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GOLF
'RUINING OUR GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND'
The spread of golf courses threatens
Britain's traditional landscapes, a report from the
leading conservation authority will warn this week. The
sport's growing popularity has led to dozens of important
parks being turned into 18-hole courses, leading to what
English Heritage claims is "irreversible damage to
the historic environment". The warning comes as the
organisation prepares to launch the first comprehensive
register of the country's neglected historic treasures
this week.
Its "Heritage at Risk" report will
identify listed buildings, monuments, churches,
battlefields and even shipwrecks that it believes are in
jeopardy, and discuss what can be done to preserve them.
The survey, the first document of its kind to include
parks, gardens and landscapes, will warn that golf
courses are frequently being imposed on the landscape in
an "alien and insensitive" way.
English Heritage found that:
Around 116 historically important parks in
the South East alone have been converted into golf
courses since the 1980s
Golf course developments are damaging
scheduled monuments, archaeological remains and the
setting of listed buildings
The gardens and landscape of stately homes
and country houses are particularly at risk.
The warning comes amid the row over a plan by the
American billionaire Donald Trump to build a £1 billion
golf resort on one of the most unspoilt stretches of
Scottish coastline. This are the subject of a planning
inquiry.
English Heritage says that some settings can
never be suited to the intensive building and landscaping
necessary to build fairways, tees, bunkers and
clubhouses. Among the examples given is Rudding Park,
near Harrogate. The park and gardens were created in
1788, when Lord Loughborough commissioned Humphry Repton
to improve the grounds around his house. It is now
covered by an 18 hole course, a floodlit driving range,
practice holes, holiday homes and camping pitches. A
19th-century walled garden was destroyed to make way for
chalets.
English Heritage's senior landscape adviser,
Jenifer White, said, "More and more facilities have
been added to what is a registered historic park. It's a
case of over-intensive development." The
organisation has compiled a separate report, "Golf
in Historic Parks and Landscapes", which recognises
that golf is one of Britain's most popular participation
sports and sets out ways new courses can be built with
minimum damage to their surroundings, including
guidelines for architects and developers. These include
minimising earth movement, designing bunkers, signs and
paths to have as little impact as possible, while
conserving trees and restoring water features.
English Heritage also criticises the first of
two golf courses at 18th-century Brocket Hall, in
Hertfordshire, as "an alien landscape" compared
with the later course, designed by Donald Steel, which
"weaves its way through woodland and integrates with
the historic design" of the building. But Peter
Banks, managing director of Rudding Park, said parks and
gardens had to balance conservation with raising money to
pay for it through commercial development.
He said, "English Heritage has praised
the landscaping of our 18-hole course. Heritage assets
don't maintain themselves. We employ 15 men to look after
the park grounds and we have to raise the revenue for
them to do that." Heritage at Risk, to be published
on Tuesday, includes an assessment of all 19,711 of the
country's scheduled monuments, all 1,595 registered
historic parks, gardens and landscapes, all 43 registered
battlefields and all 45 protected shipwrecks.
Among the sites in greatest peril is Birkrigg
stone circle in Cumbria, which dates from between 1700
and 1400BC. Known as the Druid's Circle, it overlooks
Morecambe Bay. The 31 stones are under threat from
encroaching bracken and paint-spraying vandals. Also at
risk is the Salcombe Cannon Site in Devon, where a
shipwreck yielded a treasure trove of gold coins now held
at the British Museum. Last year the site was severely
damaged by a fishing vessel. Simon Thurley, chief
executive of English Heritage, said, "If we don't
act, these things won't be here for our
grandchildren." Patrick Sawyer
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