While the present clubhouse of the Royal Blackheath Golf Club dates from 17th Century, it more difficult to substantiate the claimed date of 1608 as the year the Blackheath Club was ‘instituted’. It is known that James VI of Scotland and his courtiers took their golf clubs with them, when he went south to became James I of England in 1603.  They would almost certainly have played at the top of the hill behind the Greenwich palace on Blackheath and golfers are said to have played on the 'Heath at this time.  Greenwich is still a Royal Park today.

Royal Blackheath Silver Club

The earliest item in Royal Blackheath's museum is a silver club, dating back to  1766, which was a common medal for clubs during this period. This date would still make Royal Blackheath the oldest English golf club and the oldest golf club outside Scotland.

Blackheath mention that other items in their possession suggest a date of 1745 may have been the inauguration of a collection of players into a formalised Club, but they do not give details. The idea that the first golf club could be English, and not Scottish, is not as impossible as it sounds. In Edinburgh there were plenty of golfers and arrangements for a game would have been easy to make. Blackheath is several miles outside the City of London and to get there in Stuart times would have meant significant travel arrangements, such as being ferried by waterman to Greenwich. Thus the reduced number of golfers and the geography could easily have produced more organisation sooner, but no conclusive evidence is felt to exist at present.

The Royal Blackheath have another club in their collection, called a putter, gifted to them by John Hume. The putter was presented to Royal Blackheath with an account of 'an original feat of golfing by the Rev. Dr Carlysle (sic) of Inversk'.  In his 'History of Golf', Robert Browning speculates that the 'Home's golf putter' (sic) is the actual club that Rev Alexander Carlyle used to perform this feat.  The Rev 'Jupiter' Carlyle won the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club cup in 1775. In his autobiography, he recounts a visit to the actor David Garrick in London in 1758, with the author John Hume.  In travelling through London the party were cheered by soldiers of the Scots Guards, who saw the golf clubs in the back of the coach and surmised correctly that the occupants must be Scottish. Rev Carlyle makes no mention of a golf club at Blackheath in his account, but he tells how he, John Hume and Parson Black played golf at Molesly Hurst (sic) over the river from Garrick's house, near Hampton Court Palace in the west of London.   This is the only reference to the Molesey course at this time. Afterwards 'Jupiter' Carlyle performed the world's first recorded golf trick shot, by pitching a ball through an arch in Garrick's garden into the River Thames.  Garrick begged Carlyle to give him the club and it might well have ended up in the possession of John Hume. The golf visit is also recounted in Olive Geddes 'A Swing Through Time'.

Henry Callender English golfer

Pictured above is Henry Callender who was a prominent English golfer in the late 18th Century. He was painted here by the famous portrait artist LF Abbott, wearing the ‘Field Marshal's’ uniform of the Blackheath Society of Golfers. The two golf clubs illustrated are said to be still in the possession of the Royal Blackheath Golf Club.

Royal Blackheath's Spring Medal formerly known as the Knuckle Club Medal goes back to 1789, when there was a group within the club known as the Knuckle Club who met and played separately from other members.  The club comments that this is probably the oldest golfing medal prize.

Medal Day at Blackheath 1874 Daily News

The print above shows golf on the ‘Heath by the Victorian artist, F Gilbert, looking north towards Greenwich park. This engraving is featured in Robert Clark’s book facing a florid account of a ‘Medal Day at Blackheath’, first printed in the June 1874 edition of the Daily News. The Daily News reported that the caddies were ‘apparently costermongers out of work’ and that there was a ‘scout’ posted with a red flag to warn passers by of the presence of the golfers (just visible in the background to the right of centre). Click picture for larger image.

The photograph below shows today’s Heath, which is larger than Bruntsfield or Leith Links, looking towards Blackheath from the A2 which cuts across it.

Blackheath today

In early years, the Blackheath course was five holes and later extended to seven holes. After the end of the First World War in 1918, it was unable to expand on the Heath, which was 'common' ground (a common problem to many golf early courses). In addition, playing three rounds of the seven holes meant driving across the main London to Kent Road (the A2) on no fewer than six occasions. This was unsafe due to the increasing volume of road traffic. In 1923, the Royal Blackheath Golf Club took over the Eltham Golf Club, which had been formed in 1892, and they have remained there, over the road from Eltham Palace, ever since.

Royal Blackheath Clubhouse over 9th Fairway

The clubhouse, which the Royal Blackheath inherited, was completed in 1664 for Sir John Shaw, a wealthy vintner who supported King Charles II with loans during his years of exile and who ‘spared no expense in employing the most talented craftsman of the day in the construction of this fine building.’  The items mentioned above with others form a golf museum in the clubhouse which can be visited for small entrance fee, with or without afternoon tea.

The official website of the Royal Blackheath Golf Club is the very elaborate with a live webcam on the clubhouse and grounds. Societies and functions are welcomed.

Accommodation in Blackheath