Chapter Eight: 'The Best-Appointed Golf Club in the Country', 1908-28
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110 STOKE PARK CHAPTER EIGHT ‘The best-appointed golf club in the country’, 1908–28 ‘No committee!’ Harry Colt – one of the finest golf course architects Financially sound ‘Spacious and beautifully laid out’ ‘Pa’ Jackson, a gregarious man, was in his element running a sporting country club. 112 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 113 ancy he had built at Datchet a very fine dairy and shop, which without the ‘No committee!’ park would become absolutely useless. But he added that he was a Scotsman and had played golf as a youngster, and suggested that Stoke Park, which was also for sale, would prove even better suited to my pur- pose than Ditton. I followed the farmer’s advice and found it amply justified, so without Nick Lane Jackson (universally known as ‘Pa’) had harboured delay I got Mr H.S. Colt, the Secretary of Sunningdale and, in my opin- the desire for many years to ‘inaugurate a country club some- ion, the best living authority either then or now on golf architecture, to what on the lines of those which had proved so phenomenally inspect the ground and advise me. His opinion was so very favourable that successful in the United States’. His first attempt, at Le I decided to open negotiations with the agents, and Lord Montagu, who had in the meantime received an offer for Ditton Park on lease, without Touquet in France, ran into problems of trust with the any option to purchase, was only too glad to release me from my agree- businessmen he was dealing with. ment. The negotiations with Mrs Bryant, the owner of Stoke Park, were pro- So, I determined to try my luck in the Old Country. Close to where I longed for some time on account of her brother, who acted for her, lived was Ditton Park, the property of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, whom breaking his leg in the hunting-field, so that I was only able to meet him I happened to know. As there was a beautiful old house there and the at his home in Stratford-on-Avon. This meant many troublesome jour- grounds seemed suitable for a good golf-course, I approached his lord- neys, but at last everything was satisfactorily arranged and I took over the ship, and the result was that we came to an agreement by which I was to whole of the estate of nearly 600 acres, about half of which I obtained on have a lease of the premises with the option of purchase. He was very a fifty years’ lease for the golf, with option of purchase, and the remain- reluctant to concede me the option, but I hardly felt justified in taking der, for building purposes, under a separate arrangement. the place without. However, when it became known that I proposed turn- ing the park into a golf-course, a neighbouring farmer complained that it would as good as ruin him if I did so. It appeared that he had taken it The first Board Meeting of the company that Pa Jackson as grazing for his large herd of cows, and that on the strength of his ten- formed to found the Stoke Park Club took place at 41 Jermyn The Stoke Park Mansion in 1908. ‘Pa’ Jackson instantly realised it was the perfect setting for his vision of a country club. 114 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 115 Street on 7 October 1908. The next day, at a meeting of the Jackson as Governing Director be fixed at the sum of £400 Directors at Barclays Bank, Slough, applications for £15,300 [about £44,000] per annum’. of debentures (about £1.7 million in today’s money) were Having taken possession in October 1908, Jackson began produced. creating the golf course within a month. It was an enormous At the next meeting of the Directors, held at Stoke Park on undertaking. Three thousand trees were cut down, and over 14 October 1908, they considered ‘the application from 30 acres freshly turfed. They had decided to create 27 holes, David Hutton of North Berwick for the post of Greenkeeper, and before the greens could be laid out, water had to be laid at wages of 32/6 per week [£1.625 or about £180 in today’s on. Nevertheless, a full eighteen-hole course was opened in money] with a house or 35/– without a house, and a rise of July 1909. Furthermore, Jackson needed to adapt the ground 2/6 per week at the end of the first year.’ floor of the Mansion to make it suitable for a golf clubhouse. The Board resolved that, subject to Mr Jackson being sat- Apart from structural alterations, ‘we had to install electric isfied with Mr Colt’s report (this was Harry Shapland Colt – light, make an entirely new sewage arrangement, and dupli- see below) upon Hutton, to engage him. cate our water-supply, which we pumped ourselves. Then we At this meeting it was also resolved that Mr C.H. Alison had to furnish the place, and I think I may justly claim to (see below) be appointed Secretary to the Club at a salary of have been lucky in accomplishing all this in the brief period £150 per annum (about £16,500 today), ‘the Club supplying of eight months.’ him with Board free of cost’. Jackson reckoned that he was able to achieve all this so There were still deer in the park, and it was ‘resolved to quickly because he acted alone without having to consult a expend an amount not exceeding £100 [£11,000] upon this committee. object’. He would later recount a story to illustrate further his At the next meeting, at Frognal, Sunninghill on 24 point about committees: October, it was resolved to offer a new applicant, a Mr A. One of our original members at Stoke Poges was Lord Northcliffe, and Wright, also from North Berwick, £2 per week and the use of one day early in 1909 he visited the club accompanied by Reggie a cottage, for the post of Greenkeeper. Nicholson, who was at that time his private secretary. This was shortly At a meeting at 41 Jermyn Street on 4 January 1909, it was after Northcliffe had taken over The Times. He was highly interested in the resolved to have electric light (rather than gas). It was also golf courses and in the club generally, and when they had looked the whole place over he and Nicholson came and congratulated me on the resolved ‘to instruct the National Telephone Co. to install a success of my venture. Northcliffe then remarked, ‘I don’t know which to With Nick Lane Jackson in the Chair, the first meeting of the Stoke Park Club was held on 7 October 1908. It was resolved that 17 Tower Royal, Cannon Street, London EC should be the regis- telephone at the Clubhouse without delay’. admire most – the rapidity with which you’ve got everything into order or tered office of the company to run the Club. Finally, it was resolved that ‘the remuneration of Mr Lane your damned impudence in starting the place.’ I answered that the only 116 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 117 reason I had been able to get it ready so quickly was that I had been in sole control, with no board or committee to be consulted. ‘There you are, you see Reggie’, said Northcliffe touching Nicholson on the shoulder, ‘no committee!’ I asked him just what he meant by that remark, and he replied, ‘Well, what do you think of The Times lately?’ I told him I consid- ered it had shown an immense improvement since his taking it over and he nodded his head and said significantly, ‘Yes, no committee!’ However, Jackson did not want people to think he had done everything himself without help from others. Let it not be imagined that I carried the work through without outside advice; far from it. When launching my great venture I was lucky enough to secure the valuable co-operation of C.M. Woodbridge, an Old Carthusian footballer; of two Eton masters, P.V. Broke and R.H. de Montmorency; of E.H. Parry, another Old Carthusian, who had a large preparatory school at Stoke Green; and of Percy Paravicini, an Old Etonian and an old football friend of mine. The assistance of such good friends was truly invaluable. To attract members to the Club, Jackson published an attrac- The Long Gallery overlooked the terrace and gardens and would be the principal dining room. tive and comprehensive prospectus. At the front was a photo- graph of the Mansion, and there can have been few golf clubs anywhere with such an inspiring clubhouse. Next came the The Lord Decies P.J. de Paravinci Esq. proposed officers and members of the Committee, also an H.E. Allhusen Esq. E.H. Parry Esq. impressive group: P.V. Broke Esq. H. Howard Vyse Esq. R.A. Campbell Esq. C.M. Woodbridge Esq. President: HH Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein Vice-President: The Earl Howe GCVO The prospectus described the layout of the golf course: Committee: The Earl of Chesterfield In addition to an exceptionally fine 18-hole course, another of 9 holes of full length will be laid out in the Deer Park, where the turf is extraordi- The Earl of Kinnoull R.H. de Montmorency Esq. narily good owing to the fact that about 400 head of deer have fed over it At the meeting of directors on 8 December 1908, it was resolved to pay certain accounts, including the first payments to Harry Colt and Hugh Alison.