Club History

Howard Burnett Snr is Wells City Badminton Club’s Life President and its longest playing member. Wells City was founded in the late 1940’s by local tennis players who also wanted to play regular badminton. By the time Howard joined the club in 1975, it was already using the Bishop’s Barn in Silver Street Wells as its regular Monday night venue.

In the 15th century, the Bishop of Bath and Wells had the foresight to build a tythe barn in Wells that could comfortably accommodate two badminton courts. By 1975 the Barn had become the home not just for Wells City but also for two other local clubs, Wells Portway and Shepton Mallet. When sports and leisure centres became established in the area, the Barn remained a unique badminton venue. Without central heating it often became so cold in mid-winter that snow would blow in under the eaves. Despite its quirks, the Barn made an attractive venue for visiting mixed teams from the local North Somerset Badminton League (NSBL).

Wells City had a couple of mixed teams in the NSBL, selected from its two dozen or so members. The League had nearly 30 Mixed Divisions at the height of club badminton’s popularity in the early 1980’s. Even though the League was organised into three groups, it could still take a team up to nine years to move from the bottom to the top spot!

Wells City was not immune from a general decline in club badminton membership that began in the late 1980’s. Howard recalls that at the start of one season only he and Terry Gooch turned up to play! They decided to invest the last £30 in the club kitty to advertise the sport and the club in the local area. Some 50 people turned up to an ‘open evening’ and the club survived. When the former club Chairman Hugh Allen arrived in Wells in 1998, the club had rebounded once again to a regular couple of dozen members playing on both Monday and Thursday nights at the Barn. The Club encouraged coaching qualifications and a Junior section had been established, run at that time by Richard and Kim Hole. Although now retired from the club, Richard is still restringing rackets for our members.

The noughties saw the number of NSBL mixed divisions shrink significantly, with new Men’s divisions created to help clubs manage a decline in female participation. Wells City’s local rivals had become Mendipway, after the merger of Wells Portway and Shepton Mallet. Sadly, the introduction of poor energy-saving lighting in The Barn pushed the club into a new venue at Wells Leisure Centre in 2011.

The closure of Mendipway in 2017 has left Wells City as the only local membership club. Throughout its long history, Wells City Badminton Club has held to a couple of important principles: A friendly, welcoming atmosphere and participation in competitive league badminton. There are many stories to recount of late night matches before Badminton England introduced the new scoring system in 2006. And many memories of Christmas meals, curry nights, BBQ’s and tournament outings. Wells City is still prospering after 80 years and welcomes new members who already have some playing experience.

Howard Burnett Snr and Hugh Allen

August 2018