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Mark_Rowlinson

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1920s aerials of British Courses 5
« on: October 23, 2012, 09:53:02 AM »
This is Stoke Poges (or Stoke Park as it is called once more). The holes on the lake side of the house were altered when the golf club was taken over to become an opulent resort. These pictures were taken in 1920 when the courses must have been quite new.





This is captioned Enfield Town 1920. Note the profusion of trench-like cross bunkers on many of these courses.



Sheringham 1920. I don’t know if these particular holes survive, some were lost to coastal erosion. I think it was at Sheringham about this period that Joyce Wethered was asked if the noise of a passing train had disturbed her concentration during a putt. She hadn’t even noticed it!



The London Country Club grew out of the London Flying Club. It was eventually taken over by RAF Hendon. MacKenzie’s 9-hole course was lost at this time. The RAF Museum is now situated here and a very worthwhile visit it makes.





I have already posted a later photo of Highgate, when the reservoir was being built into the course. These are older, from 1920 and before the reservoir. The layout was, if I remember correctly, by Cuthbert Butchart.







Epsom on Derby Day. Plentiful bunkers.





Bushey Hall. This is from 1922. The club dates from 1890.



Hull at Kirk Ella 1925.



South Bedfordshire at Luton 1926



Walsall. This was a MacKenzie course, but after this photo was taken in 1926 a new road was built through the course and much of it altered.



This is Moor Park in 1926, not long after the courses opened. The style of bunkering is shown very clearly. The West Course is in the foreground, the High Course beyond the house.



Rotherham, about which I know nothing.





The courses of Royal Wimbledon and Wimbledon Common are pretty well adjacent, so I’ve called all these Wimbledon, to get out of having to distinguish which is which! These are from 1926. I think there may be more to follow.


















Ally Mcintosh

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Re: 1920s aerials of British Courses 5
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2012, 10:22:54 AM »





Thanks Mark...

The Wimbledon courses look great... Are they still like that?... Look at the bunkering on the above two par-3's that share a double green by the looks of it...

Mark_Rowlinson

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Re: 1920s aerials of British Courses 5
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2012, 11:24:28 AM »
Here's a Google Earth aerial of Royal Wimbledon in June 2010. If Paul Turner sees this he'll be able to give an authoritative opinion on the bunkering.



I must say that the bunkering of many of the courses so far is prolific and there many cross bunkers or mid-fairway bunkers to catch the topped or mishit shot, in some cases not very far in front of the tee.

« Last Edit: October 23, 2012, 11:27:42 AM by Mark_Rowlinson »

Ally Mcintosh

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Re: 1920s aerials of British Courses 5
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2012, 11:42:10 AM »
You can see the two par-3's on the very right middle of that google earth aerial. They appear to have lost a great deal of their character with the greens being reduced, trees having been planted on the North side and all the bunkers having been significantly changed in shape and placement.

What a shame.

Mark Pearce

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Re: 1920s aerials of British Courses 5
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2012, 12:08:48 PM »
The over-riding impression I get from all of these sets of aerials is that the bunkering on so many UK courses was far, far more dramatic in the 20s and 30s than it is today.
In June I will be riding the first three stages of this year's Tour de France route for charity.  630km (394 miles) in three days, with 7800m (25,600 feet) of climbing for the William Wates Memorial Trust (https://rideleloop.org/the-charity/) which supports underprivileged young people.

Paul_Turner

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Re: 1920s aerials of British Courses 5
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2012, 12:37:41 PM »





Thanks Mark...

The Wimbledon courses look great... Are they still like that?... Look at the bunkering on the above two par-3's that share a double green by the looks of it...

Ally

Yes it's the 17th at Royal Wimbledon after Colt's major redesign (1924).  That green was changed some years ago by F Hawtree I think.  I did not realise it was a double green with 13!

The bunkers have been altered recently by different firms. Most are poor in comparison with the originals.

All these images are Royal Wimbledon rather than Wimbledon Common.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2012, 12:56:27 PM by Paul_Turner »
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Mark_Rowlinson

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Re: 1920s aerials of British Courses 5
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2012, 02:23:18 PM »
Paul, Many thanks for your input. I think you will be much in demand over the next few days being expert about Colt. We will all then be sterilised until the next batch of photos appears. Unfortunately, and I quite understand why, the plates selected for digitalisation are clearly chosen for their wide variety of subject matter and geographical locations. Well done them for putting in lots of golfing images. I have to say that scrolling through these images is just amazing. What an industrial heritage we have lost! If you want to waste several days of your life just go and have a look at the 'Britain from above' website.  I'm not far off trawling the 19,000+ images so far digitalised.

Mark.

Paul_Turner

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Re: 1920s aerials of British Courses 5
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2012, 03:32:04 PM »
Mark

Royal Wimbledon is a fascinating example because it's a mixture of Park and Colt and the aerial is soon after the redo.  You can make out defunct features like Park's 12th green...the circular pattern in the last two pics of the set, it's easy to make out.

Here a good thread on how Royal Wimbledon is now.  The shrinking of the carry bunker on the 2nd being an example of how it has been "dumbed down".  And the damn trees.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,37435.0.html
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Neil_Crafter

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Re: 1920s aerials of British Courses 5
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2012, 12:06:15 AM »
Interesting stuff about Colt and Royal Wimbledon.

Also just wanted to add that South Bedfordshire (South Beds) was remodelled by Mackenzie in 1920 while still in partnership with Colt and Alison. The bunkering doesn't look all that Mackenzie like to me though. Any thoughts?

Mark Bourgeois

Re: 1920s aerials of British Courses 5
« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2012, 02:58:16 PM »
Neil, what do you make of the holes in the London Flying Club pics? The bunkering, the flow and apparent sharing of fairways: interesting!

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