C H A P T E R T H I R T E E N

Back to former gloryA new Club

Respect the cumulative layers of history

Ralph Pickering and Alex Millar

Restoration of the Colt 27-hole course

Restoring Stoke Park to its former glory

Restoration of the Repton bridge

Tennis

Members’ views

Fishing

Goldfinger and other famous films

The Gurkhas at Stoke Park Club

The Colt Cup and Colt Association

The future of Stoke Park

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A new Club

In August 1988, IHG (International Hospitals Group Ltd),

who had already been renting offices in the Mansion since

1984, bought a long lease on 215 acres of Stoke Park’s

original estate, through its subsidiary, Stoke Park Ltd (SPL).

This was subject to a sub-lease of over half the clubhouse as

well as the golf course, which had been granted to Stoke Poges

Golf Club Ltd for 35 years in 1958.

Inevitably, there were a few dissenters, but as the

Daily Express reported, the deal was considered a good one

for all concerned:

One of the country’s best known golf courses has been sold together

with a large historic mansion … for a mere £2 million.

The 197-acre Stoke Park Estates, which includes Stoke Poges golf

course and clubhouse, is now owned by the International Hospitals

Group.

Announcing the deal this week, South Bucks Council’s recreation

and amenities chairman, Brian Learmount, said ‘This is a great day

for ratepayers.’

Councillor Learmount insists it’s such a good deal for the ratepayers

because it relieves the council of previous expensive obligations – vital

restoration of the 200-year-old mansion house and the provision of a

new clubhouse.

These ‘savings’ are said to be worth £3.8 million to the council.

International Hospitals Group is a British company which provides

health care consultancy services throughout the world. It operates a num-

ber of hospitals in the Middle East.

The group set up its headquarters at Stoke Park two years ago and was

paying the council £100,000 a year rent for part of the mansion.

Stoke Poges Golf Club rents the other half of the vast building and the

18-hole course itself for a total of £16,000 a year.

Councillor Learmount defended the council’s decision to negotiate

for the sale of the lease with one party instead of inviting tenders on the

open market.

He said: ‘It is good practice to negotiate with a sitting tenant and we

were very fortunate to have one big enough to come up with the goods and

properly maintain an historic building.

‘The council’s negotiations have been conducted all the way through by

our own professional staff and outside experts and their final verdict is

it’s a very good deal for the ratepayers of South Bucks.’

Another Stoke Poges councillor, Rex Lingham-Wood, was equally

enthusiastic about the deal.

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He said: ‘Two million these days may sound like a telephone number or

the price of a semi-detached house in central London.

‘But it’s a lot of money to pay for a dilapidated mansion and a golf

course which can’t be used for anything else.

‘There is no such thing as redevelopment potential when you’re talking

about an 18-hole golf course in the Green Belt.’

The estate had suffered from over 50 years of under-invest-

ment, neglect, and sales of key elements of the historic land-

scape. Working with English Heritage, the council had given

themselves permission to convert the entire Mansion to

offices and build a new small clubhouse on the edge of the

golf course. The idea was that a limited restoration of the

exterior of the Mansion would be possible from the revenue

created, but the interiors and the historic landscape and gar-

dens would have been lost.

SPL undertook extensive and detailed research between

1989 and 1991 and made the decision to return the estate to

its former glory. The plans which had been drawn up for new

offices and a brand-new clubhouse were abandoned in favour

of returning to Nick Lane Jackson’s country club idea of

1908. The strategy was to increase radically the restoration

works and to make the estate financially viable for the first

time since the 1930s so that the neglect of the previous 50

years would not be repeated once restoration was completed.

The planned investment was no less than £30 million, and

this courageous decision was taken when the UK and the rest

of the world was suffering from the recession brought on by

the inflationary excesses of the late 1980s.

The plan was certainly ambitious, with two long-term aims:

1. Restore the estate to its 1908 period as far as possible, working with

local community groups;

2. Create the best country club in the world.

To achieve this, the following had to be completed:

• Clear the scrub and trees from the 215 acres that SPL had leased that

had ruined the Repton landscape of 1795;

• Remove any inappropriate golf-related additions to the landscape;

• Restore all the major Repton views to and from the Mansion, working

with other owners of parts of the historic estate as necessary;

• Restore the fourteen acres of historic gardens;

• Sink a borehole, create an irrigation system for the golf course,

landscape and recreate the irrigation system for the historic gardens as

well as restoring the water features;

• Restore the outside of the building and the roof, replacing where

necessary, and restore by removing the paint from the marble statues

and Portland stone decoration;

• Remove the offices from the mansion and restore the top two floors to

the 1790 Wyatt bedroom layout and the third of the ground floor not

under the Club’s control and reintegrate them for the first time since

1928;

• Restore the ground floor and return the rooms as much as possible to

their original look and feel. This would include moving all golf-

related uses such as the ladies’ changing rooms into the basement;

• Clear the surrounding environment of the Mansion of all the modern

sheds that had been built to service the maintenance of the estate and

move all these functions to the edge of the estate;

• Buy back 100 acres of land that had been part of the estate since before

the Domesday Book of 1086 and restore the land and the Repton views

across them, and especially the ‘Capability’ Brown lakes of 1750 which

had become derelict;

• Rebuild the nine-hole golf course, which was ploughed up for

agriculture during the Second World War, according to Colt’s original

design of 1908;

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Nearby Windsor Castle in the autumn.

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• Give the local William Penn School its own purpose-built playing

field;

• Obtain planning permission for the above;

• Obtain planning permission for a new health and racquet facility to

include indoor tennis, a swimming pool and gym to replace some of

the revenue from the office solution which would not now be

implemented;

• Restore the Repton bridge which was vandalised and damaged;

• Improve security and reduce vandalism with a new gatehouse and 4.5

kilometres of new fencing;

• Create a new heritage walk for the public which will link together all

parts of the original landscape which cannot be brought into one

ownership and management. This will link the National Trust field,

the Manor House, the church, the Memorial Gardens and the main

estate for the first time since the 1920s;

• Buy back the 1929 golf course and restore it, together with its

landscape which had been part of the estate for many centuries unt i l

the 1930s;

• Buy back the 1555 Manor House.

All of the above except for the buying back of the 1929 golf

course and the Manor House were achieved between 1991 and

1999. The landscape, clubhouse and existing golf course were

restored by the end of 1997. In April 1998 additional facili-

ties including 21 bedrooms, four conference rooms, the shop

(which until then was a shed in the car park) and a restaurant

were completed. In March 1999 the nine-hole golf course,

lost during the war, was re-opened, thereby creating a 27-

hole golf facility based on the original Colt-designed layout

of 1908. During this time the number of people working

full-time at the Club increased from nine to 111. In 1996 the

Club was named ‘Golf Club of the Year’ by Following the

Fairways, the largest-selling golf club review book, with entries

of no fewer than 2,431 courses in Britain. In 1999 the Club

was also accepted as a member of ‘The Leading Hotels of the

World’. This was a unique achievement for a golf club. Sister

members in England were the Savoy, Claridges and the

Dorchester.

