CHESTER’S sporting heroes from yesteryear are being celebrated in a special photographic exhibition at the city’s History and Heritage Museum.
‘Simply The Best’ features amateur sportsmen and women celebrating their successes, posing in team line-ups and taking part in competition.
In snapshots ranging from Chester Rovers Football Club’s first game on a field at Faulkner Street in Hoole in 1885 to Lilian Eaves’s dance troupe in 1947, this array of photographic memories is a happy commemoration of the city’s sporting heroes.
Saltney and Saltney Ferry Local History Group has lent its assistance to the display, which features Blacon Golf Club in the 1930s, the city’s first bowling greens and the launch of Chester tennis club.
The Lawn Tennis Club was founded in 1890 but there were no public courts until 1922, when some were opened on Tower Fields, and later at Alexandra Park and Wealstone Lane.
We also learn from the exhibition that Chester opened its first municipal bowling greens in 1911 near the Hermitage in the Groves, and that Blacon opened its own golf club in 1937.
Mr Gorst, owner of Blacon Point Farm, decided to open an 18-hole course on his land and spent almost all of his spare time playing there before it was taken over and an Army camp was built onsite.
Homage is also paid to Lilian Eaves, who travelled the North West, entertaining hundreds with her award-winning dance troupe.
She set up the troupe at the age of just 16 during the First World War, making costumes from the only thing available, blackout material, and donated all prize money and profits from the annual concerts held at Chester Town Hall.
And she would even pay for those children whose parents couldn’t afford for them to dance.
There are dozens of photographs to see, and you’re guaranteed to learn something you never knew before.
You can take a trip down memory lane at the exhibition every weekday from now until September 28 between 10am and 4pm.
