North Berwick’s Golfing Heritage Transcript

A video by Hugh Trevor

0:04 [Music]

0:10 “My name is Alistair Stewart, I’m one of

0:13 the members of North Berwick’s

0:14 Golfing Heritage and we’re standing at

0:16 the professional shop at the West Links

0:18 in North Berwick.

0:20 There are four of us in this group,

0:21 Douglas Seaton, John Fergie, my wife and

0:24 myself

0:25 and we have put together this project

0:27 over the last two years,

0:30 digging out information from both

0:32 newspaper cuttings, the National Archive

0:35 in Edinburgh and from other sources or

0:39 such as families who have had golfers

0:41 from North Berwick.

0:45 Our research into the golfers who left

0:48 North Berwick started about three years

0:51 ago,

0:52 and what started as a trickle ended up

0:54 as a torrent of information we just

0:56 couldn't believe how many families had

0:58 left the town in such a short space of

1:00 time over a century ago.

1:03 We knew some of the more familiar names

1:05 had done very well in the U.S Open

1:07 Championships but we hadn’t realised

1:10 just how many families emigrated

1:13 in relation to golf”.

1:16 [Music]

1:18 “Yes I understand

1:19 um Maynard Goldsmith used to live in

1:21 this building which at one time was the

1:23 temperance hotel in North Berwick but I

1:26 believed that when he lived there he won

1:28 the Swiss open in 1933”.

1:31 “This plaque as you can see is for Harry

1:33 Gullane

1:34 who was born on this site, not in this

1:37 building because the buildings would

1:38 have been demolished. These are new buildings,

1:40 but he immigrated to America in 1897 and

1:44 was appointed assistant professional at

1:45 the Philadelphia Country Club”.

1:48 “Hi, Gordon Cornish, resident of North Berwick.

1:51 Very interesting that we’re now going to

1:54 have plaques on some of our houses here

1:56 in this beautiful town reflecting some

1:59 of the more interesting and famous

2:01 people in fact who have been residents

2:04 of North Berwick over the years. This one

2:07 here Robert Denham, Scottish

2:09 International golfer, I must confess I

2:12 was not aware of that, you learn quite a

2:15 bit as you stroll around a town like our

2:18 beautiful North Berwick”.

2:19 This is perhaps the most significant

2:21 golfing spot in North Berwick.

2:24 People who lived in the same staircase

2:26 here between them won the US Open

2:29 five times – Willie Anderson and Fred

2:31 McLeod.

2:36 “Hello I’m Bruce Wilson and I’m a

2:39 resident of North Berwick and it’s

2:41 lovely to see that there’s a plaque

2:42 going to be put up on the building over

2:44 here

2:45 to remember Ben Sayers, a famous North

2:48 Berwick golfer. Being a golfer myself, not

2:52 as good as he was, but it’s nice that he

2:55 has been remembered and the plaque being

2:57 put up here”.

2:59 “This is Douglas Stevenson, the grandson of Ben

3:03 Sayers and perhaps he would like to say

3:05 a few words about the property opposite

3:07 us”. “Right, it’s in the old days when I was

3:10 a child this used to be what we called

3:12 the front shop

3:14 and above used to be the offices on the

3:17 left hand side above Well Heeled

3:19 Boutique is where my grandfather Ben

3:22 Sayers Jr had his office. I remember well

3:26 well in the mid 50s that this used to be

3:29 very much the mecca for golfers coming

3:31 here not only in the front shop did we

3:34 sell clothing, bowls, gloves etc but

3:37 through in the back there was a showroom

3:39 with a large coconut mat with a with a

3:42 big mirror where you could try out clubs.

3:45 So this really was a great centre

3:48 for golfers throughout the world. I

3:51 remember a personal thrill when I was a

3:53 kid aged about 10 or 11 that Roy Rogers

3:56 came here and visited and with my friend

3:58 Alan Gordon we we got his autograph”.

4:01 “Hello my name is George Day

4:04 I used to live close by here.

4:06 I used to come over here as a boy

4:09 watching the man with the steam hammer in

4:11 that window over there bashing out

4:14 molten metal on a steam hammer was

4:17 always a source of fascination watching

4:19 the man making Ben Sayers clubs in that

4:23 factory that used to bek over there.

4:26 I now live actually near next door to uh

4:30 Ben Sayer’s old house in Dirleton Avenue”.

4:34 “My name is Bill McClure and we’ve lived

4:36 in North Berwick for about four years

4:38 and of course it was a real privilege to

4:40 find that moving to Inchgarry House.

4:42 Dorothy Campbell had lived here in the

4:44 early 20th century. I think the work that

4:47 the North Berwick Heritage Golf Heritage

4:50 to have done is absolutely marvellous and

4:53 has brought not only a lot of

4:55 information to light but is making North

4:58 Berwick one of the places to visit

5:00 about the heritage and the history of

5:03 golf”.

