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| BURNHAM & BERROW GOLF CLUB - 1890 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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St Christopher’s Way
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One summer evening in 1890 the Rev. Canon Kennard took a short cut across the Burnham Warren and as he was a golfer and a member at Royal North Devon GC it occurred to him that the large sand hills on the Warren would be an ideal setting for a golf course. He arranged for twelve men, including Walter and Thomas Holt who owned a brewery, to attend a meeting at the Royal Clarence Hotel in Bridgwater where it was agreed that Burnham Golf Club should be formed and a nine hole golf course built on the Berrow Warren. |
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 J H Taylor driving under the keen eye of the Berrow Boys |
At a further meeting at Bridgwater on the 1st October 1890 Canon Kennard reported that Charles Gibson the Royal North Devon Professional had visited the site and declared it well suited for golf. A seven year lease had been granted by the Lords of the Manor at £10 per year. Work on the formation of the course progressed and J H Taylor, a nineteen year old from Royal North Devon, was appointed Greenkeeper/Professional. After 18 successful months at Burnham he moved on to continue his professional career winning the first of his 5 Open Championships in 1894. With financial backing from Tom Holt a pavilion was built on the site of the present clubhouse at a cost of £184.8s.0d with a further £14.3s.8d. allocated for lockers and £12.8s.2d. for furniture. The course and pavilion were formally opened on 4th June 1891 with a medal competition followed by a match between J H Taylor and Horace Hutchinson from Royal North Devon who was the amateur champion in 1886/87; J H Taylor won by 3 and 2. On the following day the first club match was played against Minehead & West Somerset GC. Thus 9 months after the first meeting, golf was being played on the Berrow Warren. |
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During the building of the course and clubhouse there had been a good deal of controversy with the people of Berrow. In essence Burnham was a fairly prosperous holiday town, with a railway station, and had the ability to bring in food and other goods. At Berrow the people relied mainly on agriculture and their trade was adversely affected when food could be brought directly into Burnham by rail and showed their opposition to the golfers by committing acts of vandalism on the course.
Berrow boys would play on the course to the annoyance of the members, but eventually the golf club was seen as a valuable employer and, when expansion of the course out as far as the church was discussed, the Lords of the Manor insisted that the name be changed to the Burnham & Berrow Golf Club. By 1908 there were still strong feelings against the golfers and there was disruption of golf every Sunday until an agreement was reached whereby the workingmen of Berrow could play and thus Berrow Artisans was formed. The Artisans produced many good golfers and existed as a separate club until absorbed into the main club in 1981. |
Berrow Artisans Team 1970 |
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 Leatherjackets Callenge from Weston to Burnham in 1967 |
The first 18 hole course was built and opened in 1897 and in 1910 the members accepted the offer of the Lords of the Manor and purchased the leasehold of the Warren. In 1910 Herbert Fowler designed the course and, in 1923, Harry Colt and Hugh Alison made further improvements aided by suggestions from Dr. Alistair McKenzie. In 1928 the club purchased the reversion of the lease. In 1972 the construction of new 12th and 13th holes to the west side of the Church and a nine-hole course was approved and in 1975, after selling some land at the old 13th hole, a new short 14th hole was constructed and became part of the course in 1978. The nine-hole course opened in 1977 and has become known as the Channel Course; it is 3060yards in length and a good test of golf. In 1967 there was a challenge within the Leatherjackets when John Akerman and Tony Shepherd challenged Tony Hill and Roger Newman to a match starting at the 1st tee at Weston Super Mare GC and finishing some 6 or 7 miles later on the 18th green at Burnham & Berrow GC. After playing the first 4 holes at Weston it was then out on to the beach and eventually crossing the River Axe by boat after both sides had lost 2 balls in the water. The route was then across golfer John Tucker’s farm toward Brean Beach where Hill and Newman had taken 31 shots as compared with 34 on the part of their opponents. Proceeding along the sands, a long carry was needed over the dunes and on to the Burnham practice ground. Hill and Newman holed out in 72 and Shepherd had a 15 foot putt to halve the match but narrowly missed. The return match is still awaited. |
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Since the early years Burnham has hosted national Ladies Championships, English Amateur Championships, Home International matches and Boy’s Championships. Burnham has also regularly staged South West Week when the six South West Counties compete with each other in match play and a separate strokeplay competition produces the South West Counties Champion. Additionally the Club has its own major fixtures such as the annual West of England Amateur Championship and the very popular Winter Foursomes. The club is home to Societies such as the Gravediggers which takes new members under its wing; the Buckthorns who are 36 in number and meet up 4 times each year, and the Leatherjackets made up of a group of golfers who have connections with the club but no longer live locally. The Hill family have strong connections with the club and John, who did much to promote Junior Golf, was Captain in both 1954 and 1963. John was President of Somerset in 1957 and then in 1968 he became President of the English Golf Union a short while before he died. John’s wife Nancy was Ladies Captain in 1957, 1963 and 1971. Tony followed in his father’s footsteps and was Club Captain in 1971 and County President in 1975. He was Hon. Treasurer to the English Golf Union for several years and was elected President of the English Golf Union in 1990. The common thread of service to golf throughout the family is extended by the fact that they were all good golfers. |
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©2007 – Somerset Golf Union |