Our Officials and Committee for 2025
President
Tony Akers
Chairman
Stephen Lofthouse
Secretary
Peter Haworth
Treasurer
Peter Haworth
Trustees
Peter Clark
Peter Haworth
Stephen Lofthouse
Richard Perry
Committee
Peter Clark
Ian Hargreaves
Peter Haworth
Stephen Lofthouse
Graham Mitchell
Richard Perry
Safeguarding Officer
Daniel Moore
Ian Hargreaves
Peter Richmond
Team Captains & Vice Captains
Tuesday 54321 'A'
Ian Hargreaves
Richard Perry
Tuesday 54321 'B'
John Drake
Pat Drake
Thursday Merit 'A'
Peter Clark
Daniel Moore
Thursday Merit 'B'
Peter Haworth
Graham Mitchell
Our Affiliations
British Crown Green Bowling Association (BCGBA)
We are affiliated to the BCGBA, the National Governing Body for crown green bowls. The Laws of the Game can be found on their website
Yorkshire Crown Green Bowling Association (YCGBA)
Our BCGBA affiliation is via our County Association, the YCGBA
Skipton and District Bowling Association (S&DBA)
We are members of the S&DBA.
We have 2 teams in the Tuesday Evening "54321" League and 2 teams in the Thursday Evening Merit League
The fixtures, results, league tables and player averages for each league can be found on Bowlsnet
Our History
Skipton (Devonshire) Bowling Club was established in 1875.
In 1875, Queen Victoria was the Monarch and Benjamin Disraeli was the Prime Minister; it was the year that Alexander Graham-Bell made the first sound transmission, Captain Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel and Blackburn Rovers FC was founded.
The following information is provided with thanks to Andrew Uttley and the Craven Herald for the history of the Devonshire pub and Bowling Club
Throughout the 19th century, improvements continued to be made to the Devonshire by the various landlords who took over the inn.
By the time of the 1841 census, John Bradley had died, and his widow Ann was the innkeeper. Subsequent innkeepers included Benjamin by 1861, who, in 1857, was thrown from a horse he had purchased two days earlier at the horse fair, breaking his arm, and Margaret Nightingale. Edmund Wrigley was the landlord between 1870 and 1885. He laid down the bowling green (which survives to this day) in 1875. His widow, Annie S. Wrigley, continued until the 1890s when, according to the Craven Household Almanack, Thomas Carlisle took over. By 1901, Ben Rawnsley was in charge.
The Civic Society in their ‘Every Building Tells A Story’ write that “later 19th-century licensing laws provided a bar on the outside of the assembly rooms, and 1899–1900 drawings by local architect J.W. Broughton show the east side coach house part converted to a tap room, bar, and snug, with a passage underground to bring beer and wine from the cellars of the main house. Lavatories were built for men (with cloakroom) and women (just one) next to the assembly room, and the plate glass sash windows probably date from then.”
Adverts appeared in local newspapers in 1903 declaring that the Devonshire was ‘under entirely new management’ under Edward Walker. However, a year later, on March 26, Walker was forced to declare bankruptcy. A solicitor in Ulverston, he sold his practice to buy the Devonshire and live in Skipton due to his and his son’s ill health. By 1907, the proprietor was J. Fisher Mason, and the Devonshire was described as “a first-class family and commercial hotel” with a “splendid bowling green,” and showing how quickly the inn was changing with the times, it had “space for 20 cars in front of the hotel,” a “car for hire,” and a “motor house.”
Four years later, in 1911, the Devonshire was purchased by the Leeds brewery Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd. for £2850. Contemporary newspapers reported that the inn “had 18 bedrooms, sitting and commercial rooms, an assembly room, a bowling green, vaults, stables, a motor garage, and outbuildings.” Landlords after this time included Procter Wilman in 1911, William Walker Smith after 1918, and then the Leach family, first William in 1924, then his son Kenneth up until 1962. The building was listed in April 1952, when the staircase of the “1st half of C18” was noted.
Dr. Rowley’s original article on the Devonshire quotes this newspaper column: “One of Skipton’s oldest inns, the 18th-century Devonshire Hotel in Newmarket Street, together with the adjoining Devonshire Vaults and bowling green, was sold on Monday for £89,000. The buyer was local businessman Mr. Richard Baldwin, of Low Skibeden Farm, Skipton, who said after the sale that he had no immediate plans for the property.
Bidding for the 16-bedroom hotel and property, owned by Joshua Tetley and Son Ltd., started slowly at £50,000, but then quickened, and the sale was over within 10 minutes. Auctioneer at the sale, held in the hotel, was Mr. John Padgett, a partner in the Skipton firm of Dacre, Son and Hartley, chartered surveyors, auctioneers, valuers, and estate agents. Mr. Padgett said that the sale had generated a tremendous amount of interest.”
Since the year 2000, the Devonshire has been Skipton’s local branch of the pub chain Wetherspoons.
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