5:05 My name is Robert Carr and I live here

5:08 at 31 Marmion Road, the family home of

5:10 Catriona Matthew who won the ladies open

5:13 in 2009.

5:15 We have always felt a strong connection

5:17 with Catriona and have watched her

5:19 playing golf around the world and

5:22 Catriona donated a putter which I was

5:24 very proud to gain at the auction and I

5:27 still play with it”.

5:31 “I’m John Fergie, I’m a member of the

5:33 North Berwick Golfing Heritage Project.

5:36 I’m up here today at Charles Lane and

5:38 Son down at Beaverbank in Edinburgh to

5:40 collect up the super bronze plaque that

5:42 they’ve made for us down in at the West

5:44 Links. Jim Fleming is going to present

5:47 this to me and it’s looks a super bit of

5:50 work here Jim.

5:51 And I am happy to receive this for the

5:55 project and I know that my colleagues on

5:57 the project will be delighted to see

5:59 this”.

6:00 “This is the bronze plaque that’s going

6:01 to commemorate the ball makers and club

6:03 makers and we’re going to install it

6:05 between the right hand windows of the

6:07 professional shop.

6:08 Right, we’re now going to offer up the

6:10 bronze plaque to the wall. The workmen

6:13 can drill the appropriate holes in the

6:16 in the wall of the shop I think once

6:18 it’s installed. I’m not sure they can

6:19 take it off the wall again.

6:21 This project started about three years

6:23 ago

6:24 and we’re basically looking at the

6:26 better known golfers who emigrated to

6:29 America and became professionals and as

6:32 a research grew we found that there was

6:35 other names involved that we had never

6:37 heard of but they were equally important

6:39 in the in golf in other countries and

6:43 taking the game to other to other areas.

6:46 I think no list of caddies in North

6:48 Berwick would be complete without the

6:49 name of Thompson. My goodness, they get

6:52 everywhere we’ve got at least 10 of them,

6:55 10 Thompsons who left the town and

6:57 became professional golfers

6:59 and two of them were Jimmy’s.

7:02 One of them, Jimmy Thompson who came from

7:05 Beach Road there.

7:06 When he went out to America eventually

7:09 hek

7:10 drafted the constitution of the

7:13 professional golfers association of

7:15 America.

7:16 Quite amazing really that one of the

7:19 biggest organisations in America

7:22 was two North Berwick men

7:24 who were actually involved in it

7:27 and the other Jimmy Thompson from Church

7:30 Road he went out to California

7:34 and he featured in a couple of movies

7:35 out there,, one of them with a young

7:39 unknown actor called Ronald Reagan.

7:42 And when it came to unveiling the

7:44 plaques there was only one choice and

7:46 that was Catriona Matthews and we were

7:49 very honoured that she should accept our

7:51 invitation”.

7:53 “When the Golfing Heritage first you know

7:55 approached me about the plaques that

7:57 they were going to put up um you know I

8:00 was kind of embarrassed to say that

8:01 after living here all my life I really

8:02 hadn’t heard of half the people and I

8:04 was amazed to know that um I think it’s

8:07 Willie Anderson, Fred McLeod had won you

8:09 know US Opens at the turn of the century

8:11 and I think uh Dorothy Campbell had won

8:13 a British amateur in a US amateur

8:16 um and I think it’s a great thing for

8:17 the whole town just you know even just

8:19 for locals and visitors to um realise

8:22 that so many great golfers came from

8:24 this community. Such a small little town

8:26 and they basically went all over the

8:29 world.

8:29 I’ve certainly been very interested

8:31 reading it and finding out where

8:32 everyone went and all the feats they

8:34 managed to accomplish.

8:36 So I mean it’s a obviously a great

8:38 honour for me to come down and unveil

8:40 this um I think I’m maybe the only the

8:42 youngest maybe the only living one at

8:43 the moment so there wasn’t much

8:45 competition”.

8:51 Well done.

9:04 Well done, well done.

9:08 This is real history, everyone

9:11 That’s the next one.

9:15 What’s your handicap?

9:16 Five. Oh good.

9:21 North Berwick’s west Course is perhaps

9:23 better known but the east Course, The Glen

9:25 is also an important part of North

9:27 Berwick’s golfing heritage.”

9:29 “Hello, I’m Brian Marsh this is Glen Golf

9:32 Club, I’ve been a member here for 11

9:34 years this behind me is the putting

9:37 green and the green up on the hill is

9:39 the first green. This is a marvellous golf

9:42 course it is really, oOn a par with any of

9:44 the other courses on the East Lothian

9:46 coast.

9:48 [Music]

9:54 [Music]

9:59 Thank you.