The explanation for the radical change in strategy for the

restoration of Stoke Park emanated from the most unlikely

source: the acquisition from an antiques dealer in Brighton

of a 1903 photograph for £6 in 1991.

The photograph appeared in a 1903 edition of Country Life

and showed views which, by 1991, had long since been

obscured by trees, shrubbery and undergrowth. Hertford

King, a director of Stoke Park Ltd, said:

It was only when we tried to find that view, which was taken 10 yards from

the Mansion, that we really became interested in research and trying to

find out a little more about what the place looked like. We thought that if

this had been allowed to happen 10 yards from the Mansion itself, what

had happened further out in the estate’s landscape and gardens. That £6

has cost us about £40 million in restoration works.

When they did find out ‘a little more’, the scale of the task

became clearer. The west garden had become overgrown and

derelict, the bridge designed by Humphry Repton vandalised,

a cascade designed by ‘Capability’ Brown concreted over and

the lakes obscured and silted up. The tennis courts had been

consumed by the golf course and the overgrown garden. All

Repton’s principal views and gardens had been lost.The South Terrace.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 4 9

Respect the cumulative layers of history

There are very few properties in the world with almost 1,000

years of recorded owners, each of whom left, to a greater or

lesser extent, their mark on the estate for future generations.

The approach to this restoration challenge was set out in

SPL’s Conservation Management Plan, approved by English

Heritage and the National Trust, among others, in 2005:

The overall strategy is to respect the cumulative layers of history by con-

serving and enhancing significant elements which are fundamental or

essential to the design concept of the heritage assets at Stoke Park and

by removing intrusive elements where this is compatible with operational

and statutory restrictions.

The Park: the Repton plan (1797) and the First Edition OS plan (1876)

will be used to guide conservation and restoration of planting in the park

as a whole. Features that were retained by Repton and which pre-date his

design will be conserved and restored, for example, the lakes and surviv-

ing elements of the earlier tree planting. Essential elements of the design

concept are laid out in the Repton plan and it shows the key vistas, the

planting layout, and the circulation layout. The First Edition provides a

late 19th-century snapshot of the maturing, and to some extent evolving,

S T O K E P A R K2 4 8

The works required to restore the Mansion were equally

daunting. One side of the Mansion was no less than 45 cen-

timetres lower than the other because of subsidence. A six-

tonne metal girder had to be inserted into the building to

prevent its collapse, while plumbing, heating and electrical

systems were ripped out and replaced.

The Wyatt layout was restored, the top two floors of the

Mansion were converted from offices into 21 luxurious hotel

rooms, all the rooms were given gas fireplaces, and those on

the first floor have a terrace. Hidden heating coils were

installed in the marble bathroom floors.

There can hardly be a clubhouse anywhere like it in the

world. The carpet in the 100-square-metre sitting room is

one piece and was hand-made in Thailand for £70,000. All

of the mirror frames were gold-leafed by hand, prompting

Chester King to say:

Ninety-five out of a hundred people can’t tell the difference. We’re

trying to impress the five who can. We could also have bought cheaper

carpeting, but that’s not the attitude of the Club. We want to create an

amazing atmosphere.

One happy corporate player of Stoke Park is Stuart

Robinson, President and CEO of Ferrari/Maserati North

America, a diehard golfer who has played many of the world’s

best private clubs, from Valderrama in Spain to the Hong

Kong Golf Club. One of his favourites is Stoke Park, and he

said of it:

I don’t think there’s another club in the world with Stoke’s combination

of facilities, easygoing members and an excellent course. It’s a real jewel.

The view of the lovely St Giles’ church across the golf course.

Harry Latham – the popular vicar of St Giles’. The Pennsylvania Suite.

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In summary, the specific objectives of the management strategy for Stoke

Park are:

• Respect the cumulative layers of landscape history and essentially

renew key elements to perpetuate these in the future;

• To use the First Edition OS plan (surveyed 1876)/1797 plan as the

template for new planting and to ensure that all tree planting is based

on historic pattern (location) and precedent (species);

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Repton landscape and provides a useful and accurate baseline for restora-

tion of the planting structure.

The Pleasure Grounds: the Garden Magazine article published in 1843

(written 1833) by Loudon provides a detailed account ‘communicated by

Robert Osbourne’ and reflects a ‘Flower Garden in the classical style of

the poet Mason’. The Florist article (1853) provides detail on the expand-

ing and ever-evolving Pleasure Grounds, and the First Edition (1876)

shows new layout of paths. Later articles and sales documents provide fur-

ther detail of the grounds. The conservation and management of the

pleasure grounds will be guided by all these documents in order to restore

the spirit of the late 19th-century appearance of the maturing Pleasure

Gardens.

The Golf Course: no surviving plans of the Colt course have been discov-

ered in the archive and it is understood that the layout has been altered

to take into account technological advances in the game. Donald Steel

Golf Course Architects were commissioned to design a further 9 holes

making 27 holes in total by 1997. The remaining structure of the Colt

layout will be conserved and future golf course development (alteration of

bunkers, greens, tees and fairways) will be guided by the landscape master

plan. There are possible plans to purchase land to the north of the park

and restore the 45-hole course that was built by Sir Noel Mobbs, which

will require careful planning in order to integrate any new golf course

elements within the landscape.

The Mansion House: the layouts of the first and second floors have been

irreversibly changed during the 20th century and there is little documen-

tary evidence of their original layout. The underlying plan of the base-

ment can still be seen, but little historic detail remains. The rooms on

the ground floor comprise a series of interiors of differing periods, each

with their own historic interest and value, some replacing earlier work

and some areas retaining intrusive elements. Cumulative additions to the

exterior of the building have reduced the impact of the earlier projecting

wings, and now give the impression that the main body of the house floats

on a continuous podium.The former Chapel. For many years it was used as the Club’s Committee room and is nowused as a members’ lounge.

• Recognise and respect the archaeological resource and manage

accordingly;

• Conserve and enhance the biodiversity interest of the whole park and

its habitats and species through appropriate management, with

particular attention to the opportunities presented by the grassland,

veteran trees, woodlands and ponds;

• Ensure that all management follows the best practice in relation to

environmental sustainability;

The William and Mary Suite.

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Ralph knows all about the game of golf. He was a top-class amateur,

played for Surrey county and at one time competed in tournaments all

over Europe.

