2/17/2023 0 Comments Eastward hoFelixstowe Golf Club was taken over for coastal defences and the club house used for troops. WWII of course led to the demise of both clubs. He was also to become a saviour of the Felixstowe Golf Club when he purchased it just before the outbreak of WWII and promoted its restoration in 1948. Cross, a builder and Felixstowe mayor on two occasions, was also a keen golfer and very much a leading light in the Eastward Ho! club. The club prospered as it probably offered a more attractive proposition than Felixstowe Golf Club which had the reputation for being “for the toffs”! This older club certainly suffered some financial problems in the 1930s which resulted in the sale of land which is now the Clifflands car park. The design was by the famous champion golfer James Braid and the course ran from the north end of Beatrice Avenue (opposite the Grove Medical Centre) down past the Grove and over what are now playing fields and arable land and across and beyond Gulpher Road. There is much better documentation of the establishment of Eastward Ho! Golf Club in 1920 when an 18 hole course was laid out on land leased from the Orwell Park Estate (Mr. but as yet no records have been discovered. Hopefully research will generate further information. The game had been played in this area prior to WWI and it is understood that Harold Hilton, a famous amateur golfer who had won the Open Championship as well as the American Open and many amateur championships, designed a course here. It is against this background of the increased popularity of golf that after the Great War, in addition to the resurrection of the Felixstowe Golf Club a second club was to emerge in Felixstowe at Eastward Ho! to the north of the town. The Martello course of what is now called the Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club, is therefore only a remnant of the once famous links. Unfortunately all this, together with a substantial part of the original ground, was to be swept away by the sea. In 1894 a ladies club was formed with its own club house and six hole course. They were in fact a very special collection of individuals with many being “men eminent in art, science and literature”. In 1880 there were only 5 golf clubs in England, by 1906 there were 500! Felixstowe Golf Club enjoyed a particular popularity as it was within easy reach of London by train and the majority of early members came down to play their “links” golf. Col Tomline, who owned the land, became the club’s Patron. Lord Elcho, an obsessive golfer and already founder of the London Scottish Golf Club, was the driving force and first President. However, it was to the east at Bawdsey Common that Felixstowe Golf Club was formed in 1880. The sport was played informally in the 1870s at Landguard to the west of the town with the Manor House Hotel being used as a club house. In Victorian and Edwardian times, Felixstowe developed as a popular and exclusive watering place and many of the visitors it attracted wanted to play golf. It was inevitable that this passion for golf would spread to England and Felixstowe played an important part in this evolution of the sport. The influence of colonial interests had already seen the establishment of clubs in India, Australia and Canada. They travelled and promoted new courses as well as improving some existing venues. The 19th century saw a new impetus for golf in Scotland as the well connected with money and time indulged in the delights of playing the game. Via the Felixstowe Society we are asking to hear from anyone who would like to get involved with researching this fascinating part of Felixstowe’s history. The introduction sets the scene, but thereafter captioned photographs set out what we have and are self explanatory. It is therefore doubly important that what we have is made available to those who are interested per se and hopefully some who will want to complete the story. The area involved is being considered for development so remnant features may soon be lost. I do not pretend this booklet is anything more than an interim collection of archive material as there is scope and plenty of leads for further research. There is an excellent website run by the golf historian John Llewellyn which records details of the many golf clubs that no longer exist and Eastward Ho! is included. Felixstowe’s missing links IndexĪs an offshoot to the archive project for Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club, a good deal of information and some artefacts have been accumulated for the Eastward Ho! Golf Club that blossomed in north Felixstowe between the wars. If you would like to download the article as a PDF document you can do so by clicking here. This article has been written by Michael Thomas.
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