Incredibly, this pin sharp photo is a hundred years old this year! Taken in 1921, this previously unseen photo , owned now by myself is Greenhall Tennis Courts. This may be a little difficult to put in context, but I’ll try. The path IS still there today, the river Calder out the picture to the right hand side. When the path ends on the right is the modern day bridge across the Calder at Greenjall, though in this era it wasn’t there, instead a bridge was further round towards Crossbasket. The tennis court flat area IS still there today at the bottom of the greenhall steps. To put the steps into context, the wooden steps up to the park would be out the picture to the left, next to the tennis courts.
The Wardrop Moore family created the tennis courts, a fashionable addition of the age which many other grand houses had including Caldergrove and Crossbasket. If you look hard enough, you’ll find some of the cut iron posts for the courts still there today.
One hundred years ago, this was all private ground and was in the process of being acquired by the Paul family, ending hundreds of years of ownership of the Wardrop Moore family.
When did they get rid of the tennis courts?
I love this photo Paul, I recall Dad buying us tennis rackets in the 1950s and sending us off to practice telling us we could be great!! Hehe…He could have come to support us and encourage the budding tennis players on, but no, you had to have intrinsic motivation to succeed…ah well not to be eh… again thanks for posting this gorgeous photo.