A summer match in full swing in front of the pavilion, scoreboard running and spectators watching from the benches

The Green & Pavilion

The Green at the centre of the village covers just under five acres, and is one of the largest village greens in Sussex — home to cricket, football and touch rugby (and, for generations, stoolball). It is registered as a village green under entry VG40 and at HM Land Registry under title WSX276212. That registration is wider than the open space itself: it also takes in the land in front of the Cricketers Arms, the Little Green, and the wide verges in Kirdford Road and School Road. The Pavilion serves the clubs that play here; WGS maintains it and coordinates sporting use of the Green.

Facilities

The Pavilion today offers a members’ bar, kitchen, an upstairs function room bookable by members, and changing rooms, with televised sport in the bar. The licensed bar is the main source of income for the charity, and all profit goes towards the upkeep and maintenance of the Pavilion.

The Pavilion seen across the Green on a summer afternoon, with its balcony overlooking the cricket outfield

Bookings and use of the Green

Pavilion bar and upstairs room (members, for club use only — not general functions): email info@wisboroughsports.org.
Who’s playing when: the grounds calendar, maintained by the Cricket Club, is the authority on sporting use of the Green on any given day; football and cricket agree the seasonal handover between them.
Public events on the Green need the Parish Council’s written permission under its Village Green Policy — contact the Parish Clerk via wisboroughgreen-pc.gov.uk. Casual recreation on the Green is free to all, and sporting activity never obstructs it.

WGS holds the Pavilion from the Parish Council on a lease under which WGS is responsible for all maintenance, insurance and running costs; the Green itself remains the Parish Council’s. A new lease for the new Pavilion, governing its use and upkeep, is currently being drawn up with the Parish Council, together with an agreement covering the construction period.

At its own cost, WGS carries out end-of-season football pitch repairs, cricket square preparation, and irrigation and drainage maintenance.

A short history

1741 — the first recorded cricket on the Green; the cricket club was formally established in 1840. Stoolball’s Sussex roots go back to around 1540.
1871 — the Green is awarded (“11 acres, 3 rods and 31 perches” of the waste lands of the Manor of Amberley) to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor, passing to the new Parish Council in 1894. The horse chestnuts were planted for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee; the war memorial dates from 1921.
1939 — a pavilion is built on the Green for around £100, with the support of the Parish Council of the day. It originally stood further south, moving along that edge before reaching its 1960s position.
1969 — the Wisborough Green Sports Clubs Association adopts its constitution at its AGM, with founding clubs Cricket, Football and Stoolball; the social club and licensed bar follow in the early 1970s.
1973 — the current pavilion building dates from this era, and the Green is formally registered as a village green (VG40) the same year. The Green also lies within the Conservation Area.
1999 — the Parish Council grants the Association a 25-year lease of the Pavilion.
2018 — the Association becomes Wisborough Green Sports, a registered charity (no. 1179541); the lease transfers to the charity in 2019. Club colours: green and white.

The 1953 Wisborough Green cricket team in whites, posed in front of the scoreboard reading 220 for 4

The 1953 side, photographed in front of the old scoreboard and still hanging in the Pavilion: W. Ford, M. Carter, M. Courtin, M. Welford, S. Green, D. Woods, L. Sheppard, G. Archer, P. Williams, L. Cheesman, F. O. Crawford (Capt), J. Pavey and W. Stemp.