History

At the end of the 1947 season, the Cricket Club held a Centenary Dinner and in an after dinner speech, C L Townsend urged members to buy the ground which was in danger of being taken over for housing development. Townsend's advice was quickly acted upon and the Club not only bought the existing land, but a further twelve acres to the North. It was then that D C H Townsend had a dream to develop the land into one of the finest sporting complexes in the North of England and almost single handed he set about making his dream come true.

The new area was levelled and seeded to provide a second cricket pitch for the 3rd and 4th XI's, a rugby pitch to provide a home for Stockton Rugby Club, hard tennis courts and a bowling green. The new areas and supporting changing rooms were provided with the assistance of a Charitable Trust as a result of the efforts of David Townsend.

In the sixties the old wooden pavilion was demolished and replaced with a modern brick building. Attractive club premises were erected to replace the wooden hut, which had served as a clubhouse. Land was acquired to provide additional rugby pitches and a floodlit soccer pitch, the Soccer Club being members of the Northern League.

Yet more development took place in the seventies and eighties. Two squash courts were erected and this was followed by an Indoor Cricket School built in memory of Victor Avery, a young player killed in the RAF during the War and partially financed by a legacy from his mother.

As can be seen, the Norton (Teesside) Sports Complex - as it is now known - is much larger than the Cricket Club from which it began. Indeed the Cricket Club once again but a tenant of the wider sporting Complex. The Complex covers a wide range of Sports and Social activities and is run as a Charitable Trust. In the nineties, planning permission was obtained by the Trust Management to develop the land over the railway line. With the aid of a generous grant from the National Lottery, all-weather Tennis Courts, an artificial turf pitch for Hockey and 7-a-side Football and grassed training area complete with floodlights, were provided. These facilities came into use in 1996. Further development of the Complex is currently being planned.