Early postcards of Mackenzie's new course at Hadley Wood GC

[Neil_Crafter]

Dr Mackenzie designed a new course for the Hadley Wood Golf Club in London that opened in 1922. Here's a little of what we know about the course:

Doak Scott Haddock list as new course by Mackenzie from 1921.  Hawtree and C&W both list it as new course from 1922, while club website says course opened in 1922. Listed in Mackenzie's 1923 brochure/advertisement. Article from the Barnet Press of 2 June 1922 says that the course was officially opened on Saturday 27 May 1922. "Dr. A. Mackenzie (architect of the golf course)" was amongst the list of those present at the official opening which included an exhibition match between George Duncan & W. B. Smith vs Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. Article indicates that Mr. Harris was the contractor who constructed the course. The Times reported on the opening in its issue of May 29 1922, saying that, "The course, which has been laid out by Dr. A. Mackenzie, of Messrs. Colt, Mackenzie, and Alison, is about 6,500 yards in length, and provides a fine test of golf."

This looks like another Mackenzie course that was constructed by Franks Harris, and another Mac course while the partnership with Colt and Alison was still in effect, that was located in Colt's backyard.

I recently came across these 6 postcards for sale from around 1930 depicting different holes at Hadley Wood, unfortunately I missed out on them at auction, so I only have these low resolution images. Still, better than nothing. They give a good idea of Mackenzie's new course work from this immediate post war period. I've looked at a routing map of the current course and it would seem the course has been renumbered since then - perhaps other GCAers can help determine which holes these are today. I'd also be interested to hear from those who have played the course. The postcards are of holes 6, 8, 11, 13, 14 and 17.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Nice find.  Is that a horse drawn mower in foreground?

[Neil_Crafter]

Thanks Tony.
I believe that is what it is. Here's an enlargement of that section of the photo.

[TEPaul]

Neil:

My God, Mackenzie really was a wonderful bunkerer, wasn't he?!

[Anthony Gray]

Thanks Tony.
I believe that is what it is. Here's an enlargement of that section of the photo.

  THAT ..............Is a golf cart my friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm from West Virginia and I know a golf cart when I see one.

  Anthony

[Neil_Crafter]

TE
Yes indeed he was. As more of these early photographs come to light, that impression certainly gets confirmed. And Franks Harris Bros construction work should not be undersold either.

[Tim Liddy]

Wonderful, wonderful wonderful.  Neil, thanks for sharing.

[Tony_Muldoon]

TE
Yes indeed he was. As more of these early photographs come to light, that impression certainly gets confirmed. And Franks Harris Bros construction work should not be undersold either.

Speculating.

Neil I'm curious about the Franks Harris connection, how often and when did MacKenzie work with them?

Colt was singing their praises from before WW1, he felt they were most trustworthy, provided excellent foremen, who supervised local labour, and could be trusted not to pad their bills to increase the amount in the 10% they added on.  It’s always been a question of how closely tied in to "Colt and Co" the Doctor was; using Franks may have been the company modus operandi.

Do you know when his bother started the construction company?



Richard Pennell and I were going to play there last year but couldn’t get the dates to fit.  Will try again this year (with cameras). 


(After looking at those pictures in the new Colt book that really could be anyone,  don’t the pose and the cloth cap of the chap on the mower look a little familiar?  No! Ok just imagining.

Also is this an early example of mowing the rough, to alleviate the need to waste time searching for lost balls?)

[Neil_Crafter]

Tim - thanks, glad you enjoyed seeing them, I certainly did.

Tony - I reckon that there are at least 8 or 10 courses that Franks Harris Bros built for Mackenzie that we are aware of at the moment, but I suspect the likely number would be a bit higher than that. I have been meaning to make myself a list and will hopefully start one shortly, also with some dates. But I suspect these courses would date immediately post war, until Mac's brother Charles got his construction firm CA Mackenzie & Co (with James Nicholson) back into operation after Charles returned from Canada after the armistice.  Mac had a vested interest in getting the British Golf Course Construction Co as it became, to build most of his courses as he had a financial interest in it.

This may well have been the partnership's MO as you say, to use Franks Harris, but it doesn't seem Mac was big on following partnership protocols.

In May 1923 Charles was still operating as CA Mackenzie & Co, but by June that year, Nicholson retired and in July 1923 the BGCCCo was in operation with Charles, Alister and their wives as directors. A testimonial page that was put together by BGCCCo included references from the Dr's design projects that Charles had built and these letters date from 1921 and 1922, so this work must have been undertaken in the years prior. So I reckon there were Mac projects built by Franks Harris and some by CA Mackenzie at the same time in this early post war period.

