Brueres Halgh to Brewers Hall Estate Company

Brueres Halgh to Brewers Hall Estate Company

When K.T. Browning described the Chester (Curzon Park) Golf Course in the 1952 handbook, he stressed its unique situation on the peninsula of land in the bend of the River Dee with attractive views of the Welsh hills to the west, and of the Roodee and the ancient city over the river to the east.  

Unconsciously, in referring to this peninsula, he was echoing the ancient description of this land. In the early Middle Ages it was described as “Brueres Halgh” - a name which crops up in various deeds in the 13th and 14th centuries. Ormerod, in his “History of the County Palatine and City of Chester”, published in 1882, repeats the accepted view that this described a heath, or bruery - a rough pasture, sometimes used for gathering fuel which “jutted out” into the former estuary. This eponymous description easily became corrupted in later years so that by the 16th century the term “Brewers Hall” was being applied to buildings and farmland.

From the Bradford family who had this grant of land in 1275 for one penny “annually”, associated with duties involving the serjeanty of the Eastgate - the land passed through the hands of several families over the next five hundred years; families such as the Trussells and the Veres.

It developed as a farming estate, and by the 16th century a substantial dwelling named “Brewers Hall” occupied the site at the bottom of the present lower practice ground adjacent to where the maintenance sheds now stand. A contemporary map of the time of the English Civil War illustrating the Siege of Chester, shows a Parliamentary gun emplacement at the building which is described as “Brewers Halls Mount”. This was reputedly one of the largest guns firing on the city, its situation having been carefully chosen to bombard the northern defences of the City. Its use particularly from September 1645 to February 1646 did considerable damage to the defences and to Watergate. We do not know whether the Brewers Hall “Mansion” was damaged, but it is probable as the Parliamentary forces caused much depredation to buildings south of the river, including Overleigh Hall. However we know that the Brewers Hall farmhouse or mansion was subsequently occupied continuously for the next three hundred years. We know of a John Wright living there in 1717 because, as he was a Catholic he was noted on the list of dissenters in that year. The same family had probably lived there for some time as Yarranton’s map of 1667 indicates Brewers Hall as being Alderman Wright’s house.

In 1745, Alexander de Lavaux drew up another map of Chester which depicts Brewers Hall as a substantial complex of farmhouses and out-buildings. At this time significantly, the land had passed into the ownership of the Hanmer family of Iscoyd in Flintshire. This was significant because in 1756, Esther Hanmer married Assheton Curzon who in 1802 became the first Viscount Curzon of Penn - as well as M.P. for Clitheroe. In 1821 the family also took the name Howe from the mother of the 3rd Viscount, Richard William Penn Curzon. So the land became part of the Curzon-Howe inheritance.

However they did not enjoy the land undisturbed. Already in the first half of the 18th century the River Navigation Authority had sited windmill pumps on the land to drain the marshy areas. Moreover they obtained riparian rights after canalising the west side of the river bend, so that they could maintain the banks against tidal erosion - a situation which obtains today fortunately - as incursions of salt water have occasionally damaged the course.

When we look at the Tithe map of the Parish of St Mary on the Hill of 1842, we can see that the Brewers hall estate was an area of mainly pastoral land - with some orchards around the farm buildings and a few other cottages near the Dingle. A rudimentary lane gave access to the turnpike on the main road and Hough Green lived up to its name as a green field.

Then in 1842 came the Great Western Railway. As all over the country landowners had to yield land to the iron rails - so on this estate the Railway Company were able to cut the land in two by a line running from Chester to Saltney and Wrexham. They also established a network of goods sidings in Saltney which stretched up beyond where the fourth tee now lies with mooring posts and travelling cranes to help load and unload lighters on the river. A drive from the fourth tee bearing left could land near a metal marker which today still indicates the area where the riverside siding had its terminal buffers.

The estate having been divided by the railway line, The Railway Company had to provide access between the two parts by two bridges. North of the line remained the Brewers Hall farming estate. but south of the line, the Curzon family had by 1902 developed a parkland area with some water features such as a “Serpentine” and the building of a few large residences. This was the situation in the winter of 1912-13 when the golf club had to move from the Bache and find a new home. Earlier on June 20th 1912 a number of business men and also members of the golf club had incorporated a property company called the “Brewers Hall Estate Company” its objectives being to secure the land of the farming estate to lease to the golf club. The solicitors for Earl Howe at first indicated that the land could be leased but later offered 85.658 acres for sale. The Company was able to purchase this for £3750.3s and 2d. £2500 was raised by a mortgage and other amounts from the sale of £1 shares and donations, the sum of £3688 being raised initially. By November 1913, 1500 shares had been taken up, 918 of them being owned by the first directors of the Company

These were; Percy Davies; T.J. Smith; Herbert Brassey; Walter Conway; Percy Brook; M. Thompson; A.J. Musgrave; A.W. Vernon and G.S. McLaren, the latter being the only one described as a “gentleman” in the records. Altogether there were 77 shareholders in 1913 when the purchase of the land went ahead.

A further 25 acres of land had to be leased from the Railway Company and the River Authority in order to develop the course and the sum of £750 was set aside for course construction. In 1922 there was a total issued capital of £1839 and it was then that the decision was taken to make the Club the majority shareholder, so mortgage debentures at 5 per cent per annum were issued to those members who wished to buy them and a sum of £2200 was raised which through Trustees bought shares in the Company in 1924. This policy of making the Club the only main shareholder was followed in later years so that by 1985 it owned 3806 of the 3812 issued. The owners of the 6 shares not held by the Club have not been traced! In 1983 the Company borrowed £18,400 from the Club to buy 33.63 acres of the Railway land to bring the holdings to 119.315 acres which it still leases to the Golf Club for a modest rent - at the time of writing -- about £150 per year.

The directors of the Company, and the Trustees who hold the shares for the Club are appointed by a committee of the Club, and must be full members; They are the heirs of the Bradfords and the Veres.