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HANGINGWATER
Just a few within our current Sheffield tennis community remember there was ‘some sort of tennis club’ where the Omega is now, none at all Highcliffe, but many remember Hangingwater, probably the nicest named of all the clubs that ever existed in Sheffield and District. It was created in a clay quarry started, and occupied, by the Hangingwater Brick Company from 1899. This 1893 photo shows the site near the junction of Hangingwater Rd and Whiteley Wood Rd, the Shepherd wheel bottom right. As with all aerial photos the steepness of the site is not conveyed. The history of the quarry revealed itself more readily than that of the tennis eventually played there but to avoid it go direct to p2.
Turf and topsoil was removed and sold, kilns and production buildings built on the site, adverts placed offering one shilling per load of clean ashes or furnace rubbish as a constituent, and the works shut by 1915. From then until 1931 the company charged six pence (that’s half a shilling for the decimal generation) for the right to tip a load of clean dry rubbish back in the hole, some 20,000 loads being the stated capacity at one stage. So sixteen years to empty, sixteen to partially fill. Frequent adverts like those alongside tell the tale.
The company had its problems.
The 1903 and 1935 maps show the change in the site. A 1931 advert for the sale of 2 Whiteley Woods Rd refers to the presence behind the property of the Ranmoor Tennis Club, & other details suggest it might have been formed as early as 1927 whilst the adjacent disused quarry was still being filled. The conclusion from this piece from the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of July 1950 is that it didn’t become Hangingwater until just after WW2 when two clubs merged under a new name. Ranmoor club competed in the S&D Leagues as did Hangingwater, the club winning Ladies’ Div. 2 in 1948 & Men’s Div. 1 in 1950 and the cutting suggests this might have been helped by the acquisition of some better men players – Endcliffe club had won two Men’s league titles just before the war. We’re not certain yet where the Endcliffe ground had been.
The club is well remembered for its senior and junior tournaments in the seventies, both open and closed, usually organised by Charles Folger who also coached his three sons to a good standard of tennis on the courts. See a later photograph.
Yorkshire County players had learnt on its courts including Sue Mappin, at one time ranked 28 in the world – see http://themappingroup.co.uk/founder.php but Terry Nowlin recalls that the lease was due to expire in 1980/81 and the landlords wanted to increase the rent and agree a new lease. The low membership made the increase unacceptable with no one prepared to act as guarantor. The pavilion facilities were rather sparse and itwas in need of repair, the landlords not being prepared to assist being responsible only for the external part of thebuilding. In the circumstances there was really no alternative but to disband the club.
The picture below c. 1971 shows Charles Folger coaching his youngest son, our current League Secretary Kevin; to the right of that is a group including Terry Nowlin, on the right, c 1960, who in 1981 as Club President had the sad job of winding up its affairs. The bottom press photo is of the presentation following the ………..Junior tournament. Derek Dooley see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Dooley_%28footballer%29 is on the right and the lady in front of him is Lillian Taylor, mother of Roger Taylor, Sheffield’s own Wimbledon semi-finalist twice and winner of the US Open doubles twice. There must be some of those juniors still playing in Sheffield.
The final page contains two sad, and so far unique in our collection, letters winding up the club, one from Terry Nowlin as club President and the response from Dennis Webb, the SDLTA General Secretary at the time.
After fifty years the two letters that wound up the club. So honest to hand over the £75.60 to the Association, plus certain trophies. You might need to zoom in to read them.
I have some space left so here’s a picture of a Hangingwater Brick from an on-line collection would you believe! It all started with the need for these. Disappointing trademark.
Many thanks to Terry Nowlin and Kevin Folger for their memories and photographs.
John Andrews Dec 2015