His wide business experience is helping him quickly come to grips with

the important role played by the back-room boys.

Secretaries are the most shot-at people in golf. It is a precarious posi-

tion as the rapid turnover proves. Ralph knows this, but his optimism and

determination to succeed may help in Stoke’s salvation.

Pickering was soon earning the gratitude of the members for

his good work, as is made clear by the report to members of

the Club Captain, Eric Drew, in January 1990, in which, inter

alia, he wrote:

Finally I would like to mention the work of Ralph Pickering. He took the

position of Secretary/Manager following a very difficult period and has

made an excellent job of it.

Alex Millar, born in 1964, was one of the key appointments

at Stoke Park in the last twenty years, and he is the only

person working at the Club who joined before SPL’s

takeover. You could say that greenkeeping is in the blood. His

grandfather was the professional and greenkeeper at Erskine

Golf Club in Scotland. Grandfather had two sons who both

became greenkeepers, and three daughters, all of whom

married greenkeepers. Alex’s father came south with his

brother to work at Moor Park Golf Club and in 1964

became a greenkeeper at Denham Golf Club. Alex himself

worked on the course at Denham for ten years before

becoming head greenkeeper at the Stoke Park Club in 1989.

He would say later:

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Alex Millar, Estate Director, has worked tirelessly to restore the golf courses to the originalHarry Colt design.

Ralph Pickering, the immensely successful Secretary at the Club, took up his post in thesummer of 1988.

• Respect the cumulative layers of history contained in the interior of

the Mansion House, to remove intrusive elements where compatible

with statutory and operational restrictions and to take every

opportunity to return the building to its appearance in about 1900,

which may be considered the watershed between significant and

expedient alterations.

Ralph Pickering and Alex Millar

Ralph Pickering, who was to prove an immensely successful

Secretary of the Stoke Park Club, was appointed in the sum-

mer of 1988 and took up his post on 1 September. As was

pointed out in the local press, he would have his challenges:

Ralph Pickering is rapidly settling into his new job as secretary of Stoke

Poges Golf Club.

After a week in the hot seat at this South Bucks club, which has had

more than its share of problems, he declared: ‘I like it here. I find every-

one so friendly.’

The gregarious Ralph gathers new friends daily as he meets the staff

and members.

Club president John Jeffrey, captain Ian MacDonald and committee

men Alan Lewis and Peter Huddle, who have been introducing him to his

multifarious duties, are his chief supporters.

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In 2001 Alex Millar re-introduced the painted lobster-pots

instead of flags at Stoke Park, and they were seen on the

course for the first time since 1930. They had first been used

as an economic measure in Scotland, where the fierce winds

ripped apart the traditional flags. The legendary course

architect H.S. Colt had first introduced them to the Club

in 1908.

Alex Millar said:

Colt liked the idea that a lobster pot wouldn’t give players clues to the

direction of the wind, as a flag would, so it’s a tradition I was keen to

bring back. Each nine holes has lobster pots of a different colour to

distinguish between them.

As far as is known, the only other golf club in the world to

use lobster pots instead of flags was Merion in the United

States which, after a visit to Stoke Park by some members,

introduced them in 1912.

By 2006, the dedication and hard work of Alex, his

assistant Matt Parker, and his team were recognised when Golf

Monthly listed Stoke Park as one of the Top 100 Golf Courses

in the world.

When the Stoke Poges Golf Club’s lease of the clubhouse

and the golf course was due to expire in August 1993,

the Club was faced with a number of options. These were

comprehensively laid out for the members in a letter from

the President of the Club, Derek Etherington, on 4

November 1992:

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Our aim was to put the course back to the Colt design and then modify

to how we felt Colt would have designed it today. We very carefully

scrutinised the original plans, and any time we considered deviating

from them we asked ourselves: ‘What would Colt recommend if he were

advising us today?’

By the mid-1990s, so successful had Millar been that Links –

the Best of Golf, in one of its reviews of Great Courses of the

British Isles, wrote:

The positive results of the five-year plan were plain to see, and today, with

the exception of Royal Worlington [another Colt course], Stoke Park has

perhaps the truest and quickest greens of any inland course in England.

The bunkers all appear beautifully sculpted, and the fairways have

benefitted from a new state-of-the art irrigation system.

A fresh look, then, has been given to Colt’s artistry. From the champ-

ionship tees, the course now measures almost 6,700 yards with a par of

71. The most famous hole is the beautiful yet mischievous par-3 7th … the

inspiration for Augusta’s 12th, the centrepiece of Amen Corner. [It turns

out that this is incorrect. The 7th was indeed an inspiration for a short

hole at Augusta, but it was the original 16th when it was played from a

completely different angle from today.]

The 3rd and the 11th are also outstanding short holes, although the

former can be a brute when played into the wind. The real strength of the

course, however, lies in its superb mix of par 4’s. [By 2007 there were ten

par 4’s over 400 yards.] Among the best of these are, on the front nine,

the 4th, with its deceptively raised green, and the ingeniously bunkered

6th. On the back nine there are the sweeping down-and-up 10th, its

green framed by an attractive stand of pines; the long 12th; and the 17th

and 18th, two excellent closing par 4’s. The former has a fairway that

tumbles down to a green sited on the far side of a creek, followed by an

exacting home hole with a green that’s fiercely defended by natural swales

and plenty of sand.

Here is the Great Hall in 2008.

SPL were determined to revive tennis as part of the Club, and thirteen new courts – hard,grass and indoor – were built between 1994 and 2002.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 5 7

• No entrance fees at any time for members of our club admitted

before 30th September 1992.

• Proposed annual subscriptions from 1st September 1993: Full

£1,000; 5 day £700; in each case plus VAT. A 10% discount for

over 70’s; 20% discount for married couples.

• An annual levy of £250 plus VAT to spend on food, drinks and

social events at the club.

• Security of membership for at least the period of the lease

proposed to be granted to the club – provisionally agreed at 25

years.

• The landlords to take over assets of the existing club in exchange

for assuming its responsibility for dilapidations.

• You will see from IHG’s attached copy letter that they propose

improved facilities and standards.

In our discussions we have been concerned also to secure a limit on future

fee increases. To some extent this will be governed by what the market will

bear, particularly as we have the advantage that we do not have to pay any

joining fee. By way of further assurance IHG have agreed that fee increa-

ses shall for five years have an outside limit of inflation plus 15% p.a.

Conclusion

Your directors have been closely involved during the course of the nego-

tiations so far and you are entitled to expect them to express a view.

