necessary had not yet been invented.
​
We played on our green for several years with little of no maintenance expect for cutting. We usually played the one way, away from the pavilion. The green, as a number of today's players will remember, was about 36yds by 32yds, well under full size, it eventually got to the stage where it dropped away along the sides. We asked Mr. Germany, the nurseryman from Helions Bumpstead to roll back the turf along the longest sides, build it up with soil, then relay the turf. The result was that we had a green which was now rather high along the sides, especially the Congregational church side, this gave the green a terrific turn along the edges.
​
Our main rivals during these years were Castle Hedingham, and, like us, they had quite a few characters in their team. Col. Palmer, Jim Saxon, who, when things went wrong, used to throw his cap on the floor and then jump on it. There was also Sid Boult, the schools attendance officer who visited Steeple Bumpstead school when I was a pupil there in the early thirties, Mr. Newman, the butcher, LES DRURY, and many others.
​
It was usually a case of winning home matches and losing away games, and there was always a bit of needle, even across the rinks. One incident I can recall on the green at Castle Hedingham, was when our rink was playing on the rink nearest the road. There were no strings and I caused the Jack to go sideways to the long grass, we said it was still in play. Sid Boult on the next rink shouted across the green "Oh no it isn't, it's off the rink". I don't remember how we settled the disagreement.
​
We played Club competitions, but, as records show, they often were not completed, so the Club generally deteriorated. When the season was over, we held the AGM in the little back room of The Lion. On the occasions when the Treasurer had to inform us that we had a deficit we would each put our hands in our pockets and put a few shillings in the kitty, thus making us solvent again. In 1954 I became Secretary/Treasurer, then it became my particular job to clear the accounts.
Champions Vs. The Rest was always played on our green, and this was usually followed by a social evening, when a good time was had by all. For a few years we were entertained by Bert Bradshaw, a fat fellow from Wisbech, he was a real "one man band" , he did everything, played several different instruments, told a whole lot of jokes, mostly clean but some of the other variety.
​
One of our popular friendly fixtures was against the Halstead Police, with policemen from around the district led by Inspector Chapman, as you can imagine, we all had a good time. The refreshments were of course supplied by The Red Lion and served by Vera, the landlord's daughter: there was no talk of drink/driving in those days.
​
The Annual Dinner and Presentation Evening, in the years when it was held, took place the in "Big Room" in The Red Lion. Our main entertainment was often TONY SYMPSON, the well-known actor, who was in "Fiddler on the Roof" with TOPOL. Tony lived with his wife in our village, his wife still comes here occasionally.
​
The Pastor of the Congregational Church was The Rev Pringle. He had come from Silver End and arranged a friendly match with their club. So"Us country bumpkins" accepted the challenge and went over to Silver End. We believe they were "rather surprised" when we beat them.
​
Mr. Vic Hardy had become President in the latter half of the 50s. He was a very keen bowler, but he had one peculiarity with his bowls. As the rules state, one must have one whole foot on or over the mat at the time of delivery. Vic Hardy kept the stipulated foot over the mat but would stretch sideways with the other foot, then bowl. He was quite successful at this and would use it on either hand, several times during in a match.
As I have said before, during the 60s the quality of the green gradually went downhill, mainly from the lack of money to spend on it. A new green had been laid at Birdbrook and some time around 1968-1970, Haverhill Club also decided to lay a new green. Whilst the Haverhill green was being relaid most of their members played at Birdbrook.
Some of the members from Steeple Bumpstead joined them at Birdbrook, we needed to improve our game and to take part in competitive bowls. The Birdbrook Club was affiliated to The Essex CBA. After three or four years Claude Green, The Essex County Secretary and a Saffron Walden member, approached our Chairman, George Davidson, as to the possibility of the Steeple Bumpstead Club becoming affiliated to the County.
This was not done immediately. However, eventually, after some of us had been around the County scene for a few years, the Club was granted affiliation in 1977. This was excellent, now at last, we were going places.
