Browse Exhibits (2 total)

National Sporting Heritage Day, 2019

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To celebrate National Sporting Heritage Day, 2019, Kent's Sporting Memories explored the fascinating history of Folkestone Sports Centre Trust, now in its fiftieth year of trading. Our mini-exhibition drew upon archive material and oral history testimony to examine the centre's origins and opening, the numerous facilities and sports it offered, the way the centre's changed over time, and its abiding importance to the town.   

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Harry Beeson: A Pictorial Tribute

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A short illustrated tribute to Harry Beeson, who was the coach and founder of Folkestone Sports Centre's over-55s Badminton Club. 

Harry, who once served as a Beefeater at the Tower of London, decided to set-up the club when he moved to Folkestone in 1979, because he was 'struck by the number of elderly people just wandering around' the town!

A 'dozen hardy souls' attended the first badminton session; by the time Harry retired from coaching in 1989, the club had more than eighty members.

His retirement, which was marked by a party at Folkestone Sports Centre, elicited many well wishes, as well as tributes to the transformative role he had on the provision of sport for older people in Folkestone. 

One member said: 'We were all complete beginners, but under Harry's guidance (what patience he had) we enjoyed half an hour of excercises followed by half an hour of badminton all for 25 pence inclusing coffee!'

Harry said of the party: 'I was so overcome with emotion and atsonishment...I don't know what I would have done without the sports centre and all the lovely people I have met.'

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