Having carefully considered the various factors most of which are sum-

marised above, the board is firmly of the view that the members’ interests

will currently best be served by pursuing the discussions with IHG to see

if we can negotiate in detail a deal on a fair basis that the board could rec-

ommend. The deciding consideration is that any new lease we could get

would never be more than a temporary expedient and we would have to go

through this exercise again in due course. Any lease granted would be

unlikely to be long enough to justify the essential and substantial capital

expenditure which is becoming ever more urgent. A new club with some

inbuilt protection for our members should represent a more permanent

arrangement if (and only if) we can negotiate conditions which would give

reasonable protection to our members who decide to join the new club.

S T O K E P A R K2 5 6

You are aware that our lease of the clubhouse and golf course expires next

August and that we have been negotiating with the landlords International

Hospitals Group Limited (IHG) as to what options might be available

when the lease comes to an end. We have now taken those negotiations to

the point where we need to seek your views.

In our negotiations with the landlords we have had three possibilities

in mind:

1. That we might buy the clubhouse and the course or simply buy

the course and build our own clubhouse;

2. To pursue negotiations based on the desire of IHG to take over

and run the club as a proprietary club; and

3. To pursue our right to a new lease.

The purpose of this letter is to examine the alternatives and to explain the

relevant considerations with a view to ascertaining your views.

1. The Purchase Option

We are very conscious of some members’ views that past opportunities to

buy the course may have been missed so we have pursued the subject with

IHG. In lengthy discussions they have resisted any suggestion that we

might buy an interest in the club premises and as will be seen they have

now confirmed in writing that they will not sell. Reluctantly we have had

to drop this possibility although we would pursue it if the opportunity

arose.

This leaves us with the question of whether it would be more in our

interests to accept the offer the landlords propose making or to take legal

action with the hope of getting a new lease.

2. A Proprietary Club Owned by IHG

Our negotiations with IHG have resulted in the letter we have received

from them of which a copy is attached. You will see that they propose to

set up a proprietary club and to offer you membership of that club on the

terms set out in that letter.

The main points of the IHG proposals so far as they affect club

members are:

The Fountain Room in 2008. It is interesting to compare it with a photo taken 100 yearsago (see page 117).

The Windsor Room.

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Restoration of theColt 27-hole course

In 1996 SPL decided that they would rebuild the nine holes

of the original Colt golf course at Stoke Park, and Hertford

King wrote this letter to all the members:

After many years of negotiation the Club has now reached agreement with

two adjoining landowners to buy back 70 acres of the historic estate which

were central to the ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton landscape

and the original H.S. Colt 27-hole course of 1908. A planning permis-

sion has also been submitted to restore the 9 holes, recreating a 27-hole

course which will be rebuilt as close to the H.S. Colt original as possible

and be reintegrated into the existing course.

The restoration will include some of the most spectacular holes at

Stoke Poges with the two large ‘Capability’ Brown lakes as the centrepiece.

Details of the new plans can be seen in the clubhouse.

The proposed restoration works will also include the Repton bridge of

1801, the ‘Capability’ Brown Cascade of 1751, the lakes themselves, a

bronze age funeral barrow and the restoration of the historic views to the

Manor House, the Church, Gray’s Monument and Windsor Castle, which

were all visible until c. 1950.

When these works are integrated with the restoration which has been

undertaken in the existing landscape, golf course and gardens since 1993,

the unique beauty of this historic estate will be restored for all of us to

enjoy.

Another benefit of these restoration works is the increase in the vari-

ety of wildlife now to be found as the parkland and water has been opened

S T O K E P A R K2 5 8

Nevertheless it is your views and decisions that will prevail and in order

to ascertain those views a questionnaire is enclosed. The answers to the

questions will assist the board in its deliberations so every member is

asked to complete the form and return it to the club within the next 14

days. We shall then proceed to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting

of members at which members will have the chance to discuss the out-

come.

There is no doubt that the good relationship we have built up with the

landlords in the hours of discussions that have taken place has resulted in

a great improvement on the terms first offered and augurs well for the

future. There is still a long way to go but each of you will now be able to

assess the alternatives and express an option as to the direction you wish

us to take.

Yours sincerely,

Derek Etherington

President

With Ralph Pickering carrying on as Club Secretary to ensure

continuity, and the good relationship created between Derek

Etherington and his Committee and the directors of Stoke

Park Limited, a proposal was agreed that led to 80 per cent of

the existing membership joining the new proprietary club on

13 August 1993.

As work on restoration progressed, the Daily Express moni-

tored its progress, interviewing Hertford King, Managing

Director of Stoke Park Ltd:

But time and neglect allowed undergrowth to begin covering the beauty

of the park. The treasure was being slowly buried. In 1989, Stoke Park

Ltd, which bought the leasehold for £2 million, sent in the explorers.

Club secretary Ralph Pickering was among the searchers, diligently

disappearing into the jungle in search of the lost jewels.

King will never forget the day Pickering returned from one mission in

a state of excitement after discovering a statue, covered in weeds and

undergrowth. ‘The trouble was when we went out to see it the area was so

dense Ralph could not find it again,’ he says.

That statue, along with other sculptures, have been returned to earlier

prominence as the restoration – expected to cost £5.5 million in total –

nears completion.

An upgrade is likely to incorporate several other changes. The tennis

and croquet club is to be relaunched in June, while plans are being con-

sidered for a further nine holes plus a new pavilion housing an indoor

swimming pool.

There is a renewed energy about the place where scenes from the Sixties

Bond film Goldfinger were shot, including Odd Job’s infamous bowler hat

routine. And Sean Connery’s son Jason filmed sequences for The Spymaster

there in 1991.

Work began on the exterior of the mansion four years ago and the

original moulding, stucco and wrought iron balconies have been

painstakingly recreated. Workmen started on the interior last August. ‘We

had to restore it room by room because we couldn’t close it down for

the members,’ said King.

A 74-year-old stone mason, who has worked on the Queen’s bathroom,

restored 12 fireplaces and stripped away the accumulated tar and cigar

smoke of two centuries from the reliefs on the wall.

The imposing marble staircase of the Grand Hall, the longest free-

standing one in the country, has been brought back to its former beauty.

In the reception, carpet tiles have been taken up and the old floor tiles

refitted. Elsewhere, replicas were made of Victorian etched glass and

older brass door fittings and carpets have been hand woven by Wilton

Royal.

Oil paintings, tapestries, stone urns and gilt wall brackets have been

collected. ‘We’ve tried to take it back to the glory days of the club, with a

turn-of-the-century feel, but in its clash between then and the early

Palladian period, it’s Palladian which wins through. It’s a difficult bal-

ancing act between creating a historic place and somewhere members feel

comfortable,’ explains King.