During the past few years Brian & Eddie Haylock, having done what a lot of other cricketers have done over the years, had taken up bowls. They, along with, Jack Bacon, Alec Basham, Joe Findley and others, put in a great deal of hard work to improve the green.
I would like to make special mention here of would like to make special mention here of Joe Findley. Not only was Joe very helpful in the improvements to the green, but he was also very keen to organise the friendly matches and social functions of the Club. One occasion that some of our present members may recall, was when he invited to the Club, a number of staff and friends from Saffron Walden County high School, for a game of bowls and a social evening afterwards. JOE was, of course on the staff of the above-mentioned school, and at his passing, he was remembered by the placing of a new noticeboard at the club.
​
Another person involved in the improvements to the green, was The Rev Wheeler, who with others, laid edging curbs under the edges of the green, in order to strengthen them. Rev Wheeler also organised some sheep grazing on the green, he said it would fertilize it!!! The standard of the green had been raised considerably by the efforts of those concerned.
​
The Club, as I have said was progressing and when it was affiliated in 1977, The County Executive accompanied by The County President and Secretary and their team, came to play against us on our little green, this was indeed a milestone in the history of our club.
​
We still, of course, played in the SBBL which by now had changed to three triples and mixed bowls. This format has been a great improvement, especially with the greater number of the club members involved. The Club had joined the NWEBA since when we have always played in Section B, in either Divisions 1 or 2. We are also in Group 2 of the ECBA.
​
Around 1985, we decided to build ourselves a new pavilion. This we did with voluntary labour, the structure having been acquired from a builder. It was erected on block pillars and sleepers and considerably modified to form one main room with double opening doors and large window panels. There was also a kitchen with a serving hatch, a vast improvement. The whole thing was panelled throughout, and carpeted. There were still no toilets however, but we were allowed to use the ones at the Chapel.
The County Executive visited us again in 1986 to celebrate our Golden Jubilee. Mr. Tom Rock a past President of The County Executive, has, on many occasions, reminded me, that on arrival, he went with others, to our one roomed pavilion to change. After having removed his trousers in order to put on his "whites", a young lady bent down beside him and asked if he would like a cup of tea!!! After the game, our ladies provided us with a splendid meal. The venue for the meal was the Congregational Church Hall. After the meal the usual speeches and exchanges were made. The Club had produced a Golden Jubilee metal badge, the first time, I believe, that we had a Club metal badge. We were now beginning to take off, but it had taken us 50 years to get this far.
​
Our President during those last few years had been Dr. Fleming. His successor was a well-known friend and bowler, Ted Whitlock, who was a very active bowler and member of our club until he moved away on retirement. Ian Bloodworth was Secretary for a number of years, and IAN was the first to introduce a Club Newsletter. I have been reading through some of the old Club Newsletters and many of our members were mentioned. There is one thing that has not changed since those days, the 80s, in as much, as we sometimes had to invite members from other Clubs, even then, to make up the numbers, especially in fixtures requiring 24 players. Reading through the pages of that period, one could see that many members thought only of playing when it suited them and not wholeheartedly supporting the Club.
​
Some fixtures one can mention are, POLA, with whom we still have a yearly fixture, also Molins at Peterborough and The Globe at Kings Lynn. These fixtures were quite popular. We usually went by coach resulting in bowlers and accompanying friends /families having a great day out.
​
We now come to more recent times. We had just got our new pavilion organised and were beginning to enjoy the benefits it brought, when Green King requested a meeting with the Club. A meeting was arranged between some of the Officers of the Club and representatives from the Green King. The meeting took place in the pavilion. The reason that Greene King requested a meeting was to inform us that they wished us to vacate the green behind The Red Lion. They owned the land and wished to sell it, along with the surrounding area (for building purposes). We were devastated, but had to inform the committee of their wishes.
The committee were informed of the above request, along with Greene Kings offer of 12 months in which to vacate the green, and also of their offer of £25,000 in compensation. This compensation was to help us to relocate at another site. After much discussion, it was felt that we had to accept their offer.
