Manchester leads the way in many things but one you may not know is in the game of golf.

As Scottish industrialists moved to the area in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, they brought one of their country’s most famous exports with them and founded what is now the second oldest Golf Club in England.

The story of the Manchester Golf club is now the subject of a book written by Helen Besant-Roberts

The club located on Kersal Moor saw players using  golf sticks made of willow and holes, of which there were only five chiselled our of the ground on the day.

It would take the players many hours to play a round on a course sitting in the middle of the famous racecourse Helen tells us.

Helen, who lives in Altrincham and is a partner at north west accountancy firm HURST, has a keen interest in local history and her father David has been installed as the club’s new captain.

She said: “The book has been a labour of love. I wrote it in my spare time and it was fascinating to read through the minutes, meeting records and other archive material and to explain the club’s history in the context of what was happening around the region and beyond.”

Members over the years have included a host of leading civic and business figures who helped shape Manchester, including Robert Boddington, chairman of Boddingtons Brewery, mill owner and MP Sir William Houldsworth and Sir Charles Shaw, Manchester’s first Chief Commissioner of Police.

Arthur Balfour, who was the MP for Manchester East and later became prime minister, also played a round at the club.

Notable events and landmarks include the admission of women as members in 1891, and the notorious ‘Dinner for One’ in 1858, when Malcolm Ross was the only member who turned up to a meeting as a protest for members not being invited to take part in the British Open so the story says

Despite there being no other diners, he made loyal toasts and ate all the food – a large cod, a saddle of mutton, a goose, two brace of partridge and puddings – then drank three bottles of port before recording the minutes of the meeting. The extraordinary event is still talked about by members to this day.

Since its creation, the club has been based in three locations, all in Salford – Kersal Moor, Broughton Park and Vine Street, where its course was bombed in the 1940 Blitz during World War Two.

It lost its Vine Street lease in 1960 to the old Salford Corporation and since then has had no course or clubhouse of its own.

Members have since 1960 hired courses to play for trophies and medals which are among the oldest in the world still in use.

The club has a limit of 40 playing members and is at capacity. New members are only admitted by invitation.

Last year, to celebrate the club’s bicentenary, members played a match over three holes on Kersal Moor, dressed in traditional attire. A plaque to mark the occasion was unveiled by the Ceremonial Mayor of Salford, Councillor Peter Connor.

Club secretary John McKenna said: “The book is a very good read. The idea of writing the book as a social history of the Manchester area and detailing what was happening with the club at the time was Helen’s and we are all delighted with her work.”

The book is available in hardback and costs £25. It can be ordered via justjottings@virginmedia.com or via Amazon.

 

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