Burhill: The Estate That Became Two Golf Courses

Two golf courses sit within Hersham’s boundaries, and the larger of them has a genuinely aristocratic pedigree: an estate once leased to a duchess, converted into one of Surrey’s most established golf clubs.

The estate house

Edward Cecil Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh, bought the Burhill estate in 1887, and rather than occupying the house himself, leased it for life to the Dowager Duchess of Wellington. Her death in 1904 freed the estate for a new use, and within a few years its future had changed entirely, from a private aristocratic residence to a members’ sporting club.

Building their own golf club

Lord Iveagh negotiated a 28-year lease of some 300 acres of the estate, enough land for two full 18-hole courses, with the former mansion itself serving as the new club’s headquarters. Burhill Golf Club was formally established in 1907, and an additional 50 acres of pastureland were later added to the lease after early difficulties with the layout of one of the courses. The result, the Old Course and the New Course, remain championship-standard 18-hole parkland courses today, run from the same historic house that once served as a private residence rather than a clubhouse.

Hersham Village Golf Club

A short distance away, the smaller Hersham Village Golf Club offers a very different kind of round: a nine-hole parkland course beside the River Mole, with a par-3 sixth hole giving a genuine river view mid-round. It is a far more modest operation than its grand neighbour, but a genuinely popular local course in its own right, well suited to a quick game rather than a full championship round.

Honest visitor notes

Both courses are working private members’ clubs rather than public parkland, and visiting golfers should expect to book in advance and follow normal club etiquette rather than turning up unannounced. Burhill, in particular, retains a genuinely historic clubhouse in a former private house, worth appreciating for its architecture as much as for the golf itself, while Hersham Village offers a quicker, more casual round for visitors who want to play beside the Mole without committing to a full 18 holes elsewhere.