Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire
| Stoke Park Country Club, Spa and Hotel | |
|---|---|
Lancelot "Capability" Brown, Humphry Repton and Nick "Pa" Lane Jackson | |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 49 bedrooms and suites |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Stoke Park is a private sporting and leisure estate in
Stoke Park has served as the filming location for several major films, including
In June 2014, Stoke Park hosted an outdoor charity concert for
Following the acquisition of the estate by Reliance Industries in April 2021,[3] the venue closed for restoration and refurbishment, and is expected to reopen in summer 2023.[4]
History
The estate
The Stoke Park estate's history dates back to the time of the Domesday Book. From 1066, the estate was inherited in a direct line of descent for 515 years until it had to be sold to the Crown in 1581 to pay the outstanding debts of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, whose father Francis, the commander in chief of Henry VIII's army, had rebuilt the Manor House (part of which can still be seen today) in 1555.
John Penn (1760–1834), a soldier, scholar, and poet, is responsible for most of what can be seen at the estate today. He used a large proportion of the £130,000 the new United States government paid for his family's 26-million acre (110,000 km2) plot in Pennsylvania.
The mansion was designed by
The estate is listed Grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[5]
The club
The estate was used as a private residence until 1908 when Nick "Pa" Lane Jackson, founder of the Corinthian Sporting Club (Corinthian F.C.), purchased the estate and turned it into the UK's first country club. One of his initial objectives was to commission the famous amateur golfer and course architect Harry Colt (who also designed Pinevalley, Wentworth, Sunningdale, Muirfield and Royal Portrush) to design the golf course. The golf course, along with the tennis courts and the conversion of the mansion, were all completed within eight months.[6]
In 1908, the club's first president was
In his 1910 book, The Golf Courses of the British Isles, Bernard Darwin wrote:
Stoke Park is a beautiful estate, and there is very good golf to be played there. There are plenty of things to do besides playing golf. We may get very hot at lawn tennis or keep comparatively cool at bowls or croquet, or, coolest of all, we may sit on the terrace or in the garden and give ourselves wholly and solely to loafing. The clubhouse is a gorgeous palace, a dazzling vision of white stone, of steps and terraces and cupolas, with a lake in front and imposing trees in every direction.
The mansion
The main building is a
The pavilion
Opened in 2008, the pavilion building has a health and beauty spa, swimming pool, fitness studio, gym and bedrooms and suites on the first and second floors.[7]
Golf
Stoke Park's 27 hole championship golf course was designed by Harry Colt in 1908. It was opened in July 1909 and received immediate acclaim:[8]
If there were no palatial clubhouse and no beautiful gardens and grounds, the course itself would take a great deal of beating anywhere within thirty miles of London. Colt, to whom belongs the credit of designing it, has scored a great success and his reputation as a green architect, already high, will be greatly enhanced by this the latest of his works.
— Golf Illustrated. 1909.
Stoke Park is considered one of the "Top 100 Courses in England".
The Boodles tennis challenge
Stoke Park is the host of the annual Boodles Challenge, hosted the week prior to the Championships at Wimbledon. Playing on Stoke Park's grass courts, the world's best men have competed for the Boodles trophy since 2002, including Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko and Juan Martín del Potro.[11]
Movies at Stoke Park
Stoke Park has been the backdrop to many movies and TV programmes. Two James Bond films,
The "mini break" and rowing scenes which includes
In 2004, three movies were released featuring Stoke Park:
Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla (2008) also featured the grass tennis courts and the 21st Green.
Other features filmed at Stoke Park include, The Vice, The Professionals, Midsomer Murders, Dead of Night, and many advertisements.
References
- ^ Darwin, Bernard (1910). The golf courses of the British isles. Duckworth & Co. pp. 27–28. Retrieved 22 April 2023 – via Project Gutenberg.
- ^ a b "Stoke Park". theaa.com. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- ^ Reynolds, Emma (23 April 2021). "Billionaire Mukesh Ambani Buys Golf Club Featured In James Bond Film 'Goldfinger' For $79 Million". Forbes. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
- ^ "Stoke Park to shut for two years after Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani buys it for £57 million". Bucks Free Press. 10 June 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
- ^ Historic England, "Stoke Park (1000363)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 19 December 2016
- ^ Jackson, Nick Lane (1932). Sporting Days & Sporting Ways. Hurst & Blanket. pp. 225–226.
- ^ "Official Stoke Park website". Retrieved 20 January 2021.
- OCLC 1073277963.
- ^ "Best Golf Courses in England". Your Golf Travel. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
- ^ "Top 100 Golf Resorts in the World". Top100GolfCourses. Top100GolfCourses Ltd. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
- ^ "The Boodles".History. Retrieved 20 January 2021
- ^ Brown, Oliver (25 August 2008). "Goldfinger inspired Sean Connery's lifelong love affair with golf". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
External links
