216 hand-written pages in black and red ink (mostly done in the same hand); and 272 blank pages (mostly in back), on ruled ledger paper. One page with several newspaper clippings providing first and second round results from the 1911 Sussex Amateur Championship (at Seaford); plus one leaf with penciled names and results (not year dated but matches the same hand-writing), loosely laid in. (Folio) 15x9¾, bound in the original full maroon calf, decoratively blind-stamped edges, front cover lettered in gilt "Southdown Golf Club. Competition Records," marbled endpapers and edges, hinges reinforced with period brown cloth.
The official Southdown Golf Club hand-written ledger book from January 1911 to August 1914, ending abruptly due to the start of World War I. Provides player names and various competition events for the club and names of clubs and players they competed against. First page titled Southdown Golf Club, Records, showing scores divided in half; left marked “Amateur, C.B. Cumberledge” and right with “Professional, J[ohn] H[enry] Taylor.” Taylor is a noted great English golfer and author. Bottom states signature and then golfer’s name signed, but in the ledger-makers’ hand. Also, with marker names J. Piper and S.C. Ganson. Other golfer’s names include: I. Gregory Taylor, A. McKenzie, F. Carr, H.F. Gates, H. Flowers, P.E. Tickle, R.H. Russell, L.A. Elliott, D.F.S. Smith, C. Johns (professional), F.D. Thorowgood, P.E. Hill, C. Burt-Brill, J.E. Dell, W.L.A. Lennard, W.C. Hopkins, C.K.A. Congreve, H.L. Dorrell, A.E. Webster, B.F. Ayrton, J.U. Gaskill, W.H. Reeves, R.J. Hutchinson, A.S. Morris, C.H.C. Macgregor, and many many others. Some of the events titled: Yearly Shoreham Bowl, Monthly Bogey Competition, Monthly Medal Competitions, Open Eclectic Sweepstake, Southdown “Dinner” Cup Competition, Inter-Club Match at Worthing (also with West Hove, Hollingbury, Littlehampton, Goodwood, Eastbourne Downs, Willingdon, Chichester, etc.), “Maxwell Davis” Cup, 18 Hole Medal Competition for the “Rough Riders” Cup (also the “Freeman,” “Dick Dell,” “Lancing College,” “Captains” Cups), Annual Caddies Competition, etc. The Southdown Golf Club started in 1900 and operated from Buckingham barn until 1903, when a new clubhouse opened at what is now the south end of New Barn Lane in Shoreham, England. The British army requisitioned the golf course in 1914 and attempts were made to re-open the course in the mid-1920’s and finally a new course was opened in 1935. The clubhouse was an old building at New Erringham, believed to be the former home of farmer Richard Sharpe. The club did not survive the Second World War, and in 1976 the settlement comprised only three mid-20th-century cottages, farm buildings, and the ruins of the original farm house (once the official clubhouse for the golf club).