Title
'It was a real community': Glyn Hibbert on Folkestone Sports Centre's early years
Subject
Glyn Hibbert
Description
An excerpt of an oral history recording with Glyn Hibbert. Glyn describes the impact Folkestone Sports Centre had upon the town when it was opened, the social side of the centre, and how its members were invested in the centre's success. Transcript attached.
Creator
Glyn Hibbert; Michael Romyn
Source
Glyn Hibbert Oral History Recording
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Date
Interview recorded on 8 August, 2019
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Relation
Glyn Hibbert Oral History Recording
Format
MP3/Microsoft Word Document
Language
English
Type
Audio Recording and Written Transcript
Identifier
Glyn Hibbert
Transcription
Kent’s Sporting Memories Oral History Transcript (Excerpt)
Interviewee: Glyn Hibbert
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 8 August, 2019
Location: Glyn Hibbert’s home in Hawkinge, Kent.
Recording Time: 1:05:14 – 1:13:39
Glyn Hibbert: No, that was a big problem not only for the town and things like this but also for the country because there was this sort of thing – everyone did sport at school and then nothing. You know, when you left school, where did you go and do sport? Unless you joined the local football club or something like this, or there was the occasional running, bit of running or something like this – there were very little sports. I think Folkestone had a, it had a football club, they had some hockey, and I think some cricket, but any other, the diversity of sports wasn’t there, other than that you’d have to travel out somewhere to go out and do other sports, you’d go somewhere else. And so having the sports centre there and that was a great stepping stone then because a) whilst the schools were running they would use the centre as they still do now, there’s still swimming and quite a lot of things happen at Folkestone Sports Centre for schools. But when they left, when youngsters left school they could continue on doing their sport, and I think that’s why back in the seventies it started being a great benefit to the country, to the Olympic teams, to the Paralympic teams, to everybody, that there was a way, there was a stepping stone of keeping sport moving. And I think a lot, I mean Folkestone was sort of world famous for its lifesaving team, travelled all over the world, you know, and lots of the other sports, sort of, you know, they train in here and go off to their squads and things like this, and it was a great benefit to athletes from all over our area. We were one of the first people down there, Folkestone Sports Centre, to have a ski slope, and the ski slope is still, you know, fully utilized nowadays and even looking at extending it even now. And that was one of the only dry ski slopes anywhere. And you know, it was a huge benefit to the local people.
Michael Romyn:…and summer camps and Easter camps for children.
GH: Yes, and that’s still the way we run things now, that’s still the way it’s run at the moment, you know, even now during the school holidays there’ll be summer camps and things like this going on there. Swimming’s obviously still a big thing down there, they now put these, they put these flotation things in the pool, you know, for the kids to have fun on, so that’s good. We’ve got some of the outdoor courses – we did have a little golf course, that tended to fade away a little bit so they’ve been doing sort of other sports out there, they’ve been doing walking football and things like this. We’ve redone the tennis courts, they’re up and running. We’re trying to find some money at the moment to put a high rope climbing frame and things like this and do some more work to the ski slope, so it’s expanded all the way through. Some of the clubs in Folkestone were the strongest in the whole area – the squash club, the badminton club, certainly the weightlifting club, the swimming club and things like this were of the best in the area.
MR: And there was a women’s weightlifting club?
GH: There was a women’s weightlifting club, yes, it was quite small in those days, but yes they did have their own section of the club, yeah. Free-weights were never utilized a lot by the women, you know, and we didn’t actually have any women competing at our higher level. You know they come in and use weights and things but normally they used weights for training for something else, you know, they’d be doing training for another sport. Weight training is obviously a core work-out for other things, so they’d use it for that rather than for, as lifters.
