Wilks Park
Magpie Lane

Flackwell Heath football team circa 1910
(picture from SWOP website)

Magpie Lane today


Now here’s another local name
And, this, the land which holds his fame,
For fields then owned by Mr Wilks
Were once a farm where cows were milked.
But Arthur’s passion for the game
Gave us this pitch and Wilks its name,
And many are the memories
Of happy times spent here for free.

Arthur Wilks was a keen football supporter and, knowing that there was no proper place to play the game, he gave this land, originally called Beasley's Paddock, to create Wilks Park. The football team, the Cherrypickers, originally played on a field owned by Mr Smith (John Smith's Meadow) but this was sold to the Parish Council before the Second World War and later became the recreation ground. More can be found out about the club in the book 'Sixty Years with 'The Heathens'' by Reg Wilks and more about village life in his book 'Flackwell Heath Now and Then' (available to download from the Flackwell Heath Residents' Association website).
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