Lancashire is the oldest bowling county association in England. Originally formed as the Lancashire and Cheshire Bowling Association in 1888, it pre-dated the Yorkshire County Bowling Association by 4 years. The fact that the term ‘crown green’ had not yet been adopted is recognised in the fact that the official name of the Association is the Lancashire County Bowling Association, although the term ‘Crown Green’ is now often used to distinguish it from the flat green game. However, there are only four ‘flat greens’ in the former ‘old’ county of Lancashire at this point in time.

At a time when many greens across England were being converted to the ‘Scotch’ flat green game, clubs in Lancashire continued with the more ancient form of what came to be known as ‘crown green’ bowls. The British Crown Green Bowling Association was formed in 1907.

After winning the first two senior County Championship competitions in 1908 and 1909 (beating Yorkshire on both occasions, Lancashire split from Cheshire. As an individual county it next won the County Championship in 1912 (again against Yorkshire) and went on to win it a total of 33 times in 1914, 1916, 1919, 1922, 1926, 1928, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1947, 1948, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1984, and 1987. Lancashire can truly be said to have the best history in county bowls, with its nearest challenger, Yorkshire, only having won the title on 20 occasions.

Splits in the County brought about by local government re-organisation saw the formation of Merseyside and Greater Manchester County teams in 1980. However, there was still a thought in the northern part of the County that the Lancashire area was too big. This led to the formation of the North Lancs & Fylde County Association in 1984, which split off Preston, Blackburn, East Lancs and Lancaster, and this effectively ended Lancashire as a bowling force at County level.

Despite this Lancashire still retains some areas that were hived off to Merseyside and Greater Manchester in local government reorganisation, including Southport & Ainsdale, Wigan, Warrington and Bolton

Lancashire was the heartland of crown green bowls with big money tournaments and home to many top players. It is also home to the ‘Panel’, more formally known as the Lancashire Professional Bowling Association, which played on greens centred on the triangle between Chorley, Wigan and Bolton. The Panel now only meets on one green, the Red Lion at Westhoughton, which it now owns as the pub has closed.

Lancashire contains many of the oldest greens, but also two of the newest. Ormskirk Bowling Club was formed in 2013 and two new crown greens constructed at Ormskirk Cricket Club in 2015/16, one of them an artificial green. It is thought to be the only club with grass and artificial crown greens side by side.