Stoke Park’s famous 7th green, often said to be the inspiration for Augusta’s 12th. In fact,it was the original 16th at Augusta before it was radically altered in the 1940s. In restoringthe hole to Colt’s design the small lake was reinstated.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 6 1

Restoring Stoke Park to its former glory

In 1997 SPL carried out a feasibility study of how to restore

Stoke Park back to its former glory of one of the UK’s most

impressive country clubs.

By 1922, the original Club included a 45-hole Colt-

designed golf course, twelve tennis courts, a cricket pitch,

croquet, rowing and other recreational facilities, as well as

twenty bedrooms. By 1945, the Club had lost its bedrooms,

tennis, cricket and rowing facilities, and eighteen holes, and

then another nine holes, of the golf course to agriculture

during the Second World War. However, eighteen holes

remained, and the Club was voted Golf Club of the Year by

Following the Fairways in 1996.

So what facilities would be needed in the 21st century to

recreate the original 1908 vision for the Club? The report

identified that the ‘health and fitness industry’ had increased

at a rapid rate in recent years and that, although this there-

fore provided plenty of opportunity to attract members, it

also meant that there was competition.

On the tennis front, the report noted that Stoke Park

Club would be the only club in South Buckinghamshire

offering both indoor and outdoor courts.

In summary, the report said:

The Health & Racquets Club sit comfortably with both the existing and

future product mix at Stoke Park. It is an essential addition and is pivotal

in Stoke Park establishing itself as a Country Club.

Integration is key to the success of the Club in its widest sense. The

synergy that will exist between the various business areas can be illust-

rated by the links between the Health & Racquets Club and the other

components at Stoke Park. It is imperative, however, that its main func-

tion as a private members’ club is not jeopardised and that the needs of

the members are given priority.

What do medium-handicap golfers think of Stoke Park Club

and the golf course?

Kevin Brown of Today’s Golfer took three men who, as it hap-

pened, all played off thirteen handicap, to play in the early

summer of 1996. These were their views:

John Hawkins (58)

Member of Felixstowe Ferry GC. Living in Chelmondiston, near Ipswich,

John, a 13 handicapper, has been playing for 20 years. He works as an

engineer for a newspaper company.

‘I was very impressed especially with the clubhouse. The majority of par

fours were reachable in two shots, the par fives were no problem –

mainly thanks to the width of the fairways. There were some enormous

bunkers – and plenty of them. I’d like to take the seventh hole home with

me. As a traditionalist regarding golf courses, this certainly ranks among

the best I’ve visited.’

Darren Reade (28)

Member of Telford GC. Darren lives in Telford and plays off 13

handicap. He has been playing for 13 years, and works as a local

government officer.

S T O K E P A R K2 6 0

up while the larger woodland areas have been maintained.

If planning permission is obtained in the next few months, it is our

intention to start restoration works in January 1997 with the course open

for play in the summer of 1998. Although the proposal is only to restore

the original course and English Heritage have given it their full support,

planning permission is far from assured and therefore we would greatly

appreciate any letters of support which should be sent to South Bucks

District Council.

The restoration of these 9 holes and its landscape is the most impor-

tant development for the Club since 1908 and we hope that our members

will benefit from this new facility in 1998.

Not only was the Mansion restored to its former glory but every effort was made to return the golf course to Harry Colt’s design.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 6 3

‘It’s an excellent course with very generous fairways. The only time you

were penalised off the tees was when you hit the fairway bunkers. Greens

were very good and fast – not what I’m used to. The par fives were shor-

ter than I imagined – some of the longer par fours were more difficult.

There were some excellent par threes with the seventh being the pick of

the bunch. The fifth (par five) and tenth (par four) were also quite good.’

Philip Partington (41)

Member of Bramshaw GC in New Forest. Philip lives in Hedgend, near

Southampton, and plays off 13 handicap, having taken up the game 10

years ago. He is a sales executive.

‘It’s a superb course. The greens were exceptionally good, in superb

condition – as quick as they should be. To be honest, it wasn’t as difficult

as I thought – I’d imagined tighter fairways with more trees. But the fair-

ways were very forgiving – the difficulty arose when you got near the

greens which were fast and protected by a huge amount of bunkers. I agree

the seventh is the pick of the holes but I was equally impressed by the

stunning clubhouse. Stoke Poges is a treat for any golfer, and I wouldn’t

hesitate paying £45 to return.’

In 1991 the ATS Pro-Am was able to attract the talent of

Colin Montgomerie, the Scot, who was to dominate

European golf in 1990s and the early part of the 21st cent-

ury, but who remains in June 2008 perhaps the best golfer

never to win a Major.

Another benefit from the Stoke Park Club’s point of view

in staging the Pro-Ams was the welcome praise and publicity

it could bring for the Club. This is what Alistair Tait, deputy

editor of Golf Monthly, wrote to Chester King in 1994:

This is just a short note to thank you for an excellent day yesterday.

Like everyone in the office, I had heard of Stoke Poges but had no idea

what the course was like. Needless to say, it was a very pleasant surprise. It

definitely rates highly with the best parkland courses in the country. It is

a tough but fair test, and I thought the greens were excellent. They are

certainly the best I have played on this year, which is a tribute to your

greenkeeper after the horrendous winter we’ve had.

The clubhouse is also quite excellent, and I think your company has

made a wise move to restore it to its former glory.

James W. Finnegan, a golf historian and member of Pine

Valley (another Harry Colt course), wrote this about Stoke

Park in his book, All Courses Great and Small: A Golfer’s Pilgrimage to

England and Wales, published in 2003:

In 1908 Colt laid out twenty-seven holes for the newly minted Stoke Park

Club, at Stoke Poges. The golf just may be put in the shade by the club-

house cum hotel, an eighteenth-century Palladian-style mansion by

James Wyatt, architect to King George III. This terraced and balustraded

and pedimented and be-columned pale cream mansion is more magnifi-

cent today than at any time in its history, thanks principally to the full-

scale restoration of the interior during the late 1990s. At every turn we

encounter a veritable symphony of the decorative arts employed in tradi-

tional style: marble columns and parquet floors, crystal chandeliers and

priceless antiques, fine tapestries and old oil paintings, handsome pan-

elling and magnificent carved fireplaces, luxurious fabrics and equally

luxurious carpets, and, lest it all sound rather overpowering, plenty of

comfortable leather-upholstered club chairs for simply relaxing.

Colt’s gently rolling layout here at Stoke Park is an ideal companion to

the manor house in that it, too, is stylish and elegant. But Colt did not

have a first-rate parcel of land (very little feature) and the result is good

parkland golf but no better. There are some pedestrian holes – the par-

five 1st and 13th, the par-four 6th and 16th, and the par-three 15th – and

it seems to me that there are no inarguably great holes, though a number

are very good.

