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Park View Golf Club, Higher Blackley, Manchester. (1930s - 1960)

The club appeared from the mid 1930s to about 1960.

The following images are from a booklet issued by the club in the 1930s. It certainly shows that Sid Ball was a leading light at the club. Thanks to Graham Rowley for the images.

 

Park View Golf Club, Higher Blackley, Manchester. Sid Ball, the man behind the club.

Sid Ball, the man behind the club.

 

Park View Golf Club, Higher Blackley, Manchester. Layout of the nine-hole course.

Plan of the nine-hole Park View course.

 

Park View Golf Club, Higher Blackley, Manchester. Course information.

 

Park View Golf Club, Higher Blackley. Entrance fees, Subscriptions etc.

Course information.

 

Park View Golf Club, Higher Blackley, Manchester. Boggart Hole Cottage.

Boggart Hole Cottage from the putting green.

 

Park View Golf Club, Higher Blackley. View of the seventh hole.

The seventh hole.

 

Park View Golf Club, Higher Blackley. The course on the 1946 O.S.map.

The Park View golf course is marked on the above map. Reproduced from the {1946} Ordnance Survey Map.

 

ROMANCE OF A ONE-MAN GOLF CLUB Sid Ball’s enterprise at Manchester Courage wins - by Adjutant (F. Stacey Lintott). It appears that F.Stacey Lintott (Adjutant) worked for The Daily Dispatch.

“Manchester has its proprietary golf club: that is, one owned by a single individual. Nothing very remarkable about that? Perhaps not, but this one is owned by a professional golfer, and that, I imagine is unique so far as this country is concerned. A little more than four years ago, Sid Ball, one of a golfing fraternity only less famous than the Vardons and the Whitcombes, lost the job he had held for many years as professional to the Manchester Municipal Course at Heaton Park. The future looked black. He was no longer young and belonged to the old school of professional golfers no longer in favour. He had brought up a big family, which had left little chance of saving money. But Sid Ball had courage. On the high ground just over the way from Heaton Park was a patch of rough grassland, only 22 acres, but Ball had an idea. Would not be deterred With the help of a friend or two, he secured a lease on that land and proceeded to lay out a nine holes course - most course architects would claim that they needed at least 40 acres for the job. The project seemed pretty hopeless, but Sid Ball would not be deterred. First he made a small putting green. That was easy and would bring in a few shillings. Then he set to work on the course. He was his own architect, foreman and labourer. With his own hands he shaped greens and tees and constructed bunkers. For twelve months he laboured like any navvy. Even when it was found that he had slightly strained his heart and had to rest, the delay was slight. At the end of the year it looked something like a course, and a formal opening of the venture was decided upon! Sid Ball secured for partner Norman Bullock, the Bury football captain and a scratch golfer, to meet George Duncan and myself. Launching the Club Quite a gallery was secured and the Club was launched. Still much remained to be done. Ball cut down a big tree, and from it fashioned a wooden roller. He set about constructing his own lockers. All the tee boxes he made himself. Today the Club has membership of some 50 men and 30 women, all as keen as keen can be. A comfortable little clubroom has been constructed and furnished, with an attractive looking bar at one end. Rooms in Ball’s own cottage serve for smoke room and dining room. The outside staff consists of Sid Ball and a 15 year old boy. The inside staff of Sid Ball, his wife and daughter. Never was a golf course so cheaply established or so cheaply run. “Park View” “At least I am making a living” said Ball to me, “and if the work is hard, well I still get a bit of golf.” Today the Club is a real club. It has its President, Captain and other officials. It is affiliated to the Lancashire Union and has been given a scratch score of 67 - for the course played twice. Naturally, it is short, less than 2,500 yards, and the longest hole is but some 280 yards, but it is serving its purpose and steadily forging ahead. Park View is its official title today, but now, as in its early days, it is generally known as Sid Ball’s Course and so I expect it will continue to be - a lasting memorial to a man who, faced with disaster, had the courage and determination to carry through a seemingly impossible proposition.”

The Google Map below pinpoints the location of the former course.