It is evident to anyone visiting Winstanley Park Cricket Club,that the ground is situated on the 470 acre Winstanley Park Estate and overlooked by the hall, a fine Elizabethan style house built around 1560 by the Winstanley family.   It has been in the Bankes family since 1595 and in 1878, at the time of the formation of the club, the Squire was Meyrick Bankes II who, it would appear, was one of the the more benevolent members of the landowning class.He died in 1881 and was interned in the family vault at St Thomas churchyard, Up Holland.

The men who formed the club were mostly employees of the Estate, gardeners, gamekeepers, stablehands and the like, who fortunately felt the need for other sporting entertainment than wrestling, whippet racing and hare coursing which were the common pastimes of that period. The original site chosen for the ground was on pasture land where the M6 motorway now cuts through Gorsey Hill Wood. This sloping site had but one advantage, the fact that it could not be seen from the Hall.On one of his regular visits to the Hall the vicar of Up Holland , a Reverend Cramer, came across the men toiling at this task and upon ascertaining what they were doing, suggested that the more level ground lower down would be more suitable and offered to bring the matter up during his visit with the Squire. Subsequently the present site was offered to the men and allocated to the club at a rent of 5 shillings per year, a figure that remained until the mid 1980's. It would seem the clergymen had a great deal of influence in those days

At first only friendly games were played but on the 20th April 1907 the club became a founder member of the West Lancashire League, then called the Wigan and District Cricket League along with Highfield, Abram Colliers, Up Holland, Hindley, Norley Hall and Platt Bridge. Winstanley won the Salter Cup in 1910. After the 1st World War the league was reformed and Winstanley won the Salter Cup again in 1931 and the Farnworth Cup in 1935.

During the 2nd World War members of the RAF who were billeted on the estate played Hockey on the ground but at the end of the war, the club was again revived and after much back breaking work and with assistance from Highfield Cricket Club (who loaned the club their mowing machine) the ground was made fit for cricket once again.

Winstanley Park won the Salter Cup in 1951, 1952 and 1955, but unfortunately,in 1956 the club was relegated. However, in the following season the club won Division 2, Division 5 and the Junior championships and returned immediately to the 1st Division.

In 1962 as a result of differences with the West Lancashire League  Winstanley Park, along with seven other Division 1 clubs, resigned from the league and formed the South West Lancs Cricket Association. Winstanley enjoyed immediate success winning the Division 1 championship in 1963, the Rathbone Cup in 1963 and 1964 and the Baxter Cup in 1964. Honours have not been so plentiful in recent times since the junior team won the Championship in 1973.

Winstanley Park played in the South West Lancs Cricket Association until 1990 at which time the club joined the Southport and District League winning the Premier Division 2 title in 2000

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