News & Events

There is always lots happening at Halton from changes to facilities to year-round activities. Here you’ll find reports on the many projects and initiatives we oversee to ensure Halton stays a step ahead in terms of quality of service and offerings while also forging a cleaner, greener set of facilities for all to enjoy. Plus, of course, we also showcase the many social events, tournaments and additional services on offer.

It’s snowing!

19th November 2024

Lovely dusting of snow here at Halton…

Fireworks

7th November 2024

Players trying not to get distracted…

Lavender 💜

4th November 2024

Finally the last of the lavender has been cut back. It has been a protracted process this year due to an unintentional break in operations (I was off sick 🤒)
I wanted to share a small amount of information about this wonderful plant, a few tips about its care and the reason for cutting back each year.

Lavender is a small woody shrub and is part of the mints family, lamiaceae. It will come back year on year if tended correctly. It hails from the old world, primarily drier warmer regions, so southern Europe and Africa. I refer to it, and many of our culinary herbs simply as Mediterranean. It does well here as our summers get warmer and drier and we look for hardier more drought resistant plants.

But as well as being a great ornamental plant with a fantastic perfume and huge pollination benefits, it is also grown commercially for its essential oils. These are used for healing, culinary purposes and in cosmetics.

Its planting and care is pretty simple if you remember where it comes from. It will thrive in full sunlight, dry, well draining and often poorer soils. If your soil is primarily clay you will usually struggle to maintain healthy plants. I suggest planting new plants once they arrive in the nurseries, early to mid spring but you can plant successfully throughout the summer. Don’t be tempted to put fertiliser in your soil, it can cause problems and in some cases kill the plant (I learned by making this mistake).

The purpose of cutting back after flowering each year is to maintain a good compact plant and to stop it getting too woody and leggy. When you cut be sure to cut enough to maintain a good shape but do not cut below where you can see existing growth.

– Debs Taylor, Head Gardener at Halton

Soakways complete

4th November 2024

We’ve finished installing three huge soakaways on-site (and additional drainage) to try and combat the increased extreme weather events such as the recent flooding of our acrylic dome. Our high water table makes us susceptible to water.

New flood defences

22nd October 2024

New soakaways have been dug to help prevent the crazy flooding wehave experienced recently with the new extreme weather we seem to get these days.

Lunch from home produce!

1st October 2024

Enjoying the spoils of our first season of Halton Garden…

Big win for Katie!

27th September 2024

One of our performance gym youngsters, Katie Malliff, who we support as part of our Olympic legacy programme dropped us a line about her recent success.

“Just a note to say I won a PSA Copper Tournament in Canada, The Nash Cup! I’m so pleased. I had some tough matches but felt I played really well. I’m off to NY next week – 2 tournaments.”

We couldn’t be more pleased – well done Katie!

Summer sign-off after a great first year of the Halton Garden

26th September 2024

It’s the end of summer for our Halton home grown veg – it’s been an amazing first 6 months of fun and learning.

We’ll let Deb Taylor, our Head Gardener, have the last word on a wonderful first season…

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. JK knew a thing or two when he wrote ’To Autumn’. I am keying in while sitting looking out at a dark and very wet morning. I won’t bang on about the rain as anyone who donned wellies and took up brooms to help Ollie sweep the water from the dome has heard quite enough about it. You are all amazing though and we’re very grateful. I hope none of you have experienced any flooding at home.

So summer has ended. After a recent, but brief warm spell which was very welcome there is a chill creeping into the air. I automatically begin to add layers, as I would rather take them off once warmed up than walk around feeling the cold, but my bones are older than many of you. We are about to change out the hanging baskets. This summer the baskets have really outdone themselves, but as fabby as they’ve been they very quickly go over, a bit like summer itself. I know many of have been disappointed at the cool summer but we gardeners have been thankful not to have the intense heat that can literally fry summer annuals, especially the baskets.

I hope some of you have seen the dahlia heads in the clubhouse bud vases, and the vase of flowers in the reception area, we wanted to bring some of the cutting bed flowers into the public domain to share with you. We had thought to make up little wraps of flowers to give away but like many ideas the reality is we’re pulled in other directions. But we would like to do cut flowers, vegetables, plants and seeds and offer them to anyone interested. So look out for them next year.

