From: The Racketeer 4, November 1993
The Story of Mapperley Park Tennis Club
Part 1 - In the Beginning
by Chris Weir
Have you ever wondered what is the origin of what is (arguably?) the greatest club in the history of lawn tennis? Did it emerge at the dawn of creation itself? Or was it forged in the white-heat of the technological twentieth century? To answer these vexing questions Chris Weir has been tirelessly researching the club's archives.
IT SEEMS THAT Mapperley Park Tennis Club was set out on land that was once part of Mapperley Park Estate, once an extensive sweep of park land that centred on Mapperley Hall. The Hall had been built by Ichabod Wright, a successful Nottingham banker, who occupied the Hall until his death in 1869. Though Ichabod's grandson, Colonel Charles Ichabod Wright, subsequently developed part of the estate for building, on the south side of the Park, in the 1870s, the major part of the estate was only released for development in 1903. On the 20th March 1903 the northern side of the estate was put up for auction, its 129 acres being described as a 'picturesque and finely timbered park'.
At the auction the Wrights sold out to a 'syndicate' that included a distinguished local architect, William Beedham Starr, who wasted no time, presumably with the syndicate's backing, in submitting a detailed development plan to Nottingham Corporation for a series of streets to be set out on the land. In his Introduction to Mapperley Park (Nottingham Civic Society) Ken Brand records that between 1906 and 1914 around 163 houses received planning consent in Mapperley Park, mostly in the northern area.
The Hall itself, along with some of its grounds, was taken over by Nottingham Corporation as a hostel for University College. However a plot of land lying at the corner of Carisbrooke Drive and Mapperley Hall Drive remained undeveloped, possibly because it was badly drained and prone to flooding. Then by an indenture of the 14th September 1904 this plot was conveyed from William B. Starr to John Dane Player, the tobacco manufacturer, for the sum of £12,000. Apparently this corner plot included a pond, probably once part of the Hall's grounds, and as this may have presented difficulties for developers, the site continued to remain unused for some years. Even in quite recent times, I am told, the tennis courts have been prone to being waterlogged, even to flooding on one or two occasions!).
By the 1920s it seems that the site must have been substantially drained, as the archives record that a Bowls and Croquet Club had been established. Presumably this must have been by agreement with Player. Though croquet and tennis were both popular in the early 1900s, the appeal of lawn tennis gradually overtook that of croquet and many croquet clubs voluntarily closed down to reform as lawn tennis clubs. This seems to have been the case at Mapperley Park where the Croquet Club closed in 1925 in order to re-open as Mapperley Park Tennis Club.
It is difficult to be sure of the exact year of the club's foundation (can any members help?). A short history of the club, which appeared in a 1961 Nottinghamshire LTA publication, suggests the club may have been formed in 1923, but there is some reason to suggest it could have been 1925. The reason for suggesting 1925 is that in a conveyance of the 25th March 1925, kept in the club's archives, a 2,595 square yard portion of the original corner plot was sold by Player to James H. Shipstone, who at the time was living on Arlington Drive, for the sum of £1,250. A few months later, on the 15th May 1925, Shipstone leased the land to a group of lessees who together represented what was to become Mapperley Park Tennis Club.
The lessees consisted of Charles Sanderson of Esher Grove, 'carrier', Frank Clayton of Carisbrooke Drive, solicitor; Arthur Dickins of Thurland Street, solicitor; and William Jacobson of Church Gate, Nottingham, solicitor. A covenant in the lease stated that the land was only to be used as 'a lawn tennis or other similar private club sports ground'. In addition it stated that the lessees were not to allow 'any persons other than the members of Mapperley Park Tennis Club or servants of the said Club, or the guests of the said Club, to use the demised premises'. They also had to agree to keep the land in good condition and at the end of each season 'to replace with good sound turf such of the turf as shall or may be worn'.
Some of the lessees made up the tennis committee. Two of them, Charles Sanderson and Arthur Dickins are mentioned as secretaries of the club in its early years. The 1925 lease was a major landmark in the history of Mapperley Park Tennis Club, setting the scene for many years of 'game, set and match' in the future.