​
Since we had never paid any rent, and if we decided to fight against their proposition, not only might we lose the case, we might also lose the compensation.
​
So the offer was accepted. We received a further £5,000 from the builders and £200 for the shell of our nice pavilion. I say shell, because we had stripped the interior of every thing of possible value.
We now had to seck a new site. One possible place was next to the Lily Council Houses, but Mr. Woodley did not want to sell land which was in cultivation. However, he offered us The Brickle, where we are now, but, at the time we thought it was rather a long way out of the village. Another possible site was Humphries Meadow, but the snag here, was that this was not a large enough area for a full size green.
​
We eventually asked the Parish Council if they would allow us to site the new green at the top of Camping Close, where the children's play equipment is today. It was, at that time, being hinted that the new Village Hall may be sited on the Camping Close, and we thought it might be pleasant if the new green was sited in front of the Village Hall.
​
However, there was much opposition from certain quarters, particularly Bower Hall Estate. The Parish Council eventually turned down our application.
​
The Planning Department had liked the suggested site and many people have since commented, that the public do not know what they are missing.
​
In all fairness, the Parish Council offered us land at the football end of Bell Ropes. It was a fairly level site but we did wonder about vandalism, also it was away from the existing pavilion and where a future Village Hall might be built. Then, there were rumblings that the green should go down to the Tan Yard end. I personally, knew that this area had been excavated years before my time and had eventually been filled in with rubbish from the church Fields building site. We decided that in no way would we spend our money there. As far as the Camping Close site was concerned, we felt, that if we were to spend our money on building a green there, we would, in the end, own nothing, so that was decided against also.
​
At about the same time we were approached by the Football Club, who had conceived the idea that we share premises with them. This was to have been on the far side of the river on the Helions Bumpstead Road, on land owned by Mr. Robson. This seemed a real possibility and we said "Yes", only to find that Mr. Robson would not sell, so that was the end of that idea.
​
A decision had to be made. So Mr. Woodley was again approached about The Brickle, which in my time had been a stackyard in the days of stacking corn, and Mr. Woodley told us it had also been a brickyard, though before his time, hence the name "BRICKLE".
Mr. Woodley offered to sell us an acre of land at considerably less than the agricultural price. Since we had offered the full going rate for agricultural land at that time, we naturally accepted. A trust was set up and the land was paid for by two members of the Club. We now had a home, so anything that was done to the land, or built on the land belonged to the Club. The purchase was of course subject to Planning Permission being given, the account of which now follows.
​
We had, of course, to make the usual planning applications to the Braintree District Council. This was done, and as the time for a decision was approaching, there were rumblings that it might be refused. Disaster!!! So, on behalf of the Club, I sought a meeting with the Planning Officer. This was eventually achieved and I met with a with Mr. Crowe from Braintree District Council. We met in a little side office where he informed me that it was, indeed, their intention to refuse our application. So I told him the story of the past months, of how we had lost our Green after fifty years, how there had been opposition to the Camping Close site, his comment to the last item was that he thought that this was where it really should be. I told him of the history of the Club, how the Steeple Bumpstead Club had a fairly prominent position in the district, as far as bowls was concerned. We had a long discussion about bowls and other village matters. Having heard the history of the Club, Mr. Crowe now felt that he could go to the Planning Committee and recommend that permission be given for us to build our new Club on the Brickle site. This was done at a meeting of the Planning Committee at which I attended, when every member was in agreement The permission was duly given. At a later date a grant was given by Braintree District Council towards our project.
So, here we were, in our last season on our existing green and had engaged Lodge Sports to build the new green. Lodge Sports were chosen after Trevor Henderson and myself visited a new bowling green which they had built at Long Bennington, also one built by another firm at Ashill in Norfolk.
