About Us
Our
Story
The club was founded just after the Second World War in1946, originally as a 4-rink facilty with a basic clubhouse building with a small storage room and an outside toilet.
The club ran in this form for about 20 years during which time it became quite a successful club and began to outgrow its premises.
As a result, in the early 60's Roy Cragg was the main instigator of upgrading the club's facilties, together with Harrry Gascoigne, Jimmy Haws (greenkeeper), Herbert Able, Bob Harrison, Jack Armsby and others. The improvements included extending the green to 6 rinks and the building of a new clubhouse. The money was acquired by a loan from the Bass brewery and with the help of two fruit machines which raised about £8,000 p.a. Much of the work was done by local tradesmen and club members.
The opening event for the new clubhouse was packed out, and the new facility kick-started the club into running social events, with the bar subsequently being open 7 days a week and being supported by many locals, including teenagers. Social events were held on a monthly basis, run by Elsie Button, with such events as mediaeval banquets, fancy dress bowling competitions etc.
At the same time as the clubhouse was being built Tom Clarke, Cyril Rye and Harry Gascoigne were responsible for getting the green extended to 6 rinks, which allowed the club to increase the number of competitions and the size of bowling events it could host.
In the 2000's membership started to decline, as did the club's fortunes and, although trophies were won regularly, they were not so frequent as in the 90's. By 2016 the club was starting to lose money at an alarming rate and so the decision was taken to replace the paid post of green-keeper by volunteer members, and to replace the paid post of secretary/treasurer with two voluntary posts. This has had the effect of turning the club's finances around.
At the same time, Wretton Bowls Club had to disband because the land on which their club stood was sold in order to build houses. As a result, Shouldham were pleased to welcome a number of their members into our fold. Also, the club entered into a mutually beneficial arrangement with the Shouldham Youth Football Club, which provided the football club with access to the Bowling Club's facilities, and at the same time considerably increased the Bowls Club's social membership.
Today, the club is once again thriving and the Leagues in which we currently play include E.B.A. Fours Leagues(2 teams), Downham & District Triples Leagues (2 teams) Middleton Leagues (2 teams), Albert Victor League, Ladies' Kings Lynn League, Ladies' Denton League, Rosie League and Bridges League. So we have enough teams to provide all members the chance to play competitvely, whilst still offering social events both on and off the green.