In 1925 Charles Dewar of Massingham Abbey granted a parcel of land, now the village playing field, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the parish. One hundred men and lads of the parish gave their labour freely to build a village hall, helped by the horse power of the local horse-owners. A bowling green, tennis court and recreation ground were also provided. In 1935 the remaining part of the playing field was also conveyed to the Trustees of the Great Massingham Village Hall.

John Morton's mother, Mrs Margaret Morton, remembers winning a tennis tournament on the courts in 1938 when she was fifteen and she remembers her parents playing before that. The Castle Acre League Cup records that Great Massingham won that championship in 1967. So we know the tennis courts have been there for many years but details are hazy. [If any readers can flesh out this history, please let us know.]

In 1984 Andrew Bickerton, Jill Whitmore, Bruce Riches and others restructured the Massingham Tennis Club as the Great Massingham Multi-sports Club with the aim of uniting all the sports clubs in the village in one organisation, a temptation the other clubs resisted.  Fun-days and tennis ladders were organised and Andrew produced and directed numerous wonderful entertainments in the Village Hall to raise money for the resurfacing of the courts, new fencing and lighting and for a new stage in the hall with lighting and for a sound system. The low wall that surrounds the upper court was built with the labour of naughty young men doing the equivalent of community service. The fencing was renewed in 1998. Those who use the courts today are much indebted to the huge community effort that made all this happen.

Around 2010 Arthur Allen started organising regular club sessions, firstly on Sunday mornings and then on other days. As these became successful, coaching programmes were started and the club entered teams in the local Castle Acre league and then in the West Norfolk League. Membership grew strongly.  (Currently over 200.). The Club registered with the LTA and the courts were repainted. In December 2013 at a General Meeting of the Club, Andrew Bickerton, who had served as Club Chairman for thirty years, stepped down. Reflecting that the main activity of the club was tennis, the club adopted the name “Great Massingham Tennis and Multi-sports Club”. A new constitution, based on the LTA model, was adopted and in January 2014 the members elected a new committee by email voting. In 2015 the Club spent about £3,000 on repainting and repairing the fence.

In October 2015 the Club was accredited “Tennismark” status, one of only a handful of clubs in the county to have achieved this.

In 2015 the Club was awarded the accolade of "Norfolk LTA Club of the Year" and was a runner up in the Active Norfolk Community Club of the Year Award.  Arthur Allen won the Norfolk LTA Award for Outstanding Contribution.   In 2017 the Club won the Norfolk LTA Club of the Year for the second time and then again in 2018.   In the same year our excellent coach, Chris Sanders, was awarded Norfolk LTA Coach of the Year.

The Club now has a strong and active committee and is in good shape.   In March 2019 Arthur Allen retired from the committee and Clare Parker became Chair.  Arthur is now once again the Court Keeper.   The key challenge for the Club is to get more courts and decent lighting.