The land where the sports and recreation ground is at Rowley Lane was purchased by Laing's the builders and donated to the workforce for a sports and social club. The Laing philosophy was a simple one - to treat the workers well and in return they would treat the company well. The bowls green was laid in 1948 by Bert Walsh who was the head gardener together with a gang of Polish workers who spoke little English. They subsequently laid out the whole complex which included a 9 hole golf course, cricket pitch and top quality grass tennis courts.

Bowling began in 1949 with inter-departmental competitions and in 1950 the club started to play friendly matches against Watling Bowls Club, Henderson Safety Tank Company, Western Electric and Hendon Police College to name a few. Some of the early fixtures included Blue Circle(Cement) at their headquarters in Bromley in Kent. This was obviously a highlight in the fixture list as Laing's would lay on a coach for the bowlers and their families with arrival in Bromley around 11am. They were greeted with free beer and a waitress service lunch and this was all before the bowls began! Wives and families were able to make full use of the facilites including swimming in the pool and using the putting green. At the end of the match, an equally sumptuous tea was provided. You may ask if we still have this fixture, sadly not as the Blue Circle HQ was sold off for housing! Other fixtures included ICI Plastics, ICI Paints and Crittall Windows in Braintree.

In 1950 members paid sixpence for a game or five shillings for the season and the company magazine, 'Team Spirit' recorded that 'even the rain cannot dampen the spirit of the bowls fans, Macintoshes were the order of the day on two occasions during the month'.

In 1972 the Ladies bowling section was founded and the 25^th anniversary was celebrated in 1997 followed two years later with the 50th anniversary of the club.

The club was originally affiliated to Middlesex County Bowling Association as the headquarters of the company was in Middlesex. Middlesex County officials soon informed the club that they would not be able to play county competitions at home as the green was in Hertfordshire. The decision was then made to leave Middlesex and join Hertfordshire.

After the sale of the land in 2002 by Laing's we became Rowley Lane Bowls Club in 2003 and went from a heavily subsidised company club to one that is now fully self supporting. We manage to train and recruit new members every year and believe that we have a strong and successful club in both the Ladies and Men's sections. The picture below left shows the Laing team in the Watford and District Finals in 1960, Bob Stevenson and Bob Loudon are on the left of the picture. Below right is at Rowley Lane around 1959/60 before the Clubhouse was extended.