Acknowledgements
 

Michael Jolly; for material from original research, for a school project, as long ago as 1993.

Ron Ling; for photographs, tournament programmes and press cuttings from 1936 through to the 1970s.

Daphne and Roy Hopkins; for photographs, tournament programmes and press cuttings from 1942 through to 1957.

Mrs C Hibberd; for photographs from the late 1930 to 1940 period.

Mrs D Willisson; for photographs and press cuttings.

Finally to Cranston Park Lawn Tennis and Social Club for the loan of committee meeting and AGM minutes from its inaugural meeting in 1932 through to present day.

Author's Preface
 

My interest in researching the history of the Club began in 1999. The Secretary at the time was looking for somewhere to store meeting minutes and various other items of correspondence from the early 1980s.

I started the time consuming task of reading through these minutes and making notes of relevant facts.

The project just got bigger when I searched out the meeting minutes back to 1932 and ended up with the complete set.

The original intention was to compile enough information to produce a small book for the 70^th anniversary of the Club in 2002, but this target soon passed. I had completely underestimated the amount of information, the number of photographs and press cuttings available.

After many revisions and another four years, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and decided to publish what I had compiled onto the World Wide Web, while I continue my research. This initial release would allow more flexibility for revisions and additions. The production of a booklet may depend on cost effectiveness as its interested audience may only be a small minority of existing and previous Club members.

Introduction
 

Development of Cranston Park Estate

Gaynes Manor occupied much of southern Upminster around the Corbets Tey Road area and totalled around 810 acres, making it by far the largest Manor in Upminster, but over the years parts of the estate were sold.

In 1878 the area that had become the Gaynes Park Estate was sold to its former occupier, Henry Joslin. By 1887 Joslin had added the whole 98 acres of Hoppy Hall Farm to the estate and in 1890 he bought Hunts Farm consisting of 130 acres.

Following Joslin’s death in 1927 the whole estate was broken up and sold for building land, the estate had been reduced to only 400 acres by the time of the sale. The 1928 sale broke these remaining 400 acres into 17 lots, some of which were very small, being just properties without farm land. The accompanying farm land was sold off as parcels of building land of up to 80 acres.

One parcel of building land off Corbets Tey Road was half of Hunts Farm, some 68 acres, extending from where Springfield Gardens is now to Park Drive. The second half of Hunts Farm was 81 acres, starting at Park Drive and extending to Cranston Park Avenue. This became known as Cranston Park Estate, the land acquired for development by Mr Alfred E Palmer of Billericay.

Building work started at the southern boundary where Cranston Park Avenue began to take shape in 1932, while Melstock Avenue progressed from newly established Park Drive to join it. Brackendale Gardens also worked its way from Park Drive in 1933, along with Coniston Avenue, both being completed by 1936, by which time Cranston Park Avenue was near completion. Gaynes Senior School in Brackendale Gardens started being built in July 1936. The far eastern end of Park Drive remained unfinished when war began in 1939.

A parcel of land, designated as reserved space, was set aside within the boundaries of Coniston Avenue, Brackendale Gardens, Park Drive and Melstock Avenue. This land formed the foundation of Cranston Park Tennis and Social Club.

Copy of a page from the document "Abstract of the Title of A E Palmer to freehold land at Upminster"