Lyndhurst BC: 1928-present

B&DBA: A History of Current & Bygone Bowling Clubs

In 2022, having been a well established club within the New Forest Leagues, Lyndhurst BC asked to enter the Bournemouth and District Bowling Association, to participate in the Saturday Triples League in 2023, which the Executive Committee and its members agreed, making Lyndhurst the latest club to join the B&DBA. This was the first time the Club had ventured outside of the New Forest leagues. This move was well supported by its 100+ members and provides more opportunities for players.

Entering the league in Section 5B, the lowest entry at the time, with the section split into two divisions following Covid-19 and the additions of many new teams, promotion to Section 4 was achieved in their first season. Due to the popularity and success, a second team entered in the 2024 season.

For Lyndhurst BC, it all started over 100 years earlier. In 1920, Dr Alfred Moore retired to the village of Lyndhurst. He was a bachelor and enjoyed a game of tennis at the local club which, at the time, was based in Pinkney Lane. Eight years later, Dr Moore became involved in starting a new tennis club on land off Sandy Lane, next door to where the Club is currently based. This land had been made available by the nearby Cedar Mount Estate, later to become a small residential development. His plans for the new Tennis Club included a “Social Clubhouse, where the hall could be used for meetings, dances, billiards and changing rooms”.

Following the success of the Tennis and Social Club, Dr Moore began to respond to requests from local people for a bowling green. James Hughes made a small piece of land available, next to the Tennis Club and at the rear of two properties he owned, where a green was constructed and a club founded, all for a nominal rent. And on the 1st May 1929 Dr Moore rolled the first wood down the green.

Due to the size of the plot and adjacent properties, the Green is sufficient only to allow play up and down (East to West) and not across the green, with a maximum of four rinks in use. This creates challenges for the ground staff, who work tirelessly to ensure the Green bowls well, having many different coloured markers to continuously rotate the positions of the rinks. 

In the 1960s the three organisations situated on the site, the Tennis Club, the “Social Hall” and the Bowling Club became their own individual clubs. In the late 1970s, Mike Harland and his wife, Jill, joined the club. Mike went on to be Club President, and wrote an extensive history about Lyndhurst BC in 2006, which can be found today in a ring-binder within the clubhouse. Mike would write about how Lyndhurst Bowling Club had 30+ members but few real facilities within a small, basic clubhouse, which was a shed measuring 8ft by 7ft, boasting just one plug point, a kettle and store for the bowls equipment.

In the early 1980s, Mike would describe how membership improved, which also improved the bank balance of the Club. A decision was taken to find something that would be larger than their current shed, to be their new clubhouse. A builders site office in New Milton was found, and at £150, the decision was made to purchase and double the size of the clubhouse. The new shed lasted less than a decade, but was sold to Downton Tennis Club for the same amount, £150. By this point in the late 1980s, Lyndhurst BC were experiencing larger membership, and a new clubhouse was required. Mike Harland documented how the members built it themselves, from the digging out, setting the base, laying the concrete and building the frames. Mike was a local policeman at the time, and whilst working, was passing the Gascoine Hotel which was being demolished. Mike, seeing an opportunity, asked to have the three 7ft by 7ft fully glazed glass windows that were once part of the skittle alley. Mike was allowed the windows at a cost of £5, but with the agreement that he knocked down the concrete support pillars and took away the windows himself. The next weekend, Mike got six helpers to do the job. It took all six to carry the windows back to the Club on wooden poles, with the weight described as being unbelievable. 30+ years on, and the windows sit prominently on the Clubhouse. 

In the early 2000s the existing changing rooms for ladies and gents were added to meet the current league rules, and whilst visiting the Club in 2024, were improving the facilities again. In recent years, Lyndhurst BC has continued to grow in strength, regularly recruiting new members. The Club has further improved facilities with the erecting of stainless steel safety railings around the green, extending the side grass area to allow for more outdoor socialising space and adding new seating benches, signage and storage areas. A brand new equipment shed has been erected giving excellent, larger storage facilities. Refurbishment of the Ladies and Gents toilets and changing rooms and new additional facilities in the Pavilion/Clubhouse for member’s benefit and enjoyment! The actual “Green” (the very important club asset) has been kept up to a high standard. The side bank of the green and ditches has stainless steel protective panels, improvements to the club watering system and a thorough conscientious “Green Team” looking after the Green through the year.

Lyndhurst Bowling Club has a vibrant social side to the Club with Social Membership for those who do not bowl, as well as bowlers, friends and guests to enjoy. Regular events and evenings are held through the winter months as well as during the bowling season. Their friendly members ensure everyone is welcomed at the Club, and thank the B&DBA for the opportunities to build new relationships and play competitive bowls with clubs from Dorset & Hampshire. And long may it last!