This article has been written by Michael Thomas. If you would like to download the article as a PDF document you can do so by clicking here.
Felixstowe’s missing links
Index
Preface
Introduction
Where was the Course?
The Club House
Course Design
Views (past and present)
Members and Officials
Competitions
Professionals
Miscellaneous
Preface
As an offshoot to the archive project for Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club, a good deal of information and some artefacts have been accumulated for the Eastward Ho! Golf Club that blossomed in north Felixstowe between the wars.
There is an excellent website www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk run by the golf historian John Llewellyn which records details of the many golf clubs that no longer exist and Eastward Ho! is included.
I do not pretend this booklet is anything more than an interim collection of archive material as there is scope and plenty of leads for further research. The area involved is being considered for development so remnant features may soon be lost. It is therefore doubly important that what we have is made available to those who are interested per se and hopefully some who will want to complete the story.
The introduction sets the scene, but thereafter captioned photographs set out what we have and are self explanatory. Via the Felixstowe Society we are asking to hear from anyone who would like to get involved with researching this fascinating part of Felixstowe’s history.
19.11.20
Go to Index
Introduction
The 19th century saw a new impetus for golf in Scotland as the well connected with money and time indulged in the delights of playing the game.
They travelled and promoted new courses as well as improving some existing venues. The influence of colonial interests had already seen the establishment of clubs in India, Australia and Canada.
It was inevitable that this passion for golf would spread to England and Felixstowe played an important part in this evolution of the sport.
In Victorian and Edwardian times, Felixstowe developed as a popular and exclusive watering place and many of the visitors it attracted wanted to play golf. The sport was played informally in the 1870s at Landguard to the west of the town with the Manor House Hotel being used as a club house. However, it was to the east at Bawdsey Common that Felixstowe Golf Club was formed in 1880.
Lord Elcho , an obsessive golfer and already founder of the London Scottish Golf Club, was the driving force and first President. Col Tomline, who owned the land, became the club’s Patron.
In 1880 there were only 5 golf clubs in England, by 1906 there were 500! Felixstowe Golf Club enjoyed a particular popularity as it was within easy reach of London by train and the majority of early members came down to play their “links” golf. They were in fact a very special collection of individuals with many being “men eminent in art, science and literature”. In 1894 a ladies club was formed with its own club house and six hole course. Unfortunately all this, together with a substantial part of the original ground, was to be swept away by the sea. The Martello course of what is now called the Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club, is therefore only a remnant of the once famous links.
It is against this background of the increased popularity of golf that after the Great War, in addition to the resurrection of the Felixstowe Golf Club a second club was to emerge in Felixstowe at Eastward Ho! to the north of the town.
The game had been played in this area prior to WWI and it is understood that Harold Hilton, a famous amateur golfer who had won the Open Championship as well as the American Open and many amateur championships, designed a course here. Hopefully research will generate further information. but as yet no records have been discovered.
There is much better documentation of the establishment of Eastward Ho! Golf Club in 1920 when an 18 hole course was laid out on land leased from the Orwell Park Estate (Mr. Pretyman). The design was by the famous champion golfer James Braid and the course ran from the north end of Beatrice Avenue (opposite the Grove Medical Centre) down past the Grove and over what are now playing fields and arable land and across and beyond Gulpher Road.
The club prospered as it probably offered a more attractive proposition than Felixstowe Golf Club which had the reputation for being “for the toffs”! This older club certainly suffered some financial problems in the 1930s which resulted in the sale of land which is now the Clifflands car park.
Walter F. Cross, a builder and Felixstowe mayor on two occasions, was also a keen golfer and very much a leading light in the Eastward Ho! club. He was also to become a saviour of the Felixstowe Golf Club when he purchased it just before the outbreak of WWII and promoted its restoration in 1948.
WWII of course led to the demise of both clubs. Felixstowe Golf Club was taken over for coastal defences and the club house used for troops. Eastward Ho! was requisitioned by the War and Agricultural Committee. Lord Cranworth used his influence to delay ploughing and a hay crop was taken in May 1940, but the course was eventually lost, although service personnel were allowed to play FOC for a brief period. Two minute books recording the business of the club in its later years are lodged with the County Records Office and need to be revisited.
After the war the War Department was slow to release the land (87 acres requisitioned 1st October 1941) with the result that ideas for resurrecting the club faded, although the land did at some stage get handed over to the Urban District Council. Further research is required to establish the facts.
The club was not formally wound up until the 1970s and there were rumours that reparations were paid or available. Enquiries of the Orwell Park Estate indicate that the change in land ownership may well have been connected with the payment of death duties. At one time the estate had considerable land holdings in the Felixstowe area.
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Where was the course?
The Club House
As yet, no photograph or illustration of the club house has come to light but it is recalled as a single storey building with a veranda and corrugated roof. This 1932 map shows its position. There was also a professional’s shop and a car park. The club house had a dining room and teas and other refreshments were available to visitors. At one time consideration was possibly given to acquiring the big house on the corner (Grove Lodge) as a club house.
This is a view from the club house across the practice putting green in the foreground and players on the 18th green.
 | A local retired gentleman is custodian of this brass plate that used to adorn the club house door. His father was in the Home Guard and acquired it when the building became the Home Guard HQ at the beginning of the war. Later, the HQ was transferred to Martello Tower U at Felixstowe Ferry. |
Course Design
 | Harold Horsfall Hilton (1859 – 1942) laid out a course at Eastward Ho! before the First World War, but no records seem to exist. It was probably no more than nine holes. Hilton was an English amateur golfer who won the Open Championship twice, the Amateur Championship four times and also the U.S. Amateur Championship. |
 | The designer of the Eastward Ho! GC course was the legendary James Braid (1870 – 1950), Open Champion on five occasions and the course architect involved in complete design or significant improvements to over 400 courses. He was active in Suffolk, also designing Thorpeness, Bungay, Newton Green and Ipswich (Purdis Heath) which is considered one of his great achievements. He was also brought in to redesign some holes at Felixstowe GC. |
Nine holes were available at Eastward Ho! In 1920, but another 6 then three were added so by 1925 it was a fully fledged 18 hole course in an attractive setting. It was not the longest of courses but nevertheless a good test of golf.
