History

Bacton Bowls Club was founded in the early 70's by a group of local people playing among themselves on the lawn in front of Bacton Manor. Interest grew and the consensus was that the members would like to play a more competitive game against other teams and so it was decided to seek out a permanent site and to apply to join a bowls league. A plot of land was offered by Mr. Tom Black of David Black & Sons for the use of the bowls club, which is the ground still used to this day. A great deal of hard work was needed to turn this from farmland into a bowls green and this monumental task was undertaken by volunteer members. In the meantime, the itch for competetive bowls was too strong  and in 1976 it was decided to join the Stowmarket Bowls League, with the help of close neighbours and dear friends at Haughley Bowls Club who allowed the use of their facilities for that first season. By 1977 four rinks had been laid at Bacton and a pre-fab building was acquired and erected, once more by a volunteer workforce. Bacton were now ready to bring their home matches to their own ground.

First woods bowled on the green on the opening ceremony......

Those hardworking volunteers and other members enjoying the fruits of their labours... 

The opening ceremony of the clubhouse..........

The original clubhouse...........

During that season a further two rinks were laid and sown to create a full six rink bi-directional playing area, at which point the club then applied for EBA status and joined the Ipswich EBA League. Over the preceding years Bacton became  prominent in both EBA & EBF disciplines with a number of players reaching the latter stages of major county competitions. The club went on to join the Suffolk Bowls League (Area D) which took them further afield to new grounds. 

A selection taken from the archives of some earlier notable achievements ...........

EBF Stowmaket League Triples Shield   1982                                  Stowmarket & District KO Cup  1990

Suffolk County EBA Unbadged Fours   circa 1995                       Suffolk County EBA Triples League 1996

By 1992 the club was fast outgrowing it's buildings when they were informed of a companies' social club in West Ham which was closing down and selling off it's assets including a clubhouse. This sounded enticing and a delegation from Bacton was despatched to London to view the building in situ, following this an offer was made and accepted. Volunteers again stepped up to lay foundations and ancillary services to accomodate the new clubhouse. The building was of modular form and was dismantled, transported and re-erected by a specialist firm.

The new clubhouse was erected by a specialist company then handed over for fitting out by the club volunteers, ready for the start of the new season........

With increased membership and larger social events by 2005 the club again found itself requiring more space and a further building module was sourced from the manufacturers, which gave us a larger kitchen area and equipment store.

The last few years has seen a modernisation of the game in both disciplines mainly with regards to fashion, initially with lady members being allowed to wear trousers rather than the mid length pleated skirt and later the tailored white shirts and club ties being replaced with sports shirts and most recently the unfashionable brown bowls shoe being replaced with a whole range of trainer style bowls shoes.