I was playing golf in southeast London last weekend with a former lady captain when conversation turned to the history of our course, Shooter’s Hill Golf Club and the local area.  Dick Turpin, Hitler’s doodlebugs and Bobby Locke, in no particular order, but it turns out Shooters Hill is positively steeped in history. I was captivated and immediately consulted Google on my return home.

The name ‘Shooters Hill’ was first recorded in 1226 and reputedly takes its name from the practice of archery there during the Middle Ages. The name is also commonly linked to its reputation as a haunt for highwaymen and was infamous for its gibbets of the executed ones as referred to in 1661 in Samuel Pepys diary.

The summit provided excellent cover for Highwaymen and footpads who preyed on unsuspecting travellers. It was also here that they were hung and their bodies displayed in gibbets.  Perhaps the most notorious, and paradoxically the most romantic highwayman of all, was the ubiquitous Dick Turpin who is said to have ‘worked’ the hill and who took advantage of the dark woods for his dark deeds.

Golf was first played at Shooter’s Hill in 1903 when a 9-hole course was opened. In 1907 a full 18-hole course was designed by Willie Park and then completely remodelled in the 1930’s by Messrs Harris and Colt.

In 1939, half of the golf course was requisitioned for the establishment of an anti-aircraft battery to protect London. Part of the clubhouse became the headquarters of the Home Guard and in the latter years, a prisoner of war camp for some 1000 German and Italian prisoners. A 7-foot high wire fence surrounded the camp with the cookhouse situated by the 17th green.

Incredibly, the remaining 9-holes continued to be played even though the course sustained considerable damage from bombing. Indeed, a grass bunker on the 8^th hole today is testament to the terrifying power of the doodlebug bomb.