The current Windmill Bowling Club has only recently been established. It was formed at a meeting held at the Wardens Club, Blaguegate Lane, Old Skelmersdale on 29^th November 2001.

The previous bowling club playing on the green moved to the Stanley Arms in Aughton at the end of the 2000 season and the green had fallen into disrepair. Fortunately halfway through the 2001 season, following a dispute with the landlord at the Halton Castle, Westhead, the Castle ‘A’ team moved to the green for their matches in the Westhead and Ormskirk Leagues. The cost of maintaining the green was shared with workers from the local District Council who used it for a lunchtime competition.

1900

Regular matches were not being played against other local clubs in the early years of the green's existance as the following extract from the Ormskirk Advertiser on 11th August 1900 suggests:
"WINDMILL v. TALBOT - The first meeting between the subscription clubs took place on the Windmill green, Wigan Road, on Monday evening. The green was in first-class condition, and though in some instances easy wins were registered on both sides the respective totals were remarkably even, the visitors being defeated by 16 in the singles and five in the doubles. Scores:

WINDMILL			TALBOT
C.E. Blundell	13	11	G. Georgeson	12	5
L. Kennedy	13		H. Mansell	4
R. Peet	5	11	T. Carr	13	9
T. Coxhead	12		R. Holden	13
W. Harrison	4	11	T. Draper	13	4
E. Ormesher	13		F. Fieldsend	5
J. Marlow	8	11	E. Brown	13	10
J. Morris	13		R. Gardner	6
C. Blundell	8	8	R. Grayson	13	11
A. Aston	13		A. Halton	5
W. Horner	13	3	G.W. Carr	7	11
A. Gouge	10		J.J. Haynes	13
W. Birch	13		E. Ashcroft	5
	138	55		122	50

Majority for Windmill - singles, 16; doubles, 5; total 21

1920's

It is clear that the Green has fallen into disuse in the past as the extract from the Advertiser indicates below.

Extract from Ormskirk Advertiser, June 9th 1927

The Ormskirk Windmill Club, after several years of quiescence, has been resuscitated, and there are a number of young players who play exceedingly well. Last week they paid a visit to Westhead, where they beat the Halton Castle on the latter's green by 17 points and this despite the fact that one of their players failed to score and another only chalked five. They are open to arrange friendly matches with local clubs

ORMSKIRK WINDMILL V HALTON CASTLE, WESTHEAD:

At Westhead. Scores:-

Majority for Windmill 18 points

The same paper also contained the results from other matches. The Institute was shown as beating the Eureka by 160 to 93. It was reported in the paper that the only winner for the Eureka was one Tommy Sarbutts, who was "handicapped by only having one hand", and that "several of the Eureka players of repute rather tarnished their reputations". The Institute was located on the site of the current Bus Station in Ormskirk, and the Eureka's green is now a car park.

The Swan (also now a car park) beat the Dog and Gun by 151 to 88. The paper contained the following ditty in relation to this match:-

"Some bowlers from the Dog and Gun,
Went forth to meet the foe;
But they heard the song about the Swan,
and it filled their hearts with woe!"

Obviously the writer at the time, who called himself "Round Peg", should have stuck to bowls rather than poetry!!

1940's

The Green fell into disuse during the Second World War.  According to Geoff Howard, writing in the Advertiser on April 23rd 1998, poultry were kept on the Green during the War.  Apparently it didn't take landlord at the time, Fred Kirk, long to start renovating the Green once hostilities had ended.  

Jimmy Marsden, 90 years old when the article was written and a Windmill man for over 50 years, started playing there when he came out of the Army.  He recalled in the article that, "They made a roller out of concrete with spikes on it and began to bring the green back to what it was. At that time, where the car park is now, there were kerb stones with grass growing between them.  That grass was prised out with a fork and used to patch up the bowling area where it was needed."

1960's

The following pictures are taken from the Ormskirk Advertiser, April 23rd 1998

 

	The scene on the left shows the bowlers on their annual day out.  There is no information as to where they used to go to, however.  As it states below the picture, this was taken around 1960.
	This picture shows Club members in 1965.  One person to note is John Croft, who started playing for the Club again in 2003 after a long absence from the game.

Further details of the previous bowling club playing at the Windmill will be added when they become available. If anyone has any information relating to the history of the previous club and the green, old photographs, etc please contact the Secretary of the Club