Recreation

Cricket was a popular leisure pursuit in the area for a few years before the present Neston Cricket Club was founded in Station Road, Parkgate, in 1894. The original site was a private cricket field owned by Richard Haigh. The new club’s chief instigator and its first captain (1895 -1901) was Dr HM Speechly, while Haigh became its president. Over the years the club has prospered, so that today there are not only two full-size cricket pitches, but members can also play hockey, tennis and squash.

Football has long been associated with Parks Field, but in 1829 this place was developed into a racecourse to replace an earlier course at Windle Hill, Neston. It has also been a venue for athletic sports and gymkhanas in the past such as the Liverpool cross-country races in 1901.

In the early years of the 19th century there was yacht racing on the Dee at Parkgate and in 1843 the Dee Yacht Club was formed. The club’s fortunes were mixed, but it arranged a number of regattas at Parkgate before moving to West Kirby in 1872.

This was not the end of sailing races, however, for in the years before the Great War an important annual event was the Parkgate fishermen’s regatta, also open to fishermen from other nearby coastal communities, like Heswall and Thurstaston. There was always great rivalry between the different crews, who took the competition very seriously.

Sport was an important part of the curriculum at Mostyn House School and, besides swimming, one of the activities pursued by the boys was sand-yachting, a sport which took advantage of the plentiful wind at Parkgate and the great stretches of level sand that accumulated there between the wars.

Last Updated April 2022