“Get orf moi land!” The Viz comic image of a red-faced Farmer Palmer, shot gun at the ready, might not be quite what you’d expect to encounter in quiet, polite, suburban Croham or Selsdon.
But that’s the message from the £200-million charitable trust, the Whitgift Foundation, to local residents, joggers, dog-walkers and ramblers, and especially for its neighbours living along Farley Road.
Residents whose properties back on to Croham Hurst golf course have this month received a letter from the club which warns them not to dump garden waste over their back fences on to the course nor to trespass on the 18 holes’ carefully manicured fairways, or risk being reported to the police.
The letter to residents, from golf club manager Stephen Mackinson, talks of “substantial amounts of garden waste and rubbish” being dumped at the rear of properties along Farley Road on to the golf course. “This is unacceptable and must cease,” Mackinson’s letter states, emphatically.
And with underlining, the golf club officials states, “Access of any kind is forbidden.”
Croham Hurst Golf Club is widely regarded as one of the best courses, and best-kept, in south London and Surrey. First laid out in 1911, annual membership costs £1,565, and green fees for one round can cost £50.
The club owns its car park area and club house. But the vast expanse of the course is part of the massive property portfolio of the Whitgift Foundation, which leases it to the golfers.
Unusually for a suburban course, there are no public rights of way or footpaths across Croham Hurst’s fairways, which abut the public open space of Croham Hurst Woods to the south of the course, off Upper Selsdon Road.
“Our landlords,” Mackinson writes, referring to the Whitgift Foundation, “… have instructed CHGC to ensure that no one other than authorised members and guests of the club are allowed access to the golf course at any time. Anyone in contravention who is seen on the course is trespassing and will be reported to the police.”
The Whitgift Foundation is a registered charity and Croydon’s biggest land owners, with assets worth more than £200 million. As well as running three independent schools (with annual fees of up to £34,656) and three almshouses, they also own playing fields, shops and buildings in the area, as well as the Whitgift Centre, which is subject of the much-delayed £1 billion redevelopment by Westfield and Hammerson.
And now the Foundation has decided to play hard-ball with anyone daring to encroach on its property around the golf course.
A view of the Croham Hurst Golf Club’s clubhouse from the 10th hole
One senior member of the club told Inside Croydon: “It’s a problem that’s been going on for years. They use the course to dump their rubbish, which is a nuisance, and some just go out on to the course to walk their dogs – and that can be dangerous with golf balls flying around at 180mph.”
Mackinson stressed today that his letter from the golf club was to fulfill his responsibilities towards their landlords. “Part of our lease is that we have to ensure that the land is looked after in a proper way,” he said. “It is private land, and there is no public access for jogging or dog walking at all. The Whitgift Foundation insist that we enforce this.
“We have written to neighbours before, and we have signs all around the course saying that it is private land. But there are parts of the course which are not fenced off and people do sometimes stray on to the course by accident, too. It can be dangerous.”
Asked whether the golf club’s landlords had ever considered “managing” access to the course, perhaps with a public footpath from Croham Hurst across towards Croham Valley Road, Mackinson said, “They would never allow that.”
- Still Croydon’s only independent news source, and based in the heart of the borough: 1.97 million page views 2013-2015
- Inside Croydon: Named among best regional media campaigns, 2014
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event to publicise, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
I assume any golfer putting their ball out of bounds of the golf course will be fined for littering…?
While I have some sympathy with Croham Hurst ( and none, ever, for the Whitgift Foundation) I have to correct Mr Mackinson a little.
His, “Anyone in contravention who is seen on the course is trespassing and will be reported to the police.” is actually an empty threat. Trespassing on to somebody’s land without a lawful excuse is an offence itself and is one of the rare forms of tort claims in which a claimant can bring a claim without having to prove any damage has occurred. However, it is not a criminal offence and so property owners must bring their claim in the civil courts.
I can’t see either Croham Hurst or the Foundation going to the expense of a private prosecution if the Police are unable to help.
If Croydon police have time to deal with non-members wandering onto the hallowed grounds of Croham Hurst golf course, then either their priorities are warped or their resources are much better than we’ve been led to believe. Fore!
While the access thing seems draconian, the inference from the piece can only be that Inside Croydon advocates that residents of Farley Road should be allowed to dump their garden waste on private land. Surely not.
The only thing you should be inferring from this piece is Inside Croydon’s utter shock and surprise that the nice people of Croham should behave in such an irresponsible manner by dumping their rubbish on someone else’s property.
What no one seems able to explain, though, is whether anyone would be so foolish as to dump their own rubbish at the end of their very own garden? Might there be a risk that such laziness might give away the identity of the dumper?
Just shows: being rich doesn’t automatically make you intelligent, kind or caring.
The historical parish boundary between Sanderstead Parish and Addington Parish (or “Croydon St John the Baptist Parish”more recently) runs behind the houses on Croham Valley Road – see the link to this map below. There was once a track following this boundary as marked on the 1914 OS map [and on earlier versions eg from 1868] that led up the valley before crossing where Croham Valley Road now runs (road was only built in the 1920s) and up through Littleheath Woods where it still runs today as the Vanguard way. This is (or was) an old bridle path/road presumably also used for “beating the parish bounds”. Parts of the original route is now physically blocked by houses where it crosses Croham Valley Road but the stretch up the valley from near where the club house stands could be rerouted abit further along the edge of the golf course to link up with the Queenhill Road (Selsdon) public recreation ground that borders the golf course. I wonder if public access could ever be reinstated along the edge of the gold course?
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.7&lat=51.35662&lon=-0.07710&layers=168&b=1&o=100
Suggest you contact the Croydon branch of the Ramblers. I’d take it up, but I’m with the East Surrey Branch. Croydon contact details here: https://www.croydonramblers.org.uk/contact-croydon-ramblers/
I can’t see the Rights of Way bod there, but he/she is ghe right person to contact. Croydon Council has a ‘Rights of Way’ person too – probably a statutory post that they can’t delete!.