HISTORY

In circa 493 AD , a Saxon noble called Aeffing built his ‘ham’ or house in the area we now know as Effingham. A charter of 727 granted 20 dwellings in Bookham and Effingham to the Benedictine monastery at Chertsey.

By the 14th century, a manor house stood on the site of our current clubhouse owned by Sir John Poultney, five times Lord Mayor of London.

By 1550 Henry the eighth was hunting on what is now our golf course while staying at Hampton Court nearby. The manor house and lands were then owned by Lord William Howard (Henry’s Lord High Admiral) and it was his son Lord Charles Howard who commanded the English fleet against the Spanish Armada. So our spectacular carved oak fireplace in the Armada room dated 1591 most probably originated on one of Lord Howard’s ships. The cedar of Lebanon tree which forms our club logo and which today towers over our clubhouse dates from the same period .

The house and lands passed through many distinguished hands until in 1815 the house and 358 acres of land came into the possession of Sir Thomas Hussey Apreece. It was in 1927 when the Surrey Land and Development company negotiated a lease for a group of people wishing to build a golf course. Effingham Manor Golf Club was formed with the artisan club house using what are now greenkeepers’ cottages.

The course was designed by Harry S Colt who was renowned for his skill in modelling and landscaping. During his architectural career he was involved in either the construction or improvement of over 300 courses in the UK and Europe.
In 1991, F Hawtree in his book ‘Colt&Co’ describes him as “one of the outstanding golf course architects of his day, who moved golf course design from the primitive to the classical in one generation.”

Over the years, some minor changes have been made to the original design but Effingham remains today a lasting compliment to Harry Colt’s skill as a golf course architect.

In an article in the June 1931 issue of “Golfing”, Robert H.K. Browning described Effingham as “a Surrey woodland paradise”, the clubhouse was described as “having few equals on this side of the Atlantic. It is handsome without being ornate, convenient without being elaborate and contrives in singularly pleasing fashion to unite the attractions of a town club with the simplicity and comfort of a country house”.