• Pyecombe Golf Club was formally opened
on Saturday 6th October 1894.
• Nearly 50 members and well-wishers of the
Club including many ladies attended the opening.
• No formal ceremony took place but to mark
the occasion the professionals of Forest Row and Seaford golf clubs,
Messrs. Rowe and Ross respectively, were engaged to play the first
match on the men’s course.
• Poor weather in the morning delayed the opening match but
lunch was taken in the Plough Inn in Pyecombe village, which at
that time was the Club’s headquarters.
• The opening match was played over 18 holes in the afternoon,
watched by enthusiastic spectators who followed the professionals
around the course. This proved to be an exciting affair, as the
players were all square after 14 holes. The next three holes and
therefore, the match, were won by Rowe, giving him a final score
of 3 holes up and only 1 hole left to play. The Sussex Daily News’
report of the match recorded that the number of strokes taken by
the winner to complete the course was 86 and by Ross 88.
• The first course layout used a large amount of the terrain
still used today and gave a playing length of 3789 yards. This was
2500 yards shorter than today’s course and the longest hole
was 330 yards long compared with 543 yards of the current 14th hole.
The barn which was in the middle of the 15th fairway on the 1897
course no longer exists.
• The first President of Pyecombe Golf Club was W. H. Campion
Esq. J.P. of Danny Park.
•
The first Hon. Secretary of the Club was Mr Fred Campion who it
was stated worked very zealously to get the Club established. Miss
Blanche Martin was the first acting Secretary of the Ladies section.
•
The first Hon. Treasurer was Mr A. J. Bridge.
• The membership at the time of the opening was reported to
be over 80.
Above: C. W. Campion Esq. brother of
W.H. Campion Esq. Pyecombe G.C. 1st President 1894
• Immediately after the opening of the Club, work began
on laying out a ladies' course (links) comprising nine holes, located
opposite the Club on the other side of the present main road. On
Tuesday 6th November 1894 the ladies played their first medal competition
over their course and this was won by a Mrs Stewart who received
a medal that was presented by Mrs Bridge of Burgess Hill.
• A Clubhouse was built just north of the Southdown Way and
the new building although not completely furnished, was opened without
ceremony on Saturday 19th January 1895. This was described as a
central saloon to serve as a general Club room, with a ladies’
room on the right and a gentlemen’s room on the left. At the
rear was a professional’s room with workshop.
• The Club’s 1st Professionals: the report in the Sussex
Daily News of the 1st annual meeting and opening of the new Clubhouse
also recorded that “…the Club had secured the services
of Henry Peck, late of the Ranalaugh Club as the professional with
Henry Bye as his assistant”. These gentlemen were credited
with bringing the course into “capital condition” for
which much praise was given.
• The 1st Captain for the gentlemen was Mr C. W. Campion and
he presented a silver challenge cup that has become to be known
as the Campion Cup for an annual competition for the best scratch
score. The Hon. Treasurer Mr A. J. Bridge presented a silver bowl
as a men’s trophy for annual handicap competitions. Both of
these cups are still played for to this day.
• In the Club’s opening year the ladies competed for
two trophies: an antique silver challenge dish presented by Lady
Louise Loder and a silver toilet box given by Mrs W. G. Nicholson,
the ladies' Vice Captain.
• In January 1895 a campaign was mounted for a railway station
to be located on the Brighton Line immediately south of the Clayton
tunnel. The argument in favour of this idea was that numerous members
of the Club who lived north and south of the downs, as well as hunting
men and local residents, would find a station to be a great convenience.
At this time motor vehicles had not become a common form of transport
and travel was either by foot or horse and carriage. The address
of the Club was Pyecombe, near Hassocks, Sussex.
• On Sunday 25th August 1861 a train accident occurred in
Clayton tunnel, directly under the 1st tee of the golf club. 23
passengers lost their lives and 176 suffered injury.
• During the 1920s the annual subscription to the Club was
one guinea (£1.05 in today’s currency).
• The Club’s stewardess up until 1914 was Mrs Clark.
She served the members for a good many years before emigrating to
Canada in 1914.
The photograph above shows Mrs Clark in front of the clubhouse.
• The mainstay of the Club during most of the inter-war
years (1919 – 39) was “Wally” Wooller, a local
man from Pyecombe village and one of the sons of Walter Wooller
the Pyecombe shepherd, whose photograph is shown here.
Walter Wooller, shepherd
• Wally acted as Club Professional, Steward and Greenkeeper
- in fact he constituted the entire green staff. The fairways
were maintained by grazing sheep and the greens cut with a hand
mower. In those days there was no bar in the clubhouse and Wally
would take the stock home each evening and return it to the club
the next morning. The Club had neither running water nor main drainage
and an additional responsibility of Wally (as Steward) was to carry
or arrange for the carrying of daily water to the clubhouse.
• The Club had a daily cleaner to help Wally Wooller, a Miss
Mitchell, who also came from the village and who was the sister
of the Pyecombe blacksmith, Shaddy Mitchell.
• Tommy Atkins (an honorary life member, who
died recently) , recalls that he first caddied on the course
in 1927 when only seven
years
old. The set fee for caddying was 1s 6d (7.5p) but the boys learnt
to say to the golfers “most people give us half a crown (12.5p)”.
Clubs used then were steel-headed (that had to be kept free of
rust)
and had hickory shafts. Each club was identified by a name and
not numbered as they are today.
