Site: J. Lyons war memorial - original location (1 memorial)
UB6, Greenford Road
The J. Lyons WW1 memorial was first unveiled in 1922 here at the Lyons Sports Ground.
Searching for the exact original location of this memorial we came across an easy confusion. Just to the north west of the junction of Sudbury Hill and Greenford Road there is a sports field: John Lyon School Sudbury Fields. This is the sports field for John Lyon School which has no connection with J. Lyons & Co.
Then at LEO Computers we found reference to Lyons Sports Club at Sudbury including: "... Lyons Sports Ground used to run all the way down to the Whitton Avenue junction with the Greenford Road ...". A 1938 map shows this large 'Sports Ground'. This must be the memorial's first home.
The eastern section and the south-western section have been built over but the central section is now Grove Farm, Ealing, declared a Local Nature Reserve in 2002. The north-western section is now the David Lloyd Fitness Clubs.
The memorial was probably close to the clubhouse, and visible from the road so that is where we've placed our pin. Here in 1947 the WW2 memorial was added. When Lyons sold the Sports Ground the double memorial was moved and in 1968 it arrived at the grounds of the J. Lyons and Co Tea Factory, Oldfield Lane North, Greenford, its second location.
Looking into the history of the Lyons Sports Ground:
From Do Something Good: "This wider area of Grove Farm has been appreciated by locals as a site of recreation and natural beauty for over a century. John Spendan {sic} Lewis, who created the John Lewis partnership, owned and appreciated the natural beauty of Grove Farm from 1909 – 1919. He opened up the site to John Lewis employees for recreation. It was then bought by Lyons for local employees and finally passed into the ownership of the Council for all to enjoy."
The Leo publication has: "The Lyons Sports Club ... seems to have been established early in the 20th Century. It was a large sports ground, initially with facilities to include cricket, football, rugby, tennis, athletics and bowls. In 1935 an outside swimming pool was opened. ... The Lyons sports and Carnival day had been running in various forms from at least the 1920s. The change to a Pennant Day ... appears to have taken place in 1956. It continued until 1965 or 1966. I understand that by the mid-60s Lyons had decided to sell the Sudbury sports club land so their interest in the club was waning."
The 1948 Olympics made use of these grounds, at least Wikipedia has: "Lyons' Sports Club, Sudbury – field hockey preliminaries". We trust that means these grounds and not the School's grounds.
