About

The early days……‘Winstanley Park Tennis Club’ was founded in 1921, its name reflecting its initial location within the parkland of the Winstanley Estate, the home of the Bankes’ family. Indeed, the idea of an adjacent tennis club came from Members of the namesake cricket club, Winstanley Park CC; thanks to their records we know that various fund-raising events, including an August Bank Holiday carnival in 1921, made it possible to bring about the actual beginnings of tennis on the site on one grass court in May 1922 followed by 3 shale courts shortly afterwards. An annual rent of 2s/6d (12.5 pence) for the tennis and cricket clubs was paid in alternate years by each.

The Club was located 1 mile down a dirt track lane in a secluded situation surrounded by trees and rhododendrons, as the image below from 1973 shows; it was very popular as a family outing, with children exploring the woods and climbing trees while the adults enjoyed uninterrupted tennis – this is how the Club’s legendary ‘faith teas’ at tournaments came about! The shale courts were considered to be the best in the Warrington League and were maintained by constant rolling and brushing by the Members, overseen by Jimmy Winstanley, a long-standing servant, and ultimately President, of the Club.

More recently…. In the late 70s the decision was taken to obtain our own land just off Winstanley Road where we could expand the club and increase our junior membership. The land was purchased from the local farmer with the help of Gerry Rickards, Club Chairman at the time; donations and loans from members allowed the erection of 3 hard courts and, in 1980, a very basic wooden clubhouse. The early days on the new site involved the Members running jumble sales, afternoon teas, sponsored walks, and various competitions to help raise the money to run the club. League matches took place on our old shale courts, on hard courts at Winstanley College, as well as on our new courts. In order to maintain our reputation for providing refreshments to visiting teams at these other locations, tea and biscuits were dispensed from car boots!

The clubhouse was extended in 1993 and 2 further hard courts were laid in 1993 with grant-aid from The Foundation for Sports and the Arts and a loan from the Lawn Tennis Association (‘LTA’). Following a bequest from Jimmy Winstanley’s estate, land for a 6th court was purchased in 2000 and the court was named in his honour upon its opening in July 2004. Floodlighting was installed on this court in June 2006 with a grant from LTA helping towards the cost. That same year, Members also agreed to set the wheels in motion with a replacement clubhouse project which was led to completion under the guidance of former Club Chairmen, Geoff Bradshaw (2006-12) and John Elmer (2013-17).

And today…..as you can read in more detail on our ‘Facilities’ page, in recent years the Club gained access to new clubhouse and coaching amenities, marking another significant phase in the Club’s history which kept up the forward-thinking approach taken by earlier generations. September 27th 2014 was a landmark day in the history of the club when Club President, Dr Ken Walker, did the honours and ‘officially’ opened the new clubhouse in the company of local politicians and guests from Tennis Lancashire as well as of many former and current Members; Yvonne Fovargue, MP for Makerfield, was very impressed with the amenities and commented that “the new building is a fantastic asset for tennis in the borough” while Councillor Marie Morgan remarked that ” these are state of the art facilities and a credit to the club.” the occasion was celebrated with an excellent buffet tea and evening of entertainment by Wigan Ukulele Band. Ken Walker is shown below cutting the ribbon to declare the clubhouse ‘open’, while John Elmer is seen welcoming the assembled gathering to the event.

Monday 30th August 2021 was a particularly momentous day for the club as it marked the centenary of the club’s foundation and was celebrated over the course of a well-attended afternoon in which a commemoration plaque was unveiled by the Worshipful Mayor of Wigan, Councillor Yvonne Klieve; a photographic record of the occasion is available on our Gallery page.

The desire to maintain and improve conditions for tennis and membership amenities at Winstanley is not just about the physical facilities, however, but runs through all aspects of Club policies and procedures – we are proud that we were the first (outdoor) club in the district to receive the ‘Tennis Clubmark’ award, a statement of ‘quality assurance’ by the national ruling body of our sport, the Lawn Tennis Association. Indeed, we were delighted to have the award conferred upon us, at a special event held at the Club in June 2009, by one of our former Junior Members, the then Chief Executive of the LTA, Roger Draper. ‘Tennis Clubmark’ was replaced by ‘Tennismark’, a Sport England approved accreditation which can be achieved if a club is able to ‘tick all the right boxes’ during the registration process with the LTA – we are very pleased to report that we came through this rigorous process successfully and that the award of ‘Tennismark’ recognised Winstanley Tennis Club as a safe, welcoming and inclusive venue. The LTA withdrew the ‘Tennismark’ accreditation scheme nation-wide as from October 2018 and replaced it with a set of requirements clubs would have to meet annually in order to become a ‘LTA Registered Venue’; we continue to fulfil these requirements and our standards and guidance in relation to safeguarding, diversity, privacy and conduct for 2024/25 are outlined in documents accessible from the ‘Club Policies’ page of the website (as well as in the clubhouse).

We are a medium-sized Club of approximately 150 Adult and 60 Junior Members; with 6 courts, a year-round facility and a varied tennis programme, there is plenty of opportunity for Members to play as and when they prefer; court availability is, inevitably, restricted on league match-nights (Tuesdays and Thursdays mostly) and Junior Club sessions in the peak season but otherwise Adult and Junior Members have plenty of choice as to when they might arrange singles or doubles matches to suit their circumstances. Social Tennis sessions, based on ‘turning up and mixing in’, and ‘one-session’ tournaments are a long-standing tradition on weekend afternoons and Wednesday evenings and are a good way to meet others and discover the ‘feel’ of the Club, while several WhatsApp groups have been set up among members, often to arrange games at short notice. Some, but not all, courts are used on weekday mornings or afternoons by local schools or groups such as the U3A (‘University of the Third Age’), for whom we have devised an ‘affinity membership’ – one indication of the way in which we are keen to widen access to the Club and promote involvement in our sport.