• On April 9th 1942 golf ceased temporarily at Pyecombe because
the Club, then owned by the Crown, was requisitioned by the War
Department and used as a tank training area for the military. One
of the present members, Dick Smithard, remembers undergoing a week's
intensive home guard training on the course, the instructors being
the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
• In July 1948, golf architects provided the newly formed
golf club Finance Committee with a cost estimate for reinstating
the golf course. The estimate came to a total of £4550 and
to this had to be added costs of refurbishing the Clubhouse, providing
fencing, a tractor and other equipment, bringing the total to £8650.
The War Department offered at that time to pay compensation of £6933.
The Club and its members thus had what was then a substantial deficit
to finance. At that time the going subscription for men was 8 guineas
(£8.40p).
• When the Club re-opened for play in 1949 Mr and Mrs “Pop”
Elleker from Crown Cottages, Pangdean came to live in as steward
/ greenkeeper. Later, other men from Pyecombe Street worked as greenkeepers:
Laurie Hilton, Bert Gumbrell and Bob Upton (the shepherd). The present
head greenkeeper, Adrian Barnett, who has held that position for
many years, also came from the Street, joining the club as an assistant
greenkeeper back in the 60’s.
• In 1954 an extension was added to the clubhouse.
• In 1957/58 a young lady from Pyecombe village started work
at the Club as a cleaner. Her name: Mrs Lydia Selsby.
Over the years Lydia has been a very faithful servant and has undertaken
many tasks from cleaning clubs and shoes in her early days (to supplement
her wages which were paid by individual club members), catering
work, serving behind the bar and acting as emergency stand-in steward.
Over 40 years later as the new millennium begins Lydia is still
with the Club and conscientiously satisfies all of the demands that
are made on her.
Mrs Lydia Selsby
• In 1969 at the time of the 75th anniversary of the Club,
Mr K. R. Barnard was Club Captain and he is still a very active
member. 2005 is the first year of a third term of office by him
as Club President.
• In 1982 the golf course was extended by about 500 yards
with the opening of three new holes located on the north side of
the Southdown Way. The hole that was the final 18th hole that led
down to the clubhouse still remains today however, and is often
used for practice or tuition purposes.
• The Club weathered the Great Gale of 1987 without sustaining
too much damage. However, the severe rainfall in November 1990 caused
damage to the course. Continuous rain fell over two nights and was
estimated to measure at least 65mm at Pyecombe causing a mudslide.
The mud washed off the surrounding fields and slid across a bridle
path adjacent to the 10th green “The Cockpit” –
a green like an upturned basin, and filled the green with mud slurry.
The outcome of this natural disaster was that a new two-tiered green
was constructed nearby and the old green was turned into a water
feature. (See below.)
New 10th Green with Water Feature
• The Clayton windmills, Jack and Jill, are two landmarks
on the South Downs that are closely associated with the Club and
visible from many parts of the course. The black mill with white
rotational cap is Jack, a tower mill built in 1866 and worked until
1907. The white mill is Jill, a post mill in which the entire body
of the mill rotates to enable the sails to face the wind. Jill was
originally erected in 1821 in Dyke Road, Brighton and was moved
to her present location in 1852. Jill is a working mill restored
and maintained by the Jack & Jill Preservation Society. She
suffered considerable damage in the 1987 storm but has since been
repaired. The late Henry Longhurst, golfer, writer and BBC commentator,
who was a member and past President of the Club (from 1975 to 1978)
used to live in the house between the mills.
Jack and Jill Windmills viewed from the 17th green.
•
1989 was a notable year for the Club because it seized the opportunity
to buy the land (147 acres) from the National Freight Corporation
and so become a truly private members club. At that time there
were 640 members of various categories and debentures were raised
through the membership to enable the land purchase to go ahead.
• Pyecombe Golf Club’s centenary year was in 1994 and
to mark this occasion a Centenary History book was published edited
by Dick Smithard; Dick was made an honorary life member in 1999.
As part of the centenary year activities the Club raised money in
support of the intensive care unit of the Princess Royal Hospital
in Haywards Heath. Enough money was raised to allow a cardiac output
monitor to be purchased and presented to the hospital.
• During the years 1995-97 two major improvements were made
to the Club. A new computer-controlled pop-up sprinkler watering
system for the greens was installed and the water supply piping
to the greens was replaced, leading to a significant improvement
of the course. Secondly, a major reconstruction of the clubhouse
was undertaken and opened for use. The latter involved demolition
of the men's changing rooms and construction of a new two-storey
building housing both the men’s and ladies' changing rooms.
The ladies' old changing room was converted to give a larger Club
dining room and an additional meeting room.
• In November 1998 the Club broke with tradition and introduced
a new management structure comprising a Captain’s Committee,
a Management Committee and a Members Audit Committee. The three
committees have the following objectives: the Management Committee
is responsible for running the club on business lines under the
leadership of a Chairman; The Captain’s Committee is responsible
for all golfing, membership matters and social activities, and the
Members’ Audit Committee is responsible for conducting an
annual review of all aspects of management of the club with intermittent
inspections as required for auditing purposes.
• In 1999 a new roof was installed over the older part of
the clubhouse to replace a corrugated iron roof initially intended
to have a ten year life span when installed after the 2nd world
war. Further alterations are proposed to convert the old stewards
bungalow which has lain empty for some years into the secretary's
new office. Also clubhouse facilities have been adapted to include
a toilet for disabled visitors.
• Pyecombe Golf Club thus marches forward into the new millennium
with some confidence having a nearly full membership of approximately
550 members covering all categories and a new Club management structure
in operation.
Above– from Pyecombe village:
Adrian Barnett year 2000 Head Greenkeeper & a member of the
greenkeeping staff for many years.
Jack & Jill viewed from 4th fairway.
Some members gathered outside the clubhouse at the Captains' Drive-in
November 1999
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Pyecombe
Golf Club