S T O K E P A R K2 6 2

The Repton bridge, designed by Humphry Repton in the 18th century, was badly in need of restoration by the end of the 20th century.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 6 5

Restoration of theRepton bridge

In 2003, work began on restoring the Repton bridge to its

former glory. Two years and £600,000 later, the restoration

was completed. After an archaeological survey, the supports

and foundations had to be stabilised, which was a difficult job

as a lot of it was underwater. This work was carried out by a

team from Wolff Stone Limited from Somerset, led by Shaun

Wolff. Once this was completed, Thomas Cudworth, one of

the few artists still creating in Coade-type stone, installed the

balustrades. Cudworth recreated each individual balustrade,

a process which took twelve months. At the official re-open-

ing Hertford King said:

The bridge is now in its 206th year and we’re very hopeful that we’re not

going to have another one of these events for another 206 years. The

restoration has been one of the most complex projects we have under-

taken. It took longer to rebuild the bridge than to rebuild the top two

storeys of the mansion.

The project was highly praised by English Heritage and the

Georgian Group, who both asked SPL to put it forward for

restoration awards.

Tennis

As we have seen, Nick Lane Jackson had been involved in ten-

nis at the highest levels at the end of the 19th century and had

ensured that tennis formed an integral part of the Stoke Park

Club when he founded it in 1908. Sir Noel Mobbs had con-

tinued that tradition in 1929 when he reformed the Club.

However, the tennis section had dwindled to virtually noth-

ing by the end of the 1950s, and the grass courts became

overgrown.

SPL were determined to revive tennis as part of the Club,

and thirteen new courts – hard, grass and indoor – were built

between 1994 and 2002. The Stoke Park Tennis Club was

formed in 1994, played in the Buckinghamshire leagues

against other local clubs, and gradually worked its way to the

top.

In 2002 the Boodles Challenge was first played at the

Club, and it established itself as one of the important pre-

Wimbledon events on the tennis calendar. In its first five

years, the Boodles Challenge attracted players who had won

over 60 Grand Slam titles between them, from Pete Sampras

to André Agassi.

Tim Henman said: ‘Absolutely ideal, the Boodles is just

what I needed.’

S T O K E P A R K2 6 4

In 2004 the substantial renovation task had been completed.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 6 7

Opposite page: Tennis was an important element of the Club in its early days (‘Pa’ Jacksonhad been involved in tennis at the highest level). The Stoke Park Tennis Club was formed in1994 and thirteen new courts – hard, grass and indoor – were built. The Boodles Challengewas first played in 2002 and has become one of the events of the Stoke Park Club summerprogramme.

Left: Tim Henman was in the world’s top ten players for over ten years. He played in theBoodles Challenge several times and also opened the indoor tennis courts at Stoke Park in2001.

Above: André Agassi playing in the Boodles Challenge.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 6 9S T O K E P A R K2 6 8

And Annabel Croft added: ‘This is a unique event that

combines the elegance and sophistication of a quintessential

English summer social occasion with world-class tennis.’

In building the new tennis courts, nothing was spared in

terms of research and expense to make sure they were of the

highest quality. Having grass courts was relatively unusual in

itself, as most clubs prefer courts that can be used in

inclement weather. Furthermore, the grass courts at the

Stoke Park Club were the first such courts to be built in

the UK in the preceding 50 years (outside the All England

Club) to exact Wimbledon (All England Lawn Tennis Club)

specifications.

The new courts were dug out to two feet in depth, with a

twelve-inch root zone on a twelve-inch stone carpet on top of

a herringbone drainage system. To make them as perfect a

match as possible to the Wimbledon courts, even the clay used

came from the same quarry as that used for Wimbledon. The

grass seeds were also a special recipe, with a mix of rye, bent

and fescue grasses in the correct proportions.

They would be looked after by turf-care specialist Alex

Hall, who used to tend Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea

Football Club. The courts would be watered daily by a sprin-

kler system that sprayed a controlled mist over a distance of

100 feet. They would also be mown three times a week, and

during the height of the season one court would always be

resting to ensure that balding patches could be repaired.

Stoke Park Club Director, Mark Fagan (right), with Annie Wainwright and Patricio Apey atthe Boodles Tennis Tournament.

Stoke Park Tennis Club Men’s captains, Lea Greenway (left) and Andrew Watson.

Stoke Park Golf Club Men’s captains.

Stoke Park Golf Club Ladies’ captains.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 7 1S T O K E P A R K2 7 0

By 2005 the excellence of the Stoke Park Club was becom-

ing widely appreciated, and in July of that year John

Burbedge wrote in The Business Magazine:

Great clubs need little introduction and barely the whisper of their

name to gain the regard of many and recognition by all. Just a few initials

or a word often suffices: RAC, MCC, the R&A, Leander, Man U, the

All-England.

And now, fast becoming known by three-initial familiarity, we have

SPC.

The Stoke Park Club, to give this Buckinghamshire jewel its full name,

may have nine centuries of recorded heritage but today it caters for 21st-

century leisure, providing a range of facilities that is arguably unrivalled

within the UK.

Where else can you play a championship golf course whose signature

par-three seventh hole was the inspiration for Augusta’s 12th at Amen

Corner? [As we saw earlier, this is incorrect. It was the inspiration for the

original 16th at Augusta.] Where else can you watch world superstars play

on Wimbledon-specification grass courts, and play on them yourself the

next day?

Where else can you be pampered head to toe in ‘The Best New Spa in

the UK’? Where else can you dine in an award-winning restaurant

savouring the mouth-watering creations of a TV-celebrity chef? Where

else can you recreate Bridget Jones’s ‘dirty weekend’, in exactly the same

rooms as used in the hit film?

Where else can you do all these things (and many other experiences

unique to the Stoke Park Club) and find them all set within a beautiful

350-acre estate with lakes landscaped by ‘Capability’ Brown?

In fact, there are another three letters which sum up the Stoke Park

Club – WOW!

The WOW! factor of Stoke Park Club hits visitors as soon as they drive

up the fir-lined driveway and gain their first sight of the impressive 200-

year-old Palladian mansion at the heart of this renowned country club.

Gilly and Roger King (left) with the President of Stoke Park Club, Earl Howe, and Countess Howe.

Members’ views

In researching this book I interviewed a number of current

members. All were extremely enthusiastic about the Club, the

course, the facilities, the clubhouse and, above all, the

friendliness and camaraderie of the members themselves.

This letter written to Roger, Hertford and Chester King by

Jeremy Shepherd in December 2005 after his year as Captain

encapsulates those views:

In not knowing which one of you to write to, I thought that I should take

the bull by the horns and write to each of you to thank you for allowing

me the honour of being Captain at Stoke Park Club throughout 2005. It

has been a most fantastic and memorable year for me and I hope to have

been a positive, supportive and innovative Captain on behalf of the

Members and the management of the club.

