Previous chapters, and link, including National Centres by John Birch and the Research Study by Mike Fitzjohn & Malcolm Tungatt, have highlighted the role of the national Sports Councils including the amount of policy and technical advice that they published and was also provided by staff. This supplement records the roles of the Regional Offices […]
Lilleshall was originally built in 1831 as the hunting lodge and family retreat of the Duke of Sutherland. It first became a National Sports Centre in 1951 and was opened by the then Princess Elizabeth II with the original plaque still in place in the entrance to the main hall. It was Lilleshall’s connection with […]
1. Three Principal Sources for Centre Management Recruitment Initially centre managers came mainly from three principal sources (Physical Education, Baths Management and the Military Services). From the mid-1970s, as the number of sports centres rapidly grew, and demand and interest increased, the sources for managers broadened. 1A Physical Educationalists PE teaching was the largest source […]
I was appointed to be the first manager of the new Bracknell Sports Centre in 1966. The building complex was located alongside the existing athletic track. I had been a physical training instructor during my National Service from 1949-51, then worked for the Bahrain Petroleum company, the Outward Bound Trust as an instructor and then […]
By John Birch The early years 1945-1970 Although established for a different purpose, National Sports Centres have played a part in the development of the indoor sports centre. The first two National Sports Centres, Bisham Abbey and Lilleshall were based upon large country houses. Bisham Abbey, the first Centre to be opened, in 1946, […]
Derek Casey was born and educated in Scotland. In 1978-79, as a Scottish Sports Council Officer together with Mike Hornby, he was closely involved in ‘A Question of Balance’, a major survey of Scottish Sports Centres (see Chapter 6 – 6.2.1). Later, as the Chief Executive of the Sports Council and Sport England from 1994 […]
The Sports Councils’ Management Award was a national competition organises initially by The Sports Council from 1976 through till the 1980s, and subsequently into the 1990s by the four UK Sports Councils, to identify and promote good practice in the management of sports facilities. The Award was run as a partnership between the Sports Councils […]
Over the years ‘Sport for All’ has become widely accepted in the UK as a generic slogan for broad aspects of sports activity. In the UK it may have originally arisen from The CCPR theme in the early 1960s of ‘Opportunities for All’, and pursued, as we see in Chapter 1, through the Wolfenden Report […]
Historically…the personal recollections and reflections of Bryan ‘Griff’ Jones …the UK’s first known ‘Dual Use’ Sports Centre Manager …and the first UK manager of a leisure centre with a leisure pool Manager – Breeze Hill School Sports Centre 1966-68 Director – The Grove Sports Centre, Balderton, Nottinghamshire 1968-71 Manager – Bletchley Leisure Centre, Milton Keynes […]
As in the rest of the UK in the 1960s, little had changed in Scotland in terms of sports provision since the Victorian age and the early 20th century. However, the country was changing, largely driven forward by the growth of the middle classes post Second World War. This social phenomenon in Scotland and throughout […]
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