Tennis Club History
The idea of forming a Club in Plumpton with its own facilities was first thought about in 1981, when one or two local
people were interested in taking tennis coaching lessons at Chailey School. Although clubs were available to join within
reasonable travelling distance, the concept was attractive, particularly as there was a possible site which could be used
for the purpose: namely the old sewerage works at the back of the King George 5th Playing Field. The Parish Council had
purchased this site at little cost some years earlier, after it was no longer required by Southern Water.
Exploratory meetings in September 1982 resulted in the first formal meeting of Plumpton Tennis Club on
11th November 1982. The elected committee comprised of David Holmes (Chairman), Judy Holmes (Secretary),
Carol Paragreen (Treasurer) and Jean Dickinson (Fund Raising). There were 8 people present at the meeting and a
nominal fee for membership was agreed at £1.00.
During 1982 and 1983, a few enthusiasts had been playing on private local courts, courtesy of their owners; these
courts being at The Laines, Rylands and Shaw Farm. Fund raising for the new Club had also started; records show
that the grand sum of £100.00 had been raised by November 1982, with a potential membership of about 10. We had an
enthusiastic supporter in Mrs Powell-Edwards, a keen tennis fan, who took an interest in our progress right from
the start. She obtained permission for us to play at The Laines, hosted meetings at Novington Manor, provided
Wimbledon tickets for a grand draw and sponsored the ladies’ doubles cup.
Support from the Parish Council in terms of a site and finance was formally given after a presentation of the
Club’s aims to the Annual Parish Meeting in March 1983. There were some initial problems with the status of the
proposed site and leasing conditions and it was not until early 1985 that these were resolved. Minutes of a
meeting held in April 1985 record that a seven year lease had been signed for the old sewerage works site; at
a pepper corn rent of £1.00 per annum. There were two provisos: one, that some time should be made available for
the public to use the courts and two, that the area in front of the proposed courts be reserved as a possible
addition to the King George 5th Playing Field. This was to offset possible loss of land in the event that plans
for a new village hall within the Playing Field were approved (Note: an Open Village Meeting subsequently voted
against these plans).
Having secured the site, the following year (1984) showed an increased momentum of effort to raise the necessary
funds for at least a first court. Various grant organisations were approached and with the help also from
Lewes District Council, enough money had been raised, together with a loan from the Sports Council, to
finance the provision of one court. With Mrs Powell-Edwards, the loan was guaranteed by Judith and
David Holmes, Ann and Bill Seddon, Brian Honess and Colonel Tetley. This court was completed late in 1985,
at a cost of £8523.00, and was played on for the first time in October 1985, some three years after the
idea was first mooted. Three years later and after further fund raising, the second court was added.
Attention was then given to providing a Pavilion, so that we had facilities for storing items of equipment and
entertaining visiting teams. Also, somewhere to stand when it rained, which happened quite frequently and it
was a long way to find shelter! Funds were very limited at that time, but, during 1989, the offer of a surplus
cedar wood garage and a concrete sectional garage from two members gave the project some impetus. Transport
to site caused some headaches but, with excellent DIY support from members, we were able to put together a
very serviceable building, still in use today. There was a serious setback during construction when heavy
winds over the 1990 Christmas period blew the partially erected structure down. However, the damage was slight
and no one was injured; a second attempt proved successful. Initially, there was no water or electricity, but
the latter was connected in November 1993, with the help of grant aid from Lewes District Council. The internal
wiring was carried out by Graham Quantrill and David Holmes.
A year later, an opportunity was taken to run a water feed through to the pavilion during work involving the mole
ploughing of a water feed to the cricket pitch on the playing field.
During the summer of 1994, a third court was added on extra land leased from Mr Aubrey. It was installed by Four Seasons
and opened as part of the Club’s 10th anniversary celebrations; the latter being somewhat premature as this should have
occurred in 1985!! . About this time, a serious problem had started to occur in the north east corner of number one
court. The bank above the river had started to collapse and the subsidence had reached as far as the court corner. There
was a real danger of the corner collapsing. Initial attempts to build a retaining block wall proved unsuccessful – the
wall itself started to tip over with the weight of ground movement. An emergency works plan was submitted to Lewes
District Council based on driving steel sheets into the ground. This was swiftly approved, together with grant aid, and
the work was undertaken by Brian Lewry It was quite something to see him operating a small digger at alarming angles,
excavating down below river level and then driving in the three metre lengths of steel sheeting. Subsequent to this
work, the National Rivers Authority installed a series of gabions along the south side of the river bed.
Having achieved a connection to mains water, the next target was to provide proper toilet and waste water disposal
facilities. A few club members set up a special fund raising group specifically for this purpose, headed by
Glenda Sellens and Jenny Long. A contract was awarded to Brian Lewry for the external works and the internal
fittings were donated by Maria Naylor and installed by David Holmes. To complete the installation, a hot water
boiler was purchased and also installed by DIY. All this was achieved by the summer of 1995.
After a lot of debate about the pros and cons of floodlighting, not least the problem of finance, the Club
decided to raise money for the installation of lights on courts 1 and 2. Once again, the Club was successful
in obtaining substantial grants from the Sports Lottery Fund and Lewes District Council and the facility was
officially opened in May 1998 by Norman Baker MP and Julie Salmon. The contract for the lighting costed
out at £17,000.00.
Various trophies for the Club competitions have been kindly donated by members, including one from Mrs Powell-Edwards
(who unfortunately died before seeing this awarded for the first time). One other trophy worth a particular mention
is the Leslie Honess Bowl. This was originally a trophy of Plumpton Rifle club who used to meet before the last war
under the stands at Plumpton Race Course. The trophy was won on a number of occasions by Brian Honess’s father, but
the Club was disbanded at the beginning of the war and never restarted. Brian donated the Rosebowl to the Tennis Club
and hence the origin of this particular club competition.
The very first Club Competition Day was held in 1984 on the two old courts at Plumpton Agricultural College as, although we
had the one court, there were sufficient members wanting to take part such that at least two courts were required to get
the event over in the one day. Apart from the players, we had one enthusiastic supporter, Colonel Pat Tetley, who came
along to see what we were up to. The first Junior Tournament was played on the Club’s two courts in 1990 and the prizes
were sponsored by Alison Awbury.
Since 1998 the club has continued to grow reaching an all time peak of 157 club members in March 2006. Courts 1 and 2 were
re-laid and court 3 resurfaced in 2003 after much fund raising and planning on the part of then-Chair Mike Warren. Further
works to the courts have been completed recently in the laying of a new access path to the club house and an extension of the
parking area between the courts. The club has also now appointed it’s own grounds person. The club now also has its own
website and has further embraced technology by keeping the majority of its members informed by e-mail communication.
Thanks to founder David Holmes for providing this club history.