I feel that there have probably been two major highlights of the year for

me: firstly, the delivery of the inaugural Captain’s Tour Challenge, an

inclusive trip to Le Touquet which brought together 24 Members, many

of whom had never previously met each other, for a long weekend of golf-

ing and, crucially, socialising! I hoped that this was to be the first of many

future, similar trips and we are already looking forward to the follow-up

in Ireland next year for which we have generated significant interest.

Secondly, and possibly of greater personal significance, was the oppor-

tunity to raise charitable funds for the Magdi Yacoub Institute and I was

absolutely delighted that Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub was able to attend

the Men’s Presentation Dinner at the end of November. (Professor

Yacoub has performed more heart transplants than anyone in the world

and he is only the 3rd medic ever to have been elected as a Fellow of the

Royal Society, the body of pre-eminent scientists which dates back to the

days of Sir Isaac Newton. Additionally, he undertook the life-saving

emergency surgery on me 5 years ago, hence the choice of his institute as

my charity for the year.) We managed to raise a magnificent £4,000 on

the evening of the dinner, and we have raised circa £12,500 during the

year, a figure which has exceeded any expectations and which helps to bal-

ance the books between myself and Professor Yacoub, if that’s possible …

I hope and believe that many Members retain positive memories of the

year; it is a wonderful Club with such a unique history and exciting plans

for continued development that it would be hard to believe that Members

and guests can do anything but enjoy themselves!

So, again, many thanks for giving me the honour to share in so many

wonderful moments at Stoke Park Club and I hope to experience many

more fine times in future years.

Members will be delighted to read this letter to Secretary

Ralph Pickering from the President of the Berks, Bucks &

Oxon Union of Golf Clubs:

15 June 1994

Dear Ralph,

BB&O AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

I would like you to know of an incident at Denham Golf Club on Friday

10 June, the first day of the Championship, concerning one of your

Members … Alec Saary.

Playing the 18th hole in the afternoon with a white no. 1 Slazenger ball

he overshot the green into the hedge. The ball was just playable and he

hacked it out on to the green. While marking it he realised that it was not

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 7 3

his ball. It was a no. 1 Slazenger but without the dots he had put on it

before play. He immediately informed his playing companions thereby

incurring two penalty shots. The original ball was found out of bounds

and the shot replayed thus incurring a total of four penalty shots. He

completed the hole in 9. Mercifully this incident alone did not cause his

failure to qualify for Saturday. Great credit is due to Alec Saary for his

honesty which meets the high standard befitting Amateur Golf, and by his

action great credit to his Golf Club.

Yours sincerely

Philip Mitford

President

Fishing

Fishing had been one of the sporting activities available at the

Stoke Park Club when Pa Lane Jackson opened it in 1908, but

from the Second World War onwards, along with tennis, row-

ing and croquet, the facility was withdrawn. As Nick Fisher

put it in a very amusing article he wrote in Shooting Times in

September 2000 under the heading, ‘Golf Club du lac’:

The lakes in the middle of the course were stocked before World War II

with the famous Leney strain of carp. This is the same strain used to stock

exemplary waters like Redmire, where Yatesy [Chris Yates, a famous carp

fisherman] caught his 51lb 8oz record-breaker, The Bishop, back in 1981.

[After the war], the grounds and lakes, originally landscaped by

Capability Brown and Repton, grew thick with noxious weeds. The under-

growth took over, burying statues and Japanese gardens under an impen-

etrable layer of brambles. Trees fell into the lake, silt filled it up and the

carp grew wild and fat … The lakes have been sorted out. Big carp, netted

out of the lower lake, have been moved to the top one. New carp, care-

fully sourced, have been stocked into the lower lake, where the abundance

of natural food means they put on weight faster than a couch potato at

Christmas.

Chris [Yates] and I parked ourselves on the newly cut, beautifully con-

structed swims made of bank chippings. We catapulted maggots, over-

hand-bowled sweetcorn and flicked wodges of bread crust out into the

water. Yates had his stick bent by a red-eyed, green-backed tench. My

newly bought Edward Barder split cane rod was wobbled by a flashy,

stripey red-finned perch. Deep, worrying swirls punctuated our peace as

fat carp rolled nearby. And sharp crashing splashes burst moments of

silence as yet another mishit golf ball splashed into the water. We ate the

most sumptuous picnic known to man, which was delivered on a golf

buggy with the compliments of the great house. Then, in the full-tummy

warmth of the afternoon we decided to go stalking.

Yates crouched in the long reeds. Poking his split cane between the

green fronds while delicately chucking small handfuls of curry-scented

maggots at a stream of water-borne bubbles. Carp were feeding within

feet of the 15th tee.

S T O K E P A R K2 7 2

The Lower Lake in the early morning with the Manor House in the background.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 7 5

Goldfinger andother famous films

The minutes of the meeting of the Main Committee of the

Stoke Park Club of 4 March 1964 recorded that

The Committee approved of the arrangements so far made regarding the

filming of Goldfinger on the Club’s premises; it was noted that a fee of

£250 [£5,000 in today’s money] had been suggested.

James Bond had removed £10,000 (£200,000 today) from

Goldfinger after catching him cheating at cards in Miami and

that money was the stake in a golf match at Royal St Mark’s (a

transparent pseudonym for Royal St George’s). The match

was actually played at the Stoke Park Club and Bond finally

won on the 18th after further bouts of cheating by

Goldfinger, ably assisted by his intimidating caddy, Oddjob,

who wore a steel-brimmed bowler hat. Bond provoked

Oddjob into an attempt to assassinate him with the hat, but

luckily Bond ducked and the hat famously decapitated one of

the statues by the clubhouse.

This was not the first film with scenes shot at Stoke Park.

In 1945 the film noir, Dead of Night, showed how two golfers in

love with the same woman agreed to resolve the issue in an

eighteen-hole golf match, with the loser agreeing to leave the

region for good.

The Club continued to attract the stars. In 1997 James

Bond returned, this time played by Pierce Brosnan, in

Tomorrow Never Dies. The scene was a hotel in Hamburg, and the

Stoke Park Club ballroom was a bedroom. The Penn Room

was converted into a bathroom, where Brosnan seduced Teri

Hatcher’s Paris Carver, and the Wyatt Room a lounge.

Later that year Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman rented a

house near the Club and became temporary members while

filming the Stanley Kubrick psycho-sexual thriller, Eyes Wide

Shut. For relaxation they took golf lessons from the Club pro,

Tim Morrison.

