The Beginnings Of Golf At Fleetwood.
The British census of 1881 includes that two former British Army Officers had both by then retired from military service and settled with their families in the capital. Major Arthur Campbell Walker, by now a widower, was resident in Walton-on-Thames in a household including six servants, whilst Captain Alfred Henry Waldy was in Kensington with his family and five servants. Clearly these were men of some substance, but then that was a requisite in order to purchase their army commissions.
So what was the local Fleetwood connection? – it was that some twenty years earlier, the Fleetwood Chronicle, Blackpool Herald and Lytham Gazette dated 15th November 1861 had run an article under the header “FLEETWOOD GOLF CLUB”, and reported that their paths had crossed in the town.
At that time Arthur was a Lieutenant Walker of the Staff of the School of Musketry, which was lodged at the Euston Barracks.
Euston Barracks, ca 1861.
Born in Forfarshire, it is highly likely that he was a main instigator in introducing “The Royal and Ancient Game of Golf” at Fleetwood from its Scottish home. And because Arthur was in residence at the Euston Barracks, and apparently a lover of the game, it is highly unlikely that he would not have played some part in the reported laying out of a golf course for the playing of the game for which he had affection.
The article describes ‘….The Fleetwood “Links”, the technical term in Scotland for the ground over which the game is played, are not of great extent but they abound in those “hazards” and variations of surface which contribute so materially to the zest and charm of the game’, and also that ‘for the practice of which the sandy turf in the immediate vicinity of the Barracks is so well adapted.’
Arthur clearlydid have a leaning to introducing golf into England since later when his career moved him to Northumberland, he was instrumental in establishing and then becoming the Secretary at Alnmouth Golf Club in 1869, originally as a nine hole course
Major Arthur Walker, Secretary Alnmouth Golf Club
Arthur Walker had a distinguished service career. He was ensign in the 79th Foot (Queens Own Cameron Highlanders) and served in the Crimea and in the siege and capture of Lucknow in the Indian Mutiny 1858-59. Adjutant of the Northumberland rifle volunteers, 1868-77 and the Hertfordshire rifle volunteers 1877-83.
Alfred Waldy was from the South of England. Born in Affpuddle, Dorset he became a Captain of the 46th Infantry (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot, and led a detachment of his men to the Euston Barracks in 1861 for musket training. The 1863 Army List includes the letters IM (Instructor of Musketry) behind his name which suggest that his visit to Fleetwood was fruitful. Like Major Walker, Captain Waldy also had a distinguished Military career. He served in the ‘Siege of Sebastopol’ and was awarded both the Crimea Medal with clasp “Sebastopol” and the Turkish Crimea Medal
A photograph taken in 1861 including the training detachment of the 46th Regiment is now on proud display in the Entrance Hall to the Fleetwood Golf Club. It includes a resplendent Officer displaying medals of conflict. Arthur at this stage would have been 47 years of age. Could this be our Captain Waldy? A similar picture is also on display in the North Euston Hotel and includes soldiers under training from additional regiments.
Group of musketry trainees at Euston Barracks in 1861
The two officers had competed in an organized golf competition at the Fleetwood Links which is reported in the newspaper article saying “the first Olympic of the club since its birth came off last Saturday, when a keenly contested match terminated in favour of Captain Waldy of the 46th Regt. and Lieutenant Walker (79th) of the School of Musketry, to whom the palm of victory was accordingly awarded in the shape of two handsome silver cups each of which bore the inscription ”Palma qui meruit ferat” and the golfers badge of cross clubs and a golf ball.
The precise site of this early golf course is unknown, but clearly with sea and river on north and east side of the North Euston Barracks, these areas can be discounted. An historical ordnance survey map of 1848 shows some building already to the south of the Barracks and thus the only undeveloped land was to the west of the North Euston in the area of North Church Street, Windsor Terrace, and Bold Street. It could fit the bill as no housing was built here until after the military had left in 1867. We will never know for certain.
A reference in the Post Directory of Lancashire for 1864 tells us something of the Euston Barracks as it describes that ‘The handsome and extensive premises formerly known as the North Euston Hotel have been purchased by the Government and converted into a school of musketry, with quarters for sixty officers, besides a staff of instructors. There are three course of instruction each year of about ten weeks each for the regular army besides Short courses for volunteers, and one in the month of January for the adjutants of volunteers only’.
