Golf
Laurence meets a hoo or two!
Straddling the county border of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, Luton Hoo is an historic mansion that has been returned to its former glory thanks to a £60m investment by Elite Hotels.
As well as stunning gardens, the extensive grounds now include an 18 hole golf course that is maturing nicely.
Our editor meets the two men charged with the upkeep of the grounds
I Avon Bridges
t’s not often one gets the chance to visit an iconic mansion, and have a guided tour of the golf course and gardens by the respective Head Greenkeeper and Head Gardener, so an opportunity to do just that at Elite Hotels’ Luton Hoo Golf & Spa was one not to be missed. Here, I was able to see how this historically important mansion had been transformed into an exclusive complex that now includes an 18 hole, 7,107 yard parkland golf course. Over the years, Luton Hoo has counted many heads of state and members of royalty among its visitors, including Queen Mary, Edward VII and Lord Mountbatten. In 1947, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh spent part of their honeymoon in one of the mansion’s vast state bedrooms, and also returned to celebrate future wedding anniversaries. There has been a house on the present site of Luton Hoo since at least 1601 when Robert Napier bought the estate. Today’s mansion house dates from the late 18th century when it was the seat of the 3rd Earl of Bute, then Prime Minister to George III. The famous landscape designer, Capability Brown, was engaged to redesign the surrounding parkland and gardens which now extend to 1,065 acres. In 1903, Luton Hoo was bought by Sir Julius Wernher, owner of the Kimberley Diamond Mines in South Africa, who commissioned Charles Mewes and Arthur Davis, the architects of the Ritz Hotel in London, to redesign the interior of the house in a lavish Edwardian Belle Époque’ style. After the death of Sir Julius, Harold Wernher inherited the estate from his father.
During the Second World War, the
estate and mansion house was commissioned by Eastern Command and played an important role in wartime operations, testing tanks before they were taken off to depots for war service. On 26th June 1948, Sir Harold
Wernher and his wife Lady Zia, Countess Anastasia Mikhailovna de Torby, hosted a memorable visit by Sir Winston Churchill when 110,000 people gathered to hear him address the crowd and thank them for their support during the Second World War. Sir Harold and Lady Zia decided to
exhibit Sir Julius’s art collection within the house in 1951, including several items of the now famous Fabergé collection. They also bred several well known racehorses, including Brown Jack, who won twenty five races in his ten year career and Charlottown, who won The Derby in 1966.
Sir Harold died in 1973, followed by Lady Zia in 1977, with the estate passing to their elder grandson and the Queen’s Godson, Nicholas Phillips who, together with his wife, developed the living accommodation into facilities for corporate functions and filming, to support the maintenance of the art collection.
The house has been a very popular location with television and film makers, being used for such productions as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Enigma, Eyes Wide Shut, Inspector Morse, Nicholas Nickleby, Vanity Fair and Bleak House, with the most recent being Red 2, starring Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Following Nicholas Phillips death in 1991, the estate was put up for sale in 1997 and was finally purchased by Elite
Teeing off in front of the house 28 PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
Reflections are enhanced!
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