A.A. Pettigrew wrote that in June 1906 a tennis court was opened, on the Ninian Road side of the Pleasure Garden. Further courts were laid down in 1907 and were open in June.
The first hard tennis court in Cardiff's parks was in the Roath Park Pleasure Garden. This was established in 1909, on the site of the "number 1" tennis court, it having been agreed that this should not be re-turfed but laid down with ashes.
In the winter of 1913-1914 two additional courts were added in the Pleasure Garden: one at the north east corner where there had a croquet lawn, and one at the north west end adjoining Ninian Road. The croquet lawn was moved to a site bordered by Fairoak and Ninian Roads.[1] An article appeared in the Western Mail in June 1914 describing the popularity of lawn tennis and referring to the provision of courts at Roath Park.
In the winter of 1920-1921 one new grass court was constructed at the south west corner of the Pleasure Garden and the one existing hard court (asphalt) was converted into a shale court. Also at this time, one of the courts in the Pleasure Garden was reallocated as a children's playground.[2]
In 1930 four grass courts in Roath Park were converted to Griselda (gravel). Pettigrew then summarised the tennis courts in Roath Park as follows: two grass courts, one with a shale surface and four of Griselda.
Sources of Information
The information in this section is taken from A. A. Pettigrew, The Public Parks and Recreation Grounds of Cardiff, Volumes 3 & 4.
Other sources are: