The Hartham Park Stické Tennis Court

The Court was built in 1904 by the then owner of Hartham Park, Sir John Poynder Dickson Ponder (later Lord Islington) and continued a tradition that had started in the 1870s at the same time as Lawn Tennis was born.

Originally constructed from artillery targets by the military, the courts that were subsequently built at country estates in the United Kingdom and Ireland became increasingly standardised around a model built for the Desboroughs at Taplow.

Common to the Taplow design is the penthouse, redolent of Real Tennis courts that date from a medieval monastic tradition, and a viewing gallery at one end.

At Hartham Park, the gallery, changing rooms and balcony also served as a pavilion for the adjacent cricket pitch.

Today there are only three Stické Tennis courts in the world that remain in a playable condition. Hartham Park celebrated the centenary of their Court in 2004 with the inauguaration of an invitational competition, The Centenary Shield. Knightshayes near Tiverton in Devon held a similar event for their centenary in 2008.

The third remaining court was built by Lord Dufferin, as Vice Regent of India, and still exists as a badminton court at the Vice-Regal's lodge at what is now the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas.

There is some evidence of remaining courts that have been either put to other uses (at Taplow the court is now a café) or are used for agricultural storage.

With an active Club, and enthusiastic membership, Hartham Park aims to maintain the Court as well as the playing tradition for future generations.