Vintage Golf Club, H. Stewart Of Bamburgh Castle

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Category

Golf Clubs

Reference

29340

Antique Golf Club, Scared Head Driver.
A nice original persimmon head golf club with hickory shaft and sheepskin grip. The scared head club with traditional horn slip along the leading edge of the sole and lead weight to rear. The Head stamped 'H. Stewart, Bamburgh'. The whipping probably replaced at some stage.

The measurements of the club are;
Length 106 cm
Width of face 7 cm
Depth of face 3.2 cm

The early clubs are made with a hickory shaft glued to the head by means of a splice or scare joint. This joint is then further strengthened by whipping with a pitched thread. All beautifully hand made by craftsmen of the time.

Bamburgh Castle Golf Club was founded in 1904 by Lord Armstrong of Bamburgh and Cragside, with the support of his friends, after the failure of two earlier courses on the links between Bamburgh and Seahouses. This effort was on a larger scale. He donated the clubhouse and funded the development of the course, which was laid out on leased land from one of his Newcastle based friends and colleagues, Mr Cruddas.

The club fitted in with his vision to develop Bamburgh as a holiday resort - it already had natural beauty, tennis courts, a cricket club, nearby rail links and to quote from Lord Armstrong's opening address, "the only thing wanted to make Bamburgh an ideal holiday resort was a golf links". The course was opened on 18th August 1904 with a tee shot struck by Lord Armstrong's 10 year old daughter, Winifreda, followed by a lunch and a competition.

There followed a week of competitions, including one for the first mixed foursome in Northumberland. (Bamburgh was unusual in having a Ladies Club at inauguration and has had traditionally a high number of Lady members). Blessed with good weather throughout, the Newcastle Daily Journal described Bamburgh Castle Golf Club's inaugural week as a "brilliant success" and an early mixed competition predicted "the founding of a first class golf course [would] raise Bamburgh to the first rank of golfing centres". The paper also noted the "fashionable audience" and the various social events complementing the golf. This was an early indication of an important factor in the Club's development: it was not a wholly local club. It has certainly relied on local members, but its unique success has been the ability to also draw on visitors and holiday home owners, initially mainly from Newcastle but later also from much further afield.

The course was designed by George Rochester, the professional at nearby Alnmouth, in a very natural style. Bernard Darwin, doyen of golf writers, described it as "mountain golf" in A Round of Golf on the London and North East Railway. He also commented: "There may be prettier golf courses, but I really don't think I have ever seen them, and I have seen a good many by this time".

Initially the course was 4,282 yards, with a bogey of 80. Although the opening and closing holes were similar to today, the course was squeezed onto less land than now and therefore had a different layout.

Original course plan at Bamburgh Castle Golf ClubIn 1907 the club was able to lease two further fields which gave room for more long holes, and a layout that provided more variety. However, in 1910 the landlord let the mineral rights in a disused stone quarry in the middle of the course. The quarry working caused major disruption - and initially some danger when the stone was being blasted - not least because a railway was laid out across the course to take stone to the old pier in Budle Bay (the remnants can be seen today as part of the footpath alongside the 3rd and 4th holes). Although the quarry working was discontinued in the First World War, the disruption it caused had a lasting benefit. It prompted a further reorganisation of the course to avoid the workings, creating a layout that remains substantially the same to this day. The AGM minutes of 1913 record the alterations as a success.
Taken from Bamburgh Castle Golf Club website.