Castletown Bowling Club

The oldest-surviving known bowling green for target style bowling was built in 1299. Master’s Close (now the Old Bowling Green of the Southampton Bowling Club) in Southampton, England, which is still in use.

In 1325, laws were passed in Berlin and Cologne that limited bets on lawn bowling to five shillings.In 1455, lawn bowling lanes in London were first roofed-over, turning bowling into an all-weather game. In Germany, they were called kegelbahns, and were often attached to taverns and guest houses.

In 1511, King Henry VIII was an avid bowler. He banned bowling for the lower classes and imposed a levy for private lanes to limit them to the wealthy. Another English law, passed in 1541 (repealed in 1845), prohibited workers from bowling, except at Christmas.