It was not uncommon for troops to be garrisoned at seaports, and with sailing vessels being the only method of transporting troops to the Americas and the outposts of the British Empire, it made good sense to establish garrisons at such places as Chester on the River Dee, Preston on the Ribble, Fleetwood on the Wyre, etc. It was the ideal, and indeed the only way to transport large masses of troops.
Euston Barracks (left) and the Fleetwood foreshore, ca 1861
The golfing connection is that some of these seaside locations were also ideal for the laying out of links type golf courses as are found in the Ayrshire and East Lothian areas of its Scottish birthplace. Many of the officers were Ensigns by purchase, and those from the Scottish Regiments would have come from families with experience of the game from their mother country and enthusiastic to continue the pastime. Links courses were much easier to maintain than the inland parkland courses which needed grazing sheep just to keep the grass down to playable standard.
The question of when a golf course is judged to have become formally established has long been an interesting discussion. The widely accepted criteria is defined as the point in time at which ‘…a course has been laid out, competitions have been arranged, and prizes have been played for.’ The laying out of the golf course in Fleetwood in 1861 appears to satisfy all of the criteria judged necessary to formally recognize the establishment of a golf course and thus at that point in time The Fleetwood (North Euston) Links would appear to be the oldest recorded seaside links course ‘South of the Tweed’.
1861 was a year of some significance. It was the year of the commencement of the American Civil War. On a happier note it was the year that Old Tom Morris won the first ever fully Open Golf Championship, and which that year was held at Prestwick.
In a letter from the Secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews dated 16th Feb 1996 and addressed to Mr Edwin Walker, historian of Fleetwood Golf Club, Mr Michael Bonallack states “As far as the R&A are concerned, we are perfectly happy to acknowledge that golf was played in Fleetwood in 1861” This formal acknowledgement has significance since it is widely accepted that the first seaside links golf course in England is Westward Ho! in North Devon yet this course was not formally established until the 4th April 1864, some three years after the date when the Fleetwood Links appears to satisfy the ‘establishment’ criteria. However, whilst Westward Ho! has flourished since its inception, the fortunes of the Fleetwood Golf Club became intermittent.
Tracing history, the first golf club, The Royal Company of Edinburgh Golfers was established in 1744, and others following include:
1745 Blackheath, - the first English Club
1754 The Royal and Ancient founded
1818 Old Manchester GC founded
1861 The Fleetwood Links, (North Euston military golf club formed)
1864 Westward Ho! founded
1865 Royal Wimbledon GC founded
1869 Alnmouth GC founded
1886 Lytham St. Annes GC founded, (now Royal Lytham)
1893 Fleetwood’s ‘town’ course founded.
Golf in Fleetwood did not survive that 1861 early military introduction. When the school of musketry left the town in 1867 to relocate to Hythe in Kent, the early military golf connection was broken but golf in the town did eventually make its return some thirty years later when the formal establishment of a town golf club took place at a meeting held at the Fielden Library on 21st November 1893. Thus 1993 was recognized by the Lancashire Union of Golf Clubs as the centenary date from this establishment, and the presentation of a commemorative plaque was made by the LUGC to the club and is currently on display in the club’s trophy cabinet.
By a strange coincidence its first President was Captain J Robertson, the Bursar at Rossall School who had served with the 78th Foot, Ross Shire Buffs and the 35th Royal Sussex Regt. He had some thirty years earlier taken part in the relief of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny, - the campaign in which Major Arthur Campbell Walker, the first golfer to win a golf competition in Fleetwood, has also served.
There have been three different locations for golf subsequent to the original Fleetwood (Euston Barracks) Links to its current site at Princes Way. Library searches of collections of newspaper records have disclosed that the first town golf club had been established in 1893 and that the course had been laid out in the part of Fleetwood now know as the Warren estate. In simple terms land running south from the Mount Hotel down to the cemetery, and bounded by the Promenade to the west and Poulton Road to the east, would approximately cover the site of the first town golf course.
Further cuttings make interesting reading concerning the nature of this course. It describes “... a ten minute walk from the railway station along the fine promenade brings us along the course, and with the tide in, the claim made for it - that an iron would reach the sea – appears to have the substance of truth”.
