In his presentation,  Chris  Ryan  described how and why he went about writing his book  A Short History of Local Golf and the Dartmouth and Kingswear Golf Club, collecting together piece by piece new information and contacting those with memories of how it all happened.  

The starting point was the purchase in 1882 by Richard John Roberts of the 200acre Hoodown Farm, formerly part of the Fownes Luttrell estate.  Attempts to develop the land on the riverside facing Dartmouth for building plots proved unsuccessful, as had similar ones in the 1860s. 

He died in 1895, leaving his widow with their large family including two sons, Richard and Alfred (Fred). 

Little changed until Fred returned from the Great War. 

He built the house Uplands on Hoodown in 1921 and in 1923 constructed a sawmill at Waterhead Creek. 

He also bought extra land between the Kingswear Cemetery and the Higher Ferry for residential development, linked to the proposal for a road bridge across to Sandquay. This did not succeed, limiting sales to a few plots at the end of Bridge Road.  

However, Fred became convinced that growth of local tourism could be advanced by a golf course.  With a business architect colleague, he had the dream of developing a ‘country club’ at Hoodown with facilities for golf, tennis, fishing and shooting and a fine clubhouse on the hill where well-heeled guests could be entertained and fed after a good day’s sport.  Despite the failures of nearby local golf clubs at Torquay and Thurlestone, he pushed ahead with the construction of an 18 hole course; the main problem was that because of the hilly nature of the ground, the fairways had to be cut across and not down the prevailing slopes.   

An experienced professional, Eddie Pocock, was appointed and after just over a year of preparation and construction, the course and clubhouse were ready for the official opening on 19 July, 1935, although only twelve holes had been completed and no more capital was available.    

What happened after the grand opening remains something of a mystery. Three years later the farm, golf course and building estate were unsuccessfully put up for auction in June 1938 but were not finally sold by Fred until September !945.    

A vital source of information was Fred’s son, John Roberts, who lived at Uplands until 1937 and letters from him describing his years on Hoodown have now been brought together by Chris in a leaflet to accompany his book.