They were followed by Hugh Grant, who was spotted prac-

tising at the Club by the Mirror and OK! a few days after his

well-publicised split from Liz Hurley in May 2000. (In fact,

Grant is a good golfer and had been a member for a number

of years.) Two months later he was performing at the Club

with Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth in Bridget Jones’s Diary.

Various scenes were shot on the lake and the final grand wed-

ding scene was filmed in the Fountain Room.

Other films where scenes were shot at Stoke Park included

Wimbledon, from the same makers as Notting Hill, and Love

Actually, starring Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany. Scenes

from Bride and Prejudice, from the same director as Bend it Like

Beckham, were also shot at Stoke Park, as were scenes from the

thriller Layer Cake, starring Michael Gambon and Daniel

Craig – soon to become the new James Bond.

S T O K E P A R K2 7 4

Because of the wonderful house andbeautiful surroundings, the Club is ingreat demand for film-sets. Here is HughGrant in Bridget Jones’s Diary and a shot fromLayer Cake, starring Daniel Craig.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 7 7

of the 18th century. As the British took control in Bengal and

Bihar they encountered the city-state of Gorkha, led by the

powerful King Prithwi Narayan Shah. Under this king and

his immediate successors, the Gurkhas (as the soldiers from

Gorkha became known) overran the whole of the hill country

from the Kashmir border in the west to Bhutan in the east.

They proved such a thorn in the flesh of the British that the

Governor General finally declared war on Nepal in 1814.

After two years of bloody fighting, a peace treaty was signed at

Sugauli in 1816.

The British had been enormously impressed by the fight-

ing qualities of the Gurkhas, and under the terms of the

treaty a number of Gurkhas were permitted to volunteer

for service in the East India Company’s army. From these

volunteers were formed the first regiments of the Brigade of

Gurkhas. The Gurkhas have now served the British Crown

for nearly 200 years. 12,000 came to the aid of the British

during the Indian Mutiny in 1857. No fewer than 200,000

volunteered during the First World War, and in the Second

World War 40 battalions fought throughout the world. In

these two wars the Gurkhas suffered 45,000 casualties. They

won twelve Victoria Crosses and countless other medals.

It was to commemorate these gallant men that General Sir

Arthur Mills set up the annual memorial day, and it has con-

tinued ever since, recently celebrated for the 60th time

under the careful guidance of Major Dickie Day, late of the

Indian Army.

S T O K E P A R K2 7 6

The Gurkhas atStoke Park Club

In 1947, General Sir Arthur Mills CB DSO, a friend of Sir

Noel Mobbs, established the Stoke Park Club, St Giles’

church and the Gardens of Remembrance as a combination

of venues where an annual day of remembrance to the

Gurkhas would be held each year.

Major-General Sir Arthur Mordaunt Mills was born in

1879, educated at Wellington College, and served with the

3rd Royal Essex Regiment, the 18th (King George’s Own)

Lancers and the 4th (Prince of Wales’s Own) Gurkhas. In the

Boer War he was awarded five clasps, and in the First World

War he was mentioned in despatches three times and awarded

the DSO and two bars. He also served on the North West

Frontier, India, and in 1930 was mentioned in despatches.

Between 1930 and 1934 he commanded the Raznuak Brigade,

Waziristan, India, and from 1935 to 1939 was Military

Adviser-in-Chief, Indian States Forces. He was ADC to the

King from 1933 to 1935.

The origin of the Gurkhas’ association with the British

Army lay in the conflicts in northern India in the second halfGurkha piper at Stoke Park Club’s centenary service. The Gurkhas have a long associationwith the Club.

The Colt Cup andColt Association

We have already seen in Chapter Eight the enormous contri-

bution that Harry Shapland Colt made to Stoke Park Club

when ‘Pa’ Jackson commissioned him as a golf course des-

igner. It was not only Stoke Park Club which benefited from

Colt’s skills and those of his partners, Dr Alister Mackenzie,

Hugh Alison and John Morrison. Around 300 golf courses

throughout the world were influenced by them to some

degree and, in 1993, Hertford King, then Managing Director

of Stoke Park Club, decided to introduce an invitational

inter-club tournament. This would be played annually for

The Colt Cup.

The Secretary of the Club, Ralph Pickering, worked out a

formula for a serious, though friendly, competition. This

turned out to be a 36-hole event between club teams of three

players with handicaps of plus to 6, 7 to 12 and 13 to 18. Play

would be in ‘threes’ within each of the three handicap ranges.

A Colt Cup Committee was formed, with Earl Alexander

of Tunis as Chairman. Other members were Nick Edmund,

editor of Following the Fairways, Fred Hawtree, golf architect and

author of Colt & Co., and Ralph Pickering, serving as

Secretary. They were joined in 1999 by Peter Alliss and

in 2000 by Bruce Critchley, both well-known TV

commentators.

Twenty-six teams participated in the inaugural comp-

etition in 1994, and since then a total of 44 clubs have

participated, including Detroit, Royal Cape Hamilton,

Kennemer, Royal Sydney, Paris St Germain, Real Club

de Pedrena, Toronto, and Utrechtse ‘De Pan’ from outside

the British Isles.

S T O K E P A R K2 7 8 T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 7 9

The new Dining Room in 2008. This replaced the bar and, as we saw earlier, this room was originally John Penn’s Banqueting Room.The Colt Cup – competed for each year by golf clubs whose courses were designed by thegreat golf course designer, Harry Colt.

S T O K E P A R K2 8 0

The fabulous swimming pool and gym in the new Pavilion.

T H E F I R S T 1 , 0 0 0 Y E A R S 2 8 1

A bedroom in the Pavilion.

S T O K E P A R K2 8 2

The future of Stoke Park

Stoke Park and its Club are the product of thousands of

people’s collective creative effort over the centuries. These

cumulative layers of history have made the estate one of

the most beautiful places in the world. Being its custodian

brings with it great responsibility to ensure that this unique

part of Britain’s heritage is not lost. The Club has therefore

committed itself to maintain and improve Stoke Park’s land-

scape, gardens, buildings and monuments, using as a guide

a conservation management plan, created by a number of

experts in their fields, for the next 50 years.

The medium-term future of the estate’s restoration

and maintenance is now secure, but what of the future for

the Club?

Much has changed over the past 1,000 years, but the

purpose of Stoke Park has not. It has always been a place for

families to escape to and enjoy the luxuries of life in elegant

surroundings. Since 1908 the estate’s facilities have changed

with its members’ changing interests, but its ethos has not.

The Club's ethos has always been dedicated to creating a

fun and friendly atmosphere in a high-quality environment

for members and their guests. Today the Club is bigger and

more vibrant than at any time in its history, thanks to the

quality of the facilities laid out by its founder, and these

facilities have now been restored and enhanced. The ethos

continues and will be maintained to ensure a wonderful

future for the Club.