The polytunnel has recently been providing a steady supply of various vegetables. Not enough to build a grocery stall and do trade but an acceptable amount to give to the staff and the wonderful clubhouse kitchen. Next year we will concentrate our efforts on this year’s winners: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines. Though there are still beetroot radishes and chard in the pipeline (very late but fingers crossed).

We are also growing a number of perennial plants, these are in production and are for the garden beds and pots, wallflowers for the pots and globe thistles and honesty for the beds, both chosen for the bees! But more to come on those in the next instalment from the Halton garden team. Until then embrace autumn and its beautiful colour palette.”

Flood!

23rd September 2024

Our domes were tested with floodwater after all the rain we’ve just received. We are currently clearing the water and will be back to normal business shortly.

Our new clay courts

17th September 2024

We are so pleased with the completion of our 6 new clay courts installed this summer!

Halton Ladies 1st team reach semi finals of the National Club league competition

11th September 2024

A fantastic achievement, only losing out to the top seeds – a top 4 finish out of over 2,500 tennis clubs!

Debs is a Winner!

9th September 2024

Congratulations to Debs, our Head Gardener, who did brilliantly at a local garden show competition on the weekend.

“I’m proud to say my first ever foray into the ‘showing’ arena has produced some good and promising results. Only a little local garden society show but still a show! And vegetables and flowers from the polytunnel and the cutting garden were placed. As you all know by now the Halton gardens have a polytunnel, its primary aim is to grow plants and vegetables for use on site. After a slow and rocky start with a few fails, I am happy to say the first harvest of both vegetables and flowers began some weeks ago. Not wishing to boast (well a little bit) the overall results have been favourable, so I thought about entering my local garden society show with some of the best on offer. The flowers did particularly well, one display even earned us a cup! There was some stiff competition but all the vegetables entered were placed I’m happy to say. And now I’m looking to next year’s season and show and hoping for some higher placings. Enjoy the pictures of our first little success.”
Debs Taylor, Head Gardener, Halton

First crop

21st August 2024

Our first tomato and cucumber delivery to the clubhouse kitchen yesterday…

Clay court revamp

20th August 2024

Day 1 laying of our 6 new clay courts.

New shed

20th August 2024

Another ball shed for the coaching team – growing pains!

Bee update

19th August 2024

The hives we’ve been entrusted to keep seem to have settled into the spot allocated them here at Halton, along with their residents the bees.

Some of you may have noticed a lot more bee activity in and around the gardens, particularly on the lavender and on the cosmos flowers.

The bees are Buckfast bees and I’ve been reading about them to better understand them and how to ensure they are protected and happy.

Apparently the Buckfast bee is a hybrid. It originated from the crossbreeding of many species of honeybee by a German Benedictine monk, Brother Adam at Buckfast Abbey, Devon, in the early 20th century.

These bees have become very popular due their productivity and non aggressive behaviour. This has earned them the title of ‘the beekeepers bee’

We have five hives at the moment and we have room for more. I will continue to research and bring more news as I find it. Until then I have supplied photos of bees in the gardens on Sunday morning. I didn’t like to get too close, as bees are always so busy, forgive the pun. I’m not entirely convinced these are the Buckfast bees in my pictures. They look very different from the online photos. I think ore research definitely required. But bees are visible and happily collecting pollen from the garden plants which is the main reason for having them.. wherever they live.

— Debs Taylor, Garden Team

Pickleball session

19th August 2024

Our most recent coach-led pickleball fun session went brilliantly – 36 players took part! Come along to the next one and give the game of pickleball a go.

Pickleball success for Halton!

13th August 2024

Halton, represented by a team of our tennis coaches and performance players, took part in the Pickleball at The British Open Championships this week featuring 2000 players from 43 countries. Lots of success as you can see from the medals…

Blooming lovely!

13th August 2024

The dahlias are blooming in the cutting bed… not bad considering they were only planted in June!

24th July 2024 / Another media mention for Halton’s Carbon – neutral project!

Chris Boardman mentioned Halton’s plan again on BBC Radio 4’s Morning programme.

