A Brief History Of The Club

1907 - The Club was formed in by a group of friends and by the end of it's first year had aquired 28 members and a net loss of £23. The site chosen for this venture was a field which is now covered by the two end properties on Ramsdale Road, the Club's present entrance and first court. On this site two grass tennis courts were laid for the sum of £44 and for 10/- a shed was hired to provide changing, storage and tea facilities.

1910 - The Club bought new pavilion for £11 and relayed the grass courts for £13. At this time membership was by invitation only but the war years halved the membership from 48 to 22 members. The Club was christened Bramhall Lane Lawn Tennis Club as the only access to the Club at the time was via a gate on Bramhall Lane South, and across a field to a further gate - the Club entrance; (Ramsdale Road and Carrwood Avenue were not even twinkles in a builder's eye).

1923 - a further grass court was added, together with a ladies pavillion.

1925 - the Club rented an adjoining two acres from the local landowner and two years later when he wished to sell the adjoining fields for housing the Club secured a favourable lease for 999 years on the current site. These boundary changes caused the Club some disruption and reorganization, as it had lost part of a court to the construction of Ramsdale Road and Carrwood Avenue. The Ladies' Pavillion and Tea Hut were moved to the site of the current clubhouse and two new 'En Tout Cas' courts had to be laid.

1935 - A further 'hard' court was added in , and the Tea Hut extended to make the tea room larger and include a small kitchen.

1948 - The Club became affiliated to the Cheshire County LTA.

1954 - Introduced professional coaching to the Club. In 1954 the Club became one of the founder members of the North-East Cheshire Lawn Tennis League entering a Ladies team and a Mens team.

1957 - The Ladies won Division 1 and the Club boasted two Ladies and two Mens teams.

1959 - Two new shale courts were constructed and a year later the Ladies Pavillion evolved into the Clubhouse following some further reconstruction.

1960s - The Ladies dominated the First Division winning the league seven years in a row, the men responded by entering a third team into the league. The Clubhouse was completely renovated as the old construction was by now in a poor state of repair. A new kitchen was added and a licensed bar opened in December 1968.

1970's - Further court improvements included the addition of an automatic sprinkler system to the existing five shale courts and in 1972 an additional three hard courts were added.

1986 - The three all-weather courts were replaced by five floodlit "synthetic-grass" courts. These were officially opened by the last British Men's Singles Champion, (and son of Stockport), Fred Perry.

1993-1996 - The "astro-turf" proved so successful that the five shale courts were also resurfaced, and floodlit. Meanwhile the club-house development, the odd lick of paint apart, had remained under wraps as the Club concentrated it's efforts on getting the courts and infrastructure right, after all it is primarily a Tennis Club.

1996-1998 a successful National Lottery bid has enabled the Club to move forward yet again, this time replacing two of the original five "synthetic-grass" courts with a new "acryllic" surface, and resurfacing the other three "synthetic-grass" courts. Moreover, the old club-house was bulldozed to the ground and replaced with a new brick building, containing many additional facilities including a "Micro" Sports-hall. The Ladies won Division 1 for the 8th consecutive year in 1997.

[ Visit ] [ History ] [ News ] [Coaching ] [ Tournaments ] [ Matches ] [ Related ]

Site Maintenance: Michael Ball
Review Date: 17 August 1998