Below is an extract from the 1936 Club Handbook.
Views (past and present)
This picture was taken in 2020 from a position similar to that from the old club house. In the late 70s house owners in Links Avenue were given the opportunity to buy land to extend their gardens. Up to the spring and pond, some 300 yards away, part of the land is leased for horse paddocks. Beyond, considerable landscaping and tree planting has extended the nearby Grove woodland and provided public open space including football pitches and a children’s play area.
This photograph shows a general view. A spring and outflow ran in a depression down to the Grove and can be seen middle right. The large tree at the corner of the Grove was a hybrid poplar and lasted as a dominant feature until it succumbed to the 1987 hurricane.
Here is another photograph taken in 1924 showing players on the 18th green. The hybrid poplar is very prominent.
This is a photograph taken from “Fairfield” 3, Links Avenue, in the early 1970s. The site of the 18th green can be seen along with the depressions which were once bunkers. The deeds of the house stipulated a maximum height for the back fencing of four feet. Was this to ensure low golf shots were not impeded?
The 1st tee was in the far corner beyond the horses, a site now occupied by the council car park.
An extension to the Grove and a belt of trees along the northern side of the playing fields denies us a view of the original line of this hole.
A view just to the north of the shelter belt in 2018. Cultivations have obliterated any signs of the green or bunkers.
The site of the 7th green is on the other side of Gulpher Road. The photograph appears to have been taken from the 4th green.
This 2018 photograph shows the area still quite recognisable.
Holes 5, 6 and 7 beyond Gulpher Road were in an area which appears to be in permanent pasture. No cultivations have smoothed the interesting topography and some farm staff still refer to the area as “the bunkers”.
The far plateau may have been the site of the 6th green with the 7th tee down to the left.
Quinton’s Farm (pictured in 1913) was to be almost surrounded by Eastward Ho! golf course. The house was divided into two dwellings and on the east side lived Billy Warner and his family. He was the green keeper and had a shed on the site of the old barn in which he kept tractors, mowers and other course equipment. After the war a Bill Warner appears as a member of the Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club green staff.
Leonard Squirrell, the famous Suffolk artist, was commissioned to provide sketches for the 1928 Felixstowe Guide. Here we see players teeing off at what is probably the dog leg 15th hole with the 14th green behind. Quinton’s Lane is in the foreground leading down to the farm. The barn seems to have gone and been replaced by haystacks.
Quinton’s Farm house (home of the Roberts family) along with a pond, was there in the 1960s, but eventually it was demolished and no trace remains here at the end of Quinton’s Lane. Four golf holes were played across the lane.
Beyond the site of Quinton’s Farm a footpath continues down to Gulpher Road. A map of the course shows a line of trees along this route. One specimen remains at the north end. On the left were the 14th green, the 8th tee and finally the 4th green with the gate that led to the three holes over the road.
Members and Officials
Eastward Ho! GC was clearly a very lively club with close connections with the town’s business and private residents. No list of members has come to light but the 1936 handbook provides quite an informative snap shot.
After WWII and when the opportunity of reinstating the course seemed to have gone, understandably local golfers threw their weight behind the reconstruction of the course at Bawdsey Common and which was to emerge as Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club.
 | An influential and enthusiastic golfer who did so much to develop Eastward Ho! GC was Walter F. Cross JP. Having bought the Felixstowe Golf Club from the estate of Herbert Garrett (who had acquired it just before the war), in1948 he worked to ensure golf could be played at Felixstowe once again. It was a tragedy Walter Cross died just before the official opening. |
 | Many names, once of Eastward Ho! Golf Club were now to be found at Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club. Interestingly, Captain J. Worrall, captain at Eastward Ho! (1921/22), seems to have switched allegiance much earlier as he is portrayed by “Mel” as secretary at Felixstowe Golf Club in 1931. |
Competitions
There was a good number of competitions, including regular monthly events and more names appear among the lists of winners. The club also played against neighbouring clubs and participated in the Hambro Cup.
Over the years people who had relatives who were members of Eastward Ho! GC or had associations with the club, have generously donated artefacts. No major trophies have yet come to hand, but several silver spoons have been given. These were probably awarded for medal competitions.
 | The 1936 official handbook was well supported by local business advertisers, several of whom had a close interest in the club. |
Professionals
Some of the greatest professionals of the day came to play at Eastward Ho! and helped to put the club on the golfing map.
W. A. Rush was professional at Eastward Ho! Golf Club from 1920 – 1938. He was apparently known as “Charlie”. Distressingly, on 15th March 1938, the East Anglian Daily Times carried a report of a body being found at Cobbolds Point. Charlie had drowned and it appeared to be suicide.
R. W. Rush, Charlie’s son took over as professional. The club minutes record that in May 1940 Reg Knight (professional at Felixstowe Golf Club) offered his services for club repairs.
Several golf clubs of various shapes and sizes stamped “W. A, Rush” have been acquired at auction or donated.
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Miscellaneous
Numerous handbooks and guides extolled the delights of golf at Eastward Ho! This is just one example taken from the Handbook of Felixstowe Amusements, Recreation and Sports for 1924 Season.
There was an official button for those who chose a uniform and it appeared to be based on the earlier and more elaborate Felixstowe Golf Club design.
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An interesting letter from the then owners of the land.
