Meersbrook Park Bowling Club has a long and distinguished history. A number of national champions have played at the club – sometimes on the same team!
This section of the website is a work in progress and will be updated with information about the foundation of the club, with fascinating old photographs and information on key figures in the club’s history. Much of the information that you will find here was compiled by Terry Egginton and presented in his ‘Meersbrook Park Bowling Club – 100 Green Years’ (out of print, published 2008).
To begin with Terry’s words..
“It all started when on December 19th 1905 the ‘General Purposes and Parks Committee’ recommended that ‘Bowling Greens’ be provided in the following parks, namely: Hillsborough, High Hazels, Meersbrook and Firth Park, and that subject to reference to the ‘Finance Consultative Committee’, “the City Council be recommended to make application to the ‘Local Government Board’ for their sanction to the borrowing of the sum of £800, the estimated cost for the laying out of such Bowling Greens: and also with a view to providing work for a number of unemployed.”
The greens were opened in 1907, one year after a green was laid at Crookesmoor Recreation Ground and this was the start of municipal bowls in Sheffield, which was an addition to the many private clubs and church greens already in existence. Dr Fordham who lived at Kent House on Kent Road opened the Meersbrook green (bottom green) in 1907. A club was then formed and municipal bowling in Sheffield began with the five parks forming the Sheffield Parks Bowling Association in 1908. The first match, as reported in the ‘Independent’ on Monday July 27th 1908, was at Hillsborough Park and then Meersbrook Park, between the two clubs in which Hillsborough came out aggregate winners. With only five member clubs in the Parks Association very few matches could be played and friendly games were arranged. One such game reported in the Press on Saturday September 5th 1908 was between Norton Lees Church Bowling Club and Meersbrook Park, with Norton Lees whose green was on Derbyshire Lane (now the offices of Eyre & Baxter), winning by 29. There were already leagues in existence and in 1908 the ‘Sheffield Parks Association League’ was formed with Meersbrook Park being a founder member. The development of the game and its popularity was proved when on Saturday October 24th 1908 the Bowling Green Sub Committee of the Council and Councillor Beverley agreed that a second green should be built in Meersbrook Park. In 1910 a second green (top green) was built. By 1911 there were 11 parks in the city with bowling greens and the Association was beginning to prosper. Even though municipal bowls was new to the city its popularity has continued to grow from its early years to now being the largest Association in the area with some 2,500 members. With Dr Fordham, Mr J D Cooke and Mr F Jarrett all taking a prominent part in the formation and promotion of the game, Meersbrook Park was always to the fore. They created a very successful and well-established base from which the club has continued to thrive. The club can be proud of its history and its success, as clubs like Meersbrook Park are the reason for the continued progression of municipal bowling in the Sheffield area. 
(1921 – 1930)