The Sports Club's Lease is Gifted

Dick & Hilda West bought Stocken Farm from Ernest Smith in 1948 and in October that year a special committee meeting was called to consider the offer by Dr and Mrs. Bateman of a gift of the field that the Sports Club then rented. In the event, to ensure that the land remained as inalienable as possible, the Batemans retained the freehold which they had purchased from Dick West and presented the Club with a 99 year lease at the annual rent of two peppercorns. A formal presentation of the lease was made by the Club's generous Patrons in the presence of Dr Bleadon, the club President, at a public ceremony on the field on 30th July 1949.

Work on improving the ground could now go ahead with an enthusiasm hitherto undreamed of. The bottom hedge was laid at a cost of £5 a chain and in 1951 a second-hand pavilion was purchased from Princes Risborough Parish Council.

In the photo above the numbers refer to 1 Mrs Bateman, 2 Elsie Chilton, 3 George May, 4 Archie Rixon's mum, 5 Dr Bateman, 6 Tony Adams, 7 Lucy Tilbury (Mick's mum), 8 Valerie Rixon (Stan's daughter), 9 ? , 10 Les Rixon, 11 Charlie Hearn ? , 12 ? , 13 Mick Perrin, 14 Jeanette Perrin (nee Hickman), 15 Anne Kelloway (Ivan & Joan's daughter), 16 Joan Kelloway, 17 ? , 18 Brian Kirby, 19 Mick Tilbury, 20 Doug Cartwright, 21 Arch Rixon, 22 Dennis Bedford, 23 Dennis Claydon, 24 ? , 25 Trevor Stevens, 26 ?