Sport
In May 1924 Featherstone Road Football Team won the Daily Telegraph Cup. The school was always to the fore with most sports. The Council purchased Top Locks Playing Fields for the use of the schools; it had already been encouraging sport by providing tennis courts and bowling greens in the Southall Park and Recreation Ground, and at the Manor House gardens.
In 1927 Norwood Cricket Club celebrated its Diamond Jubilee. A Charity Cricket Match was played each year since 1900 between The Wolf and The Lamb public houses’ customers on The Green – the prize being a 6ft cricket bat engraved with the winning side’s name, which would hang in special brackets outside their pub. Although a new bat was made in 1938 the match fizzled out in 1963. Now, in 1982, with new landlords in both pubs, it is hoped that the match will be revived and, again, raise money for charity.
Southall Football Club, then in the Athenian League, had four very successful seasons, but the climax came in 1924-25 season when they reached the final of the Amateur Cup, meeting Clapton on Millwalls’ Ground on April 18th – but lost 2 – 1. Junior football was much to the fore with quite a lot of Works and Youth Club teams in the four Dauntless Leagues.
There were three fishing clubs Southall, Working Men’s Club and the Northcote – and they competed annually for the Southall Championship Shield. They were all affiliated to the London Angler’s Association and used to compete in their competitions each year, but success did not come before the 1981-82 season, when they won the Championship. Southall beating the Duke of Wellington AC at Walton on Thames.
Industrial News
In 1922-23 a new Telephone Exchange was built in Cambridge Road – Contractors W. Halse (Woolwich) – and commenced to operate October 20th. Also, A. & B. Hanson built the large railway siding (Shipping Dept) on the left hand side of the Maypole Road. It was a splendid example of bricklayers’ craftsmanship and was built to a winning design.
Kearley and Tonge and Le Grand-Sutcliffe had extended their premises and the Crown Cork (Apex Company) had taken over the old Phonophone ompany’s factory at the end of Scotts Road.
At the end of the war a huge sale of army surplus, which included lorries, took place at Slough. Mr Webster and Mr Cross each started a cartage business in the town with lorries they had purchased. Mr Cross had a yard in Sussex Road and is still in business today, 1982, with a large business on the left side of the Uxbridge Road.
Late in 1925 it was announced that the Maypole Factory was to close. This was a great shock and came about due to changing business methods. After assessors had surveyed the factory it was found that it would be too costly to convert into the ‘pre-packed era’ and it occupied too much ground. The company gradually phased itself out over the next four years, dealing very sympathetically with its employees and finally closing in 1929.
By a strange turn of fate a site was bought in 1925 bordering on the left hand side of Windmill Lane, with the main GWR on the north side down to the canal on the south side.