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Summary

The earliest inland golf course in England, used intermittently until the Second World War, when its land was requisitioned

Monument Type(s):

• GOLF COURSE (Late 19th century to Second World War - 1873 AD to 1940 AD)

Full Description

Crookham Golf Club was started in c1873, with Albert Tull, lord of the manor of Crookham, being a founder. Its course was the third oldest 18 hole course in England as well as being the first one inland <1><2><3>. It spread over 4 miles of unfenced land north of and parallel to the Aldermaston to Newbury road, but it is not clear how much landscaping was carried out to create the course. Nothing is marked on the First Edition Ordance Survey <4> although Golf Course is written at cSU 517 647 on later editions up until the 4th epoch <5>. The club appears to have folded in 1880, but been revived in 1891; no golf was played during the First World War, and the game was last played here in 1940 prior to the construction of the air base when the land was requisitioned.

The Traveller's Friend public house was built in the same year that the course started, and a small club room here was used by members until 1890. Later a club house was built near the Volunteer Inn; these latter buildings were also demolished to make way for the airfield. Crookham Golf club amalgamated with Newbury in 1946, a club which had been established on 120 acres of parkland to the east of Greenham Lodge in the 1920s. Greenham Lodge's stables and laundry had been converted for use as the Clubhouse <1>. The Newbury and Crookham Golf Course covers land to the north of the commons in the 21st century, running down towards the Kennet valley.

Late 19th century reports suggest that golfers were a rare and puzzling sight initially: "Crookham Golf Club ... has just recently been revived under the active and judicious management of the Vicar of Greenham (Rev Skrine). When one thinks of the progress golf has made in popular estimation, it is hard to realise that only twenty years ago a solitary golfer (Rev J. Scott Ramsay) might have been seen playing on the pleasant common of Crookham in Berkshire, literally astonishing the natives, who could not understand what the white and red flags were meant for, and why such a collection of clubs should be carried....There can be no question of the beauty of the views from the common and the fine healthy air one breathes there, furthermore it may unhesitatingly be claimed for the Crookham links that it is one of the most sporting inland courses to be found anywhere." <6>

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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