A description of the holes also follows. It relates that the starting holes move down from the Mount Hotel towards the cemetery and details the need to strike shots over an old powder magazine and over walls to reach some greens. An opinion is offered that …it is a pity that the course is so wide as so little punishment awaits wild driving. It continues … with the additions of a few hazards and the lies a little improved, the links will be good. All this suggests a somewhat comfortable and relatively easy outing. Of course there is no such thing on a golf course as we all know. The report continues,…Running up shots may be played to the 4th and 7th holes, but nothing but well judged pitch shot over one and sometimes two walls on to the other greens will get off without punishment.
At that time Warren Farm was at the south end of the course, and turning back from that end the report refers to “leaving the barracks and magazine, not to speak of the cemetery behind us and with the sea now to our left”
Readers may be unaware of military barracks within the town’s heritage. These plus a military hospital were sited opposite the Queens Hotel and running down Beach Road as far as Shakespeare Road. This golf history search has also highlighted the extent of military involvement in the town. There was the School of Musketry for a period located at the North Euston, the newspaper description of the first hole of the ‘promenade course’ refers to striking the opening drive over an old magazine which confirms previous military activity in the Warren area of the town, and then there was the hutments and military hospital by the Queens Hotel. This War Office land together with firing range was eventually purchased by the town’s Council and forms another chapter in our golf history.
As the town developed, and housing was required on land over which the golf course in the Warren area was sited, the Fleetwood Estate Company was approached to provide access to an alternative location for golf. Thus it was that in 1904 the move was made to the second town course which was located alongside Fleetwood Road running from near the Fisherman’s Friend site and down the whole area presently the scene of the Caravan Camp and with the train line as its other boundary. This course was built on land prone to flooding and was not a success. It lasted little over half a dozen years before being abandoned and with little record of its detail.
In Edward Walker’s book ‘History of Golf at Fleetwood, 1983 -1993 readers learn that local golfers of the time had to travel out of town to follow their love of the game. Now there is a well known saying that ‘it is an ill wind that blows no good...’ So it was in 1927 when the flooding of the town and the devastation that it caused eventually led to an opportunity to our golfing forefathers. The town’s Council of the day recognised the need for improvement to the sea defenses and made representation to the War Office to make safe the sea wall. There followed the offer from the War Office that instead the town’s Council could buy this land. The offer was accepted.
The Council, in looking to the future for the town, generated a number of significant development projects all riding on the back of re-establishing the sea defenses from the purchase of this previous War Office land, including the building of the Princes Way golf course. Seventy five percent of the land required for building the Princes Way course came from the purchase of War Office land. However, to make up the total land needed, the final quarter came from previous arable farmland at the north end which approximates to the areas of the second, third and fourth holes. This land was not owned by the War Office but was owned by Fleetwood Estate Company. It was given to Fleetwood Council as ‘open land for all time’. And thus it was that indirectly, the 1927 flooding of the town gave opportunity that eventually led towards providing a golf course for the town in 1932.
Fleetwood Golf Club, opened in 1932
The original layout of the course stood the test of time very well. Indeed very little changes were made over the first fifty or so years. However around the mid nineteen eighties the problem of inadequate drainage from the course was investigated and a project for pumping water from the pond and off the course was completed successfully. This provided a controlled pond water level which allowed greatly improved drainage off the fairways and brought to an end a sequence where flooding of the holes on the land provided by the Fleetwood Estate Company had led to play for only fourteen holes during much of the winter months for many years.
This success gave confidence to tackle the next serious problem. At the beginnings of the ‘nineties’ there had been repeated instances of problems with the fourth green and for a number of consecutive seasons, play to that green had been limited. A complete new hole was devised involving the construction of an alternative green and new tee which required players to make drives over the pond. This was finalized and eventually brought into play in 1994, – the work coinciding with the declaration of the centenary of golf in Fleetwood.
The final significant changes to the course, owes much to the development of golf equipment. New materials and club construction allow even the modest golfer to achieve distances off the tee that would not have been considered when the original course was designed. Consequently strategically placed bunkers could be cleared with unseemly ease. To counter this over the last twenty or so years, we have seen some new tees built, others moved further back and some bunkers filled in to be replaced with others at strategic driving distances. And finally the installation of sprinkler systems brings us up to present time in terms of major changes on the course.