About Us

Aylsham Bowling Club was formed in 1994, when the current green on Aylsham Recreation Ground was first opened.

You can find us on Google Maps using the image – just off of the A140 on Sir Williams Way, heading in to Aylsham from the BP Garage roundabout. Or use What3Words: ///mulled.reprints.milk

Aylsham has had a much longer bowling history, going back at least 400 years – to the time of Sir Francis Drake – see below.

Today, we have a vibrant membership competing in leagues and tournaments around the County and hold our own Cup competitions, most weekends, from April to September. We also offer free ‘try it out’ sessions every Monday and free individual and group Coaching by arrangement.

The club is run by a team of volunteers and helpers…

Of the thousands of bowls clubs across Britain, few can boast of such a varied take on the game as those in Norfolk.

We have so many different types of bowling, including roving cot (or jack), which is pretty much unique to the area. It survives, in and around Norfolk, and is the old English way of playing the game.

According to John Sapwell’s “A History of Aylsham” published in 1960, ‘Bowls has been played in Aylsham for well over 300 years [now 400!] and shows no sign of losing its popularity. Among the misdemeanours for which the inhabitants of the town were ‘presented’ at the archdeacon’s visitation in 1617 was that of playing at bowls at the time of divine service on Sunday morning. In olden days nearly every inn of any pretensions had a bowling green attached, but of recent years these have become fewer’.

The number of pub bowling greens in the county was significantly higher than other regions.  There are not many of them around now, but it used to be a common site if you were travelling on a stagecoach. People would often find bowling greens attached to pubs and you could play while you waited.

John Pumphrey’s ‘About Aylsham‘ goes on ‘Once was the time when well kept bowling greens were part and parcel with several of our public houses; to name just two of these; The Unicorn Bowling Green adjoining Unicorn Yard and The Black Boys Bowling Green on which the Drill Hall in Cawston Road stands, These and other bowling greens must have been well used to justify the cost of their upkeep’.

The Aylsham Town Archive has images of some of those old public house teams dating back to the 1890s. They include…