Which pics in the Colt book are you referring to Tony?

[Tony_Muldoon]

Which pics in the Colt book are you referring to Tony?

Neil I was just being flippant, based on the 'collection of architects' picture in your recent thread.


So is it fair to say the following are 'facts' ?

In 1923 MacKenzie had a new business interest in construction.   

Around 1923 his short lived collaboration with Colt and Alison started to unravel.


It could be coincidence or just part of a greater awakening of the possibilities that the world had for him. 

[Neil_Crafter]

Tony
You filppant? I never would have believed it.

While the first is a fact, the second is open to a little more conjecture I think. In 1923 he put out his own promotional pamphlet that stated the partnership was over, so I think it had begun to unravel quite a bit earlier than that - probably not long after the partnership started to hazard a guess.

[Sean_A]

Tony
You filppant? I never would have believed it.

While the first is a fact, the second is open to a little more conjecture I think. In 1923 he put out his own promotional pamphlet that stated the partnership was over, so I think it had begun to unravel quite a bit earlier than that - probably not long after the partnership started to hazard a guess.

Neil

Dr Mac's work seems to look very different when England, Oz & California are compared and that at least at some of his English courses we can see the beginnings of the California look.  Could the breakup of the Dr Mac version of Colt and Co be due at least in part to Dr Mac wanting some prominent southern England work?  I find it curious why he never seemed to break through in what had to be considered one of the most important inland golf markets in the world.  Do you think Colt more or less told Dr Mac to stay up north and that without Colt's influence Dr Mac could see the writing on the wall concerning London area work and thus decided to go on a roadshow to Oz and USA?  I know he had some personal reasons for wanting to bolt the scene, but could lack of prominent opportunities also be a factor? 

The entire situation seems rather weird to me. Why the heck didn't Dr Mac get prominent London work or for that matter continental work?  Did the big three of Colt, Park Jr and Fowler (plus related associates) effectively black ball Dr Mac in some way?  Dr Mac seems strangely to be on the outside when it was plainly clear he could design - Alwoodley was proof of that and it was a fairly early design in the "heathland" movement.

Ciao

[Lyne Morrison]

Neil - thanks

On reading about the above change of direction with contract arrangements I was left wondering if you had noticed any perceptible change in Mackenzie’s finished work following the move from Franks Harris to Charles and the BGCCCo. Any notable variations in finished shape that would tie in with the change of contractor?

Cheers -- Lyne

[David Stamm]

Great stuff once again, Neil!



Great point you bring up, Sean. I too have found it very strange in regards to AM, Colt, etc. and how all that went down.

[Neil_Crafter]

Sean
His immediate post-war work looks more confident than a lot of his pre-war work to me, and perhaps that is just the passage of time and the amount of time he spent thinking about architecture during the war, and possibly also as a result of his work with trench camouflage.

Mackenzie did get some London area work, but whether it was "prominent" is another matter. In his 1923 brochure he lists the following courses he had consulted to for London:

Hadley Wood
London Country Club (London Flying Club)
Northwick Park (Harrow)
Stanmore
Tooting Bec
West Herts (Cassiobury Park)

Of these, the London Flying Club course may well have been the highest profile course, given that the proponent, the aviator Claude Grahame-White was a household name in England, and club members were from London's elite.

While I think Colt might have encouraged Mackenzie to stay north, the reality of this number of London area courses indicates that he didn't stay north regardless of Colt's wishes. He did not work on the Continent that we know of although we do know he visited France and Belgium outside of the war years and most probably as a back up for Colt when Colt could not make a visit. As to him being blackballed, I can't say I've seen anything to support this thought.

Lyne
No I haven't noticed any tangible difference as I don't think there are enough period photos available currently to make a valid comparison. No doubt there were subtle differences.

David
Thanks. I'm sure there is much we don't know about the partnership situation and may never know for certain. We'll keep trying to find more as time goes on.

[TEPaul]

Neil:

Even though I do recognize it is speculation on my part, I have always suspected the Colt, Alison, Mackenzie partnership was always a bit defensive on the part of Colt and Alison, if you know what I mean----eg Colt and Alison may've felt it was more prudent all around to have Mackenzie working from within their company rather than outside it clearly competing against them. It seems the way they all worked (very much in their own regions) sort of supports that.

[Brian_Ewen]

Neil
Just a heads up that some of these postcards of Hadley Wood have appeared on ebay again .....

http://desc.shop.ebay.co.uk/cdhuk/m.html?_nkw=Hadley+Wood&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=1&_trksid=p3911.m270.l1313&_odkw=golf&_osacat=0