Listen here (story begins at around 1hr 27mins in).

23rd July 2024 / Pickleball is here!

Pickleball is our new summer 2024 addition to the Halton experience. There are both indoor and outdoor courts ready for you to play this new, exciting and easy to play game. It’s available for anyone to play – so why not give it try ?

To book a court please ring 01296 623453 or email the office.

Coaching sessions are available for both groups and individuals. Contact Mike James for details.

A program of organised activities will be coming soon including competitions.

21st July 2024 / Halton mentioned on BBC Paris Olympics 2024 preview show

We were name-checked today by Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman CBE as he outlined the environmental impact on sports and some of the positive efforts being made, including our carbon-neutral goals.

Watch the clip here (his comments start around 34:00) – you’ll need to sign into the BBC iPlayer

Chris stopped off at Halton on his ‘Pedal for Paris’ to celebrate our environmental achievements.

20th July 2024 / Polytunnel, yard and grounds update

A further update on the polytunnel, yard and grounds from our grounds team:

The grounds are looking their very best, and in spite of the topsey turvey weather, everything is doing well.

The hanging baskets are putting on a particularly splendid show, and the secret to their success is watering, everyday rain or shine!

There have been a couple of small projects. Expansion of the flower bed by the offices, a hard working flower bed, front of house, but the pathway was letting it down. The pavers were hard to weed and so they were lifted and there is now room for more plants.. win win!

Some of you will have noticed the new beds along the entrance to courts 1-6. These have been planted up with Gertrude Jekyll roses to compliment those outside the pavilion, and more of our statement lavenders. We do love lavenders here, the gorgeous colour, and of course as a food source for the pollinators, and it’s worth mentioning their endurance in any weather.

We have been entrusted with some hives and the inhabitants will hopefully like it here and thrive. They are not for visitors or viewing, they are hidden away for their safety and for yours, but we are absolutely delighted to have them. Maybe we can get Halton chickens next 🤔

And so to the polytunnel. We have continued to supply leaves to the kitchen, but they have been sporadic at best. The secret is successional sowing, which we will try harder to do now we know we can grow them. Thank you again to the clubhouse team for always being so grateful and positive when accepting our offerings.

The tomato vines are beginning to flower and set fruits. We suspect if they all ripen at the same time there will be something of a glut! If this is the case look out for a stall on the pavilion terrace 😄

We have cropped a few courgettes and patty pan and anyone visiting the yard are treated to the peas. The kohlrabi has done well and if anyone has a recipe for using it please let us know. We hope to have some runner beans too but they’re very slow to get going.

The less successful items are the kale plants and the few strawberry plants. The former is being attacked by caterpillars of a particularly aggressive species and every leaf is giving a good impression of emmental cheese. The strawberries are losing a fight to a family of squirrels who have chosen them as their new delicacy.

But.. the cutting bed is filled with soil and planted with a hotch-potch of flowers for now, more thought will go into this bed next year, as in what we want from it etc..

So everything is growing, some things at an alarming rate, and walking onto the poly is like entering an immersive verdant world… it’s a very happy place.

17th July 2024 / More garden bounty!

Latest box of goodies grown in the Halton garden…

15th July 2024 / New tennis / pickleball court!

We’ve opened our 17th court which includes 2 pickleball courts marked up. More news on pickleball soon…

11th July 2024 / Garden update

We continue to benefit from our first season’s crop of fresh veg. Also, we’ve just added 2 new bee hives to the site!

21st June 2024 / Is that soil in our barrow?

Nope! We’re recycling our coffee to feed the plants in our new nursery!

17th June 2024 / Courts reopened

Play restarted today on our courts after the amazing drainage work that has been done. Last stage was the lines being painted on – in between the rain showers!

17th June 2024 / Nursery update

From our grounds team:

“From rushed beginnings and a few catastrophic fails, namely fried seedlings(!), There is now genuine evidence of success.

