Park
Meyrick Park
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Paul And Leigh
May 8, 2022
Meyrick Park was opened on 28 November 1894 by Mrs Jacintha Meyrick, the wife of Sir George’s son – his own wife had died two years previously. The next day the 18-hole golf course in the park was inaugurated – the first municipally owned golf links in the country. It proved a great success, and its popularity led to many more. The course was designed by Tom Dunn, one of the great golf course architects in the tradition of Old Tom Morris of St Andrews. A Scot like Morris, he learnt his golf from his father, who played with and against Morris. Of Meyrick Park he wrote: ‘Nothing appeared on the surface of the land but heather, furze and pine wood; but with a hundred men, twenty horses and a scarifier, short work was soon made of this wilderness, and the links was completed in three months. It cost £2500.’ Dunn was appointed greenkeeper and professional, and he remained at Meyrick Park for five years, retiring only because of ill health. During that time he designed the Came Down links at Dorchester, which opened in 1896, and two years later the course at Broadstone, which he considered the best design of his career out of the 64 courses worldwide which are attributed to him. The Meyrick Park course, however, also has a considerable reputation, both for its scenic beauty and for its difficulty. The first hole, a 244-yard par 3, was once voted the hardest opening hole in the country, and the 14th inspired golfing great Henry Cotton to write: ‘There is no finer hole than that of the 14th at Meyrick Park.’ The course is more than three miles long and consequently takes up a large proportion of the park; but the Victorian predilection for sporting activities was further satisfied by the provision of a bowling green and playing fields. The bowling green was little used until 1903, when the founding of the Bournemouth Bowling Club increased interest in the sport. The club continues to flourish and is still based at Meyrick Park. The playing fields are currently marked out for rugby and have been used by Oakmeadians Rugby Club since 1988. But there is plenty of room for those with no sporting inclinations to enjoy the park – it was enlarged by the addition of part of the Talbot estate in the 1920s and is Bournemouth’s largest park, at 194 acres. Since it is still owned by Bournemouth Borough Council, there is no restriction on public access. There is, however, one form of access which would not find favour today. On 8 April 1914 the pioneer aviator Gustav Hamel landed his aeroplane in Meyrick Park and gave the redoubtable Elsie Knocker (subsequently famous as a World War 1 nurse) a five-minute spin. He returned to the spot four days later and looped the loop twenty-one times, breaking the previous record for this recently discovered aerobatic feat. Alas, he went missing over the English Channel six weeks later. Nowadays any excitement in Meyrick Park is firmly ground-based. Apart from sporting thrills, there is the annual spectacle of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s Proms in the Park every summer, with fireworks to round off each concert. The Meyricks from previous centuries would be surprised but probably
Meyrick Park was opened on 28 November 1894 by Mrs Jacintha Meyrick, the wife of Sir George’s son – his own wife had died two years previously. The next day the 18-hole golf course in the park was inaugurated – the first municipally owned golf links in the country. It proved a great success, and it…
Allen
May 6, 2022
Beautiful setting with woodland, public access all year round for lovely walks.
Einzigartige Aktivitäten in der Umgebung
Standort
Dorset, England