Southgate Adelaide HC were formed in 1926 and are based at the picturesque Walker Ground, Southgate, North London. As well as quality grass hockey pitches, the ground has facilities for cricket, ladies football, tennis and squash. Astroturf matches are played at a nearby school and there is regular club training.
This coming season (2003/2004) Adelaide will run four teams, three playing league fixtures (1st, 2nd and 3rd XIs) and playing friendly fixtures (4th XI) for social, young and improving players. Numbers permitting we would like to set up a ladies section. We pride ourselves on being a friendly club that welcomes new faces. We have teams for all tastes, whether the serious First XI or the more 'socially focused' Fourth XI.
Each year Adelaide sends a team of mixed ability to the Weymouth Hockey Festival. This is as much a social as a sporting event and suitably reflects the clubs attitude to the sport.
Origins of the Name and Ground
Southgate originated as a tiny hamlet which grew up in the north-west corner of Edmonton parish along the southern boundary of Enfield Chase, King Henry VIII’s hunting ground north of the City of London.
The name derives from the south gate of Enfield Chase which stood roughly where Chase Road now joins Winchmore Hill Road.
Another small settlement, known as South Street, grew up around where Southgate Green is now situated. The two settlements were eventually linked by development along what is now Southgate High Street. The name, South Street, gradually fell into disuse during the 19th century and the whole area became known as Southgate.
Southgate's first place of worship, the Weld Chapel was built in Waterfall Lane (now Waterfall Road) in 1615. It was replaced by the present Christ Church (the church that stands opposite the Walker Ground) in 1863.
In order to plot the history of the Hockey Club, it is appropriate to give a brief background of the manner in which cricket, rather than hockey, first began to be played in Southgate on the Walker Ground as this will help in explaining the origins of the name Southgate Adelaide.
Although it seems that the land now known as the Walker Ground could never have been anything else than a cricket ground it is probable that in the early 19th century it was open pasture known as Chapel Fields, so named after the old Sir John Weld Chapel nearby in Waterfall Lane (now Waterfall Road).
The Walker family acquired the land in 1853, although they had resided in adjacent Arnos Grove since 1777. It was then almost immediately laid out for cricket. It should also be noted here that it may be no coincidence that the Tennis Club currently on the Walker Ground is called The Southgate Weld Tennis Club.
The Walker family are famed as being joint owners of the Taylor-Walker brewery of Limehouse with both families being major land owners in the Southgate area; the Taylors occupying the Grovelands area and the Walkers occupying the Arnos area, with the latter living in a large house called Arnos Grove that stood at the top of Cannon Hill.
The private cricket club of the Walkers, of which there were seven bachelor brothers, played on the ground and this was the forerunner of them founding both the Southgate Cricket Club in 1855 as well as substantial involvement in the founding of the Middlesex County Cricket Club in 1864.
In 1907 the ground was placed into Trust by R. D. Walker for the playing of games forever and named by him ‘The Walker Cricket Ground’.
However, it is also recorded in 1859 that members of a local friendly society called the ‘Loyal Adelaide Lodge’ had already celebrated their fifteenth anniversary by a dinner in the Cherry Tree Inn. This is the Public House still standing on Southgate Green.
The Inn is also recorded as the venue of several of the earliest club functions and meetings, The Loyal Adelaide Lodge of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows having met every alternate Wednesday at the Cherry Tree Inn since 1842. Coincidentally, the first Secretary of the Lodge was Robert Blagden, whose name appears as one of the road names that runs off the High Street at the back end of the Walker Ground.
The fifteenth anniversary dinner of the Loyal Adelaide Lodge was followed by a cricket match on the ground of the Walkers who had given orders for a tent to be erected for their accommodation and for social entertainment to take place. Two of the brothers, V. E. and A. H. Walker acted as umpires for the match.
It can only be a matter of conjecture but this may not have been an entirely isolated match and that when a match between a team representing the villagers of Southgate against the private club of the Walkers became more frequent the name ‘Adelaide’ remained after the villagers’ name. This differentiated the village club from the private club of the Walkers now known as Southgate Cricket Club.
A Southgate ‘village club’ is referred to several times in the book ‘Walkers of Southgate’ (published in 1900 and written by W. A. Bettesworth). It is clear that the Walker brothers took a deep and active interest in the sport. However, there is no record of any name other than ‘the village’ at any time until 1870 when the name ‘Southgate Adelaide’ appears as a home and away fixture with Enfield Amateur Cricket Club, the forerunners of the present Enfield Cricket Club. This is the first formal appearance of the name Southgate Adelaide. A copy of the 1870 fixture card from Enfield Cricket Club is available for viewing.
Renaming of the Palmers Green Hockey Club to the Southgate Adelaide Hockey Club
In 1924, a number of friends, some of whom were former pupils of Winchmore Hill Collegiate School, were anxious to form a hockey club, having played the game at school. A fixture list was prepared and the team played under the name of the Palmers Green Hockey Club. The Club is recorded in the Middlesex County Hockey Association annals as affiliating to M.C.H.A. in 1924.
A copy of the Palmers Green Hockey Club fixture card from the 1925/1926 season is available for viewing in the Club records.
As the Club had no ground, all fixtures had to be played away. This was not very satisfactory and the obvious solution was to find a ground or persuade a local cricket club to lease a pitch.
By good fortune, the Southgate Adelaide Cricket Club (having formed in 1870 and now sharing the Walker Ground with Southgate Cricket Club) had about that time in the mid 1920s decided not to renew the lease allowing the Saracens Rugby Football Club to use the ground owing to damage sustained to the ground in the winter months. On enquiry, the Cricket Club was found to be sympathetic to hockey, provided that the proposed hockey club became a section of the Cricket Club.
One or two cricketers showed interest in playing hockey and one, A. J. Mundy, went on to be President of the Hockey Club from 1952 to 1959. He also distinguished himself by being the first member of the Cricket Club to score over 1000 runs in a season.