MR: Was the sports centre a sociable place? I know there was the bar and the café…
GH: Sometimes there was a very thin line between one and the other. There was certainly, certainly wasn’t the ethos that people have nowadays where you do your sport at an intense level. Certainly back in those days I’d go weightlifting and then I’d go straight to the bar afterwards, you know, that was just normal, it wasn’t worrying about my weight and things like this – you know, the weightlifting’s done, let’s go and enjoy ourselves. And the social life was pretty good in those days. So many events going on, you know, and so many of the individual clubs would come together and we’d have progressive suppers and parties, all sorts of things wouldn’t we? There’s be a lot of events held at the sports centre. We even had a ladies’ night down in the sports hall set out with tables and things like this. I ran, I had the European Junior Championships – the able-bodied Olympic weightlifters down there in the dining hall which was in those days in between the two swimming pools at eye level. We filled that with people, you know, for an event and things like this, so they’ve always done good catering, there’s always been an incredible bar – what they have nowadays is a very small one. You imagine that whole café bar area used to be just the bar, you know, and you couldn’t get in! It would be packed and you know and you’d have children up the top weighting for mum and dad to take them home kind of thing, from the bar. But it was all part of it, you know, and of course it was income to the centre as well, you know, it was quite a good income to the centre in those days, you know, the social part of it was all part of the income of the centre. Very early on in our membership, as I said I, as I always do, ended up on the committee so I represented the life members, so I had a role on the sports centre’s committee as a life member representative. There were a couple of us who’d go there and we’d speak on behalf of the life members – there’d be other people to speak on behalf of the individual clubs and things, and we’d have our chair and things, and we still have the board now, I’m still a member of the board, you know, I’m still a board member of Folkestone Sports Centre.
MR: Did you become a board member very early on?
GH: Yes, as I say, as the representative of life members. So sort of from the late eighties – late seventies, early eighties I’ve been a board member then. There may have been a little gap in between but I’m still now a board member, you know.
MR: Was there a big take-up of the life membership scheme?
GH: Yeah there was. That was the only way the place would work in those days. That was – because you needed the income in the beginning. It’s very good having an income once the place is up and running but to get the money in together to pay for the place at the start by all of us putting our thousand pounds in or whatever – you didn’t always have to put it in in one lump sum but you guarantee, you could do a standing order or whatever you did in those days and guarantee the money so they had a guaranteed income so they could actually build the centre because they knew they had that income. Otherwise it would never of happened, you know, they wouldn’t – just to have the general income wouldn’t have been enough to, you know, to start the place off.
MR: So it wouldn’t have been built without the life members?
GH: I don’t think it would have been built without the life members and the life members were the life and soul of the place. Not saying it felt as though we owned the place but it was ours, you know, we felt responsible for it, we felt passionate about it. If it needed something, you know, there was a lot of us there who were in the construction industry. As I say, certainly down in our area I’d think nothing of having stuff made or if they needed something else doing in the centre we’d all chip in and help, you know, and the skills of local builders and things.
MR: A community centre…
GH: It was a real community, yeah, that’s it. It was a total community. We even had a float in the local sort of carnivals and things like this, we’d have our own float and things in the carnival, so there’d be a lot.
--Ends--
Interviewee: Glyn Hibbert
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 8 August, 2019
Location: Glyn Hibbert’s home in Hawkinge, Kent.
Recording Time: 1:05:14 – 1:13:39
Glyn Hibbert: No, that was a big problem not only for the town and things like this but also for the country because there was this sort of thing – everyone did sport at school and then nothing. You know, when you left school, where did you go and do sport? Unless you joined the local football club or something like this, or there was the occasional running, bit of running or something like this – there were very little sports. I think Folkestone had a, it had a football club, they had some hockey, and I think some cricket, but any other, the diversity of sports wasn’t there, other than that you’d have to travel out somewhere to go out and do other sports, you’d go somewhere else. And so having the sports centre there and that was a great stepping stone then because a) whilst the schools were running they would use the centre as they still do now, there’s still swimming and quite a lot of things happen at Folkestone Sports Centre for schools. But when they left, when youngsters left school they could continue on doing their sport, and I think that’s why back in the seventies it started being a great benefit to the country, to the Olympic teams, to the Paralympic teams, to everybody, that there was a way, there was a stepping stone of keeping sport moving. And I think a lot, I mean Folkestone was sort of world famous for its lifesaving team, travelled all over the world, you know, and lots of the other sports, sort of, you know, they train in here and go off to their squads and things like this, and it was a great benefit to athletes from all over our area. We were one of the first people down there, Folkestone Sports Centre, to have a ski slope, and the ski slope is still, you know, fully utilized nowadays and even looking at extending it even now. And that was one of the only dry ski slopes anywhere. And you know, it was a huge benefit to the local people.
Michael Romyn:…and summer camps and Easter camps for children.
