The Club was founded by the Wardens in 1945.The wardens included Sam Chaffers, after whom the playing fields were named. The Clubhouse was in fact an abandoned AFS station
within the grounds of Moorside Park and was leased to the Club for £10 per year by the Council. The Mayors of the day were always invited to become Club Patron all of whom accepted and the annual match with the Council for the Sarbut Cup was followed by a supper, a highlight of the season. Over the period of many years the Clubhouse fell into disrepair resulting in fundraising action being taken by the committee in 2002. Grants from The Lottery, Community Chest, Liverpool Community Champions plus Members donations were obtained all of which enabled the provision of disabled access , central heating and insulation which in turn enabled the Club facilities to be used all year round. This brought about the regeneration of the Moorside Park Club which became a thriving base for many activities, socialising and fundraising from which many local Charities benefit. The regeneration was so successful in fact that Sefton Sports Council recommended the Liverpool Post and Echo to do a Community article about Moorsides achievement which they susequently did. After all the hard work, regeneration and many thousands of pounds invested enabling the Club to prosper and integrate into the community, it was a tragedy for all concerned when in the early hours of 4th December 2007 entry was forced and the Clubhouse razed to the ground! More than 60 yrs of history, all the considerable contents and to some people a vital part of their lives was lost within the space of a couple of hours to a pointless and spiteful act of wanton vandalism. |
It was decided at an emergency meeting of the membership and friends
that if we were to be successful in persuading Sefton MBC to replace the premises then we must stay strong as a membership and carry on as best we could as a functioning club, seeking written and verbal support from neighbouring clubs, local councillors and the press whilst at the same time seeking meaningful discussions with Sefton Leisure Services. Over a period of just over 2 years following much fundraising together with generous donations our aims and objectives were achieved when the the new clubhouse that you are standing in today was erected. April 2013 Moorside enters a new era! in 2012 Sefton Council, in an attempt to balance budget savings made an historic decision to pass on all costs of public bowling greens on to the park users. Many clubs buried their heads in the sand believing this would not come to pass however Moorside Park together with several others decided to be proactive and start raising funds to enable the Club to self manage the green and clubhouse as from 1st April 2013. This is now the case with sadly many public greens forced to close. |