Firstly the large pots on the main thoroughfare are all planted up with Cosmos, grown from seeds germinated by us in the polytunnel. There are other biannual and perennial plants being introduced to the beds, again raised by us. The cosmos plants are also threaded through the main beds, fingers crossed they don’t all get eaten by the snails and go on the flower through the summer…

There is a stilted offering of organic leaves/lettuce being supplied to the clubhouse kitchen, very graciously received by the gorgeous ladies who cater for us. We hope to have a more consistent supply as time goes on.

There are some photos of what’s currently growing inside and outside in the yard, there’s also a pic of Debs (Deborah) Taylor for those of you who don’t know her; haven’t seen her wheeling that ridiculously big blue barrow.. and endlessly watering the hanging baskets!

We are thrilled to show you the amount of tomato plants, again from a very slow start we now have all different types, colours, shapes and sizes growing and fingers crossed we hope to start cropping middle/end of July. There are two rows of cucumbers, lots of onions, sweet peppers and aubergine. There are several courgette plants, including pati pan, zucchini and squash. Some peas and beans and strawberries, and finally there is kale and kohlrabi and artichokes.

We admit there’s no real plan in place with our growing this year, but once these begin to produce (or fail, we’ll share both outcomes), we will be better prepared for what to grow next year.

At this point it’s worth adding we really appreciate all the positive comments and communications about the poly and more especially the gardens. Thank you for your interest and your positive feedback, it is always very gratefully received. A lot of work goes into making what we hope is a beautiful environment for everyone to enjoy while spending their time at this club.”

5th June 2024 / Recent rains

As the rains continued through May our courts were saturated like never before. Over 16,000 drainage holes have been drilled across our 6 courts to help alleviate the pressure of our high water table and when a flash flood came the courts stood up to the challenge!

Singles Box Leagues

Our box leagues are a great success and great fun! Please contact Roy, our head coach, if you wish to join the Singles Box League – there are currently 10 boxes with some 50 members playing singles every month, so lots of opportunities to meet and play singles.

Pickleball!

Our 1st dedicated pickleball court is being prepared – just need some decent painting weather now.

Solar panels for the gym – UPDATE!

The scaffolding has gone – a very neat job – 73 panels up and running – just need lots of sunshine!

Solar / the brains behind the solar panels that you never see.

New Club sessions

There are two extra tennis club sessions for members on Monday 27th May.

1. Mix-in 10.00am – 11.30am
2. Rusties/drills 11.30am – 1.00pm

In addition, Everyball tennis are running a series of Pickleball sessions during May, for members and non-members.
The next sessions are on Sunday 12 May 1.30pm-3pm , Saturday 18 May 6pm-8pm and Monday 27 May 2pm-3.30pm.
To book your place, click here.

Solar panels for the gym

We have just completed the installation of our first solar panels with 73 located on the gym roof, saving us an estimated £10k per year energy and planting some 50 trees each year over it’s lifetime. Plans for next year include 2 more projects at the club to further reduce our reliance on expensive fossil fuels.

Court changes

The big change from artificial grass to lano grand clay is underway. Improved drainage and a new tarmac base will take place during May followed by the clay top later in the summer. A major investment of over £250k but well worthwhile to future proof our tennis facilities.

Our very own garden centre journey has started!

The yard at the rear of the stores has been repurposed from a waste ground to what we hope will be a thriving plant and vegetable growing area. There is a substantial polytunnel for raising seeds and growing indoor crops, as well as holding plants and cuttings for use around the club grounds.

Ollie, Michael and Charlie have worked tirelessly to build this growing space, all while carrying out the myriad of projects and day to day tasks around the club. So thank you to them for their graft and innovation! And thanks to Debbie for all her expertise.

The aim is to grow as many of our own flowers from seed as possible, which will ultimately help keep costs down while we hope maintaining a high standard of plants for the club grounds.

The second goal of the polytunnel, is to grow vegetables, fruits, leaves and herbs for use in the clubhouse kitchen. This first year will be experimental, and with close monitoring we can see what works best. If successful we hope to share any surplus produce with local food banks, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. At this early stage only seedlings are evident, but there is plenty in the pipeline and we’re looking forward to reporting our progress from the ‘The Yard’.

New court

A new tennis court is built – making us the proud owners of 11 outdoors and 6 indoor courts as well as 4 dedicated mini courts.