GH: Yes, and that’s still the way we run things now, that’s still the way it’s run at the moment, you know, even now during the school holidays there’ll be summer camps and things like this going on there. Swimming’s obviously still a big thing down there, they now put these, they put these flotation things in the pool, you know, for the kids to have fun on, so that’s good. We’ve got some of the outdoor courses – we did have a little golf course, that tended to fade away a little bit so they’ve been doing sort of other sports out there, they’ve been doing walking football and things like this. We’ve redone the tennis courts, they’re up and running. We’re trying to find some money at the moment to put a high rope climbing frame and things like this and do some more work to the ski slope, so it’s expanded all the way through. Some of the clubs in Folkestone were the strongest in the whole area – the squash club, the badminton club, certainly the weightlifting club, the swimming club and things like this were of the best in the area.
MR: And there was a women’s weightlifting club?
GH: There was a women’s weightlifting club, yes, it was quite small in those days, but yes they did have their own section of the club, yeah. Free-weights were never utilized a lot by the women, you know, and we didn’t actually have any women competing at our higher level. You know they come in and use weights and things but normally they used weights for training for something else, you know, they’d be doing training for another sport. Weight training is obviously a core work-out for other things, so they’d use it for that rather than for, as lifters.
MR: Was the sports centre a sociable place? I know there was the bar and the café…
GH: Sometimes there was a very thin line between one and the other. There was certainly, certainly wasn’t the ethos that people have nowadays where you do your sport at an intense level. Certainly back in those days I’d go weightlifting and then I’d go straight to the bar afterwards, you know, that was just normal, it wasn’t worrying about my weight and things like this – you know, the weightlifting’s done, let’s go and enjoy ourselves. And the social life was pretty good in those days. So many events going on, you know, and so many of the individual clubs would come together and we’d have progressive suppers and parties, all sorts of things wouldn’t we? There’s be a lot of events held at the sports centre. We even had a ladies’ night down in the sports hall set out with tables and things like this. I ran, I had the European Junior Championships – the able-bodied Olympic weightlifters down there in the dining hall which was in those days in between the two swimming pools at eye level. We filled that with people, you know, for an event and things like this, so they’ve always done good catering, there’s always been an incredible bar – what they have nowadays is a very small one. You imagine that whole café bar area used to be just the bar, you know, and you couldn’t get in! It would be packed and you know and you’d have children up the top weighting for mum and dad to take them home kind of thing, from the bar. But it was all part of it, you know, and of course it was income to the centre as well, you know, it was quite a good income to the centre in those days, you know, the social part of it was all part of the income of the centre. Very early on in our membership, as I said I, as I always do, ended up on the committee so I represented the life members, so I had a role on the sports centre’s committee as a life member representative. There were a couple of us who’d go there and we’d speak on behalf of the life members – there’d be other people to speak on behalf of the individual clubs and things, and we’d have our chair and things, and we still have the board now, I’m still a member of the board, you know, I’m still a board member of Folkestone Sports Centre.
MR: Did you become a board member very early on?
GH: Yes, as I say, as the representative of life members. So sort of from the late eighties – late seventies, early eighties I’ve been a board member then. There may have been a little gap in between but I’m still now a board member, you know.
MR: Was there a big take-up of the life membership scheme?
GH: Yeah there was. That was the only way the place would work in those days. That was – because you needed the income in the beginning. It’s very good having an income once the place is up and running but to get the money in together to pay for the place at the start by all of us putting our thousand pounds in or whatever – you didn’t always have to put it in in one lump sum but you guarantee, you could do a standing order or whatever you did in those days and guarantee the money so they had a guaranteed income so they could actually build the centre because they knew they had that income. Otherwise it would never of happened, you know, they wouldn’t – just to have the general income wouldn’t have been enough to, you know, to start the place off.
MR: So it wouldn’t have been built without the life members?
GH: I don’t think it would have been built without the life members and the life members were the life and soul of the place. Not saying it felt as though we owned the place but it was ours, you know, we felt responsible for it, we felt passionate about it. If it needed something, you know, there was a lot of us there who were in the construction industry. As I say, certainly down in our area I’d think nothing of having stuff made or if they needed something else doing in the centre we’d all chip in and help, you know, and the skills of local builders and things.
MR: A community centre…
GH: It was a real community, yeah, that’s it. It was a total community. We even had a float in the local sort of carnivals and things like this, we’d have our own float and things in the carnival, so there’d be a lot.
--Ends--