​
The contractors moved in to excavate and level the site and put in the drainage. Immediately there were problems, some areas being very wet and soft and we soon had proof that it had previously been a brickyard. It was decided to import about 200 tons of stone to stabilise these areas. We kept a close watch on what was being done, and finally reached the point where we were very dissatisfied with the work done, and the problems involved. We managed to engage the services of the editor of The Groundsman magazine for a moderate fee. He reported to us on what he had found and what should be done. We presented the report to the contractors, with the result that,
after a meeting on site, the earth moving and drainage contractors were replaced. The new company employed were a much more competent organisation, and the work was then completed to our mutual satisfaction. During all this time Ian Westrope, who was Chairman of the Club for a number of years, had been taking photographs at all stages - we were pleased that he had.
The new green was a seeded one as opposed to being turfed, turfing being too costly for our budget. The result of this was, that we missed two seasons of playing on our own green. This meant that all our games were played away and we were very grateful to all the Clubs around our area who allowed us to play our home matches on their greens.
Whist our green was being finished and the grass becoming established, we had to turn our attention to the facilities that are required to run a Club, the largest being of course, the pavilion. In the mean time we had decided to install a watering system. This which was done by Mr. Baker of Stoke-by-Clare, and which has since proved to be a most valuable asset.
​
We decided to increase the size of the pavilion before we had even started to build it, we had planning
permission for this. A large portable building had been purchased, and it was our intention to adapt this to our needs. However, at about this time, we had a chance to obtain many items of building material at little or no cost.
This came about because The Project Furniture Factory at Haverhill was being rebuilt over the existing factory, so many items were being disposed of. Some of our members spent many hours dismantling things. A whole line o f aluminium framed window panels and doors, ceiling tiles, electrical fittings, floor tiles, kitchen units, sanitary fittings and many sheets of rejected faced timber panelling, all these things were dismantled and made ready for use, a huge amount of manpower hours and hard labour, but it saved a fair amount of our precious funds.
The footings were put in and the walls up to floor level were built by Fred Orbell and Dave Taylor, again a lot of hard work. We then decided to spend €2,000 on a machine-finished floor. I believe this money was well spent, especially for the carpet bowlers. We then had the enormous task of modifying the building, in order to incorporate the materials we had been given or scrounged, supplemented by new materials as required. This included laying the drainage system. MANY, MANY long hours were put in by just a few willing hands, calling on other members when we just could not manage. One person I must mention here, not forgetting the few club members who did put in an awful lot of work, that person was Charlie Clayden. Charlie lived in the bungalow opposite, and was not even a member of our club, but he put in many hours of work, especially up on the roof where it was very cold.
So, after about 18 months and many arguments with the building inspector, we were finally able to move in to our new pavilion, though with many improvements still to be made. We had started playing on our green, which was playing very well for so new a green and we soon saw the benefit of the watering system. Some of our members erected a fence round the green, there had been deer strolling across it, we were having trouble with rabbits. Brian Haylock did an awful lot of work around the green, often with the help of Ann, his wife.
So finally we were now playing our matches on our own green, and the County Executive were asked to visit us again. They came to see us in 1992 and officially opened the new green.
A great day was had by all.
Since that day we have steadily progressed with both the facilities, and I believe the standard of our bowls has improved quite a lot. The carpet bowlers enjoy their evenings throughout the winter and their standard of play has definitely improved, some of this may be due to the level floor we put in, money well spent.
All in all the Club is beginning to tick over very nicely, which is mainly due to members of the committee and others, who put in a great deal of work.
​
The green is playing well which is no doubt due to, amongst others, Brian Haylock, our late member, who held many posts in the Club over the years, including that of greenkeeper, and whom we all miss very much. Some of the credit must also go to Frank Taylor, our present green keeper. Help is always needed on the green at all times of the year, and if anyone can help, just see Frank or any committee member. The green is our main asset, without it we have no Club.
We must not forget our ladies who put in a tremendous amount of work catering for the innermost needs of us all. We all thank you very much ladies for everything that you do.
The social side of the Club is progressing very well, with our Annual Dinners, Quiz Nights and Car Boot Sales, all of which produce good returns, and of course, our Club Nights on Tuesdays.
The one last thing we really need is more members, so please, try and persuade any likely person to join. If we all pull together as a team, then we have something we can be really proud of.
G. Westrope