The following information was collected by Liz Borrow in an interview
with Gill Wells, daughter of Bert Dedman on 26 February 2004.
In 1923 Bert Dedman left school. He
was destined to become a carpenter but broke an arm which was put in plaster.
He had caddied at Alresford golf club whilst at school, and bumped into Bill
Boniface the golf professional at Alresford, in the street. Bill lived and
worked from the Cricketers which is now the pub at Alresford, and invited
Bert to be his assistant. Bert stayed at Alresford golf club for nine years
during which time he worked in the pro's shop, made and repaired clubs, did
some teaching and worked on the course.
In 1932, he was appointed professional-cum-greenkeeper at Corhampton GC
where he stayed for 23 years. Bert spent long hours mowing the fairways, at
first, with a horse-drawn machine, and later with a green Massy Ferguson tractor.
He would rake and sand the bunkers when they needed doing. He mowed the semi
rough and greens, cut new holes for the pin positions, and raked the bunkers
before competitions. He didn't have any helpers on the course and would often
be working from six in the morning in the summer to get the course ready
for competitions, until eleven thirty at night behind the bar where he worked
to earn extra money.
Bert also gave lessons somewhere near the old cricket pavilion. He worked
from a small wooden shed attached to the clubhouse from where he made and
repaired dubs, sold balls and tees, gave out the cards and took green fees.
His daughter, Gill, remembers a little Bunsen burner holding a small pot of
melted lead used to weight clubs. He made Gill her first clubs, a wood, an
iron and a putter, and she started playing golf aged four. She was only allowed
to play the first hole if no one was carrying on from the ninth, for the
course was only nine holes then.
Bert had a son who died as a baby. His daughter, Gill, was diagnosed with
polio at twelve weeks and spent the first two years of her life in Lord Mayor
Treloars at Alton. In 1946 there was petrol rationing, and the members put
their petrol coupons in a tin on the bar so that Gill's parents could drive
up to Alton to see her. Gill remembers vividly how the members encouraged
her to walk, and also to play golf. They were really supportive of the family.
Bert would make Gill a card to write down her score every time she played
the first hole. She remembers taking 42 on it.
Bert told a newspaper reporter in 1976 that he remembered the membership
at Corhampton in his day was about 250, though only about 40 people played.
The annual subscription in 1932 was £3, with the day green fee being
three shillings (15p) - one and sixpence if you played after 5 pm.
When Bert first went to Corhampton he lived in the thatched cottage which
was by the fourth (now fifth) green. They then moved to the Hangers at Bishops
Waltham on the B3035 to a semi-detached three bedroomed house up on the hill
where the children were born.
Bert, and his family, were only permitted in the clubhouse if they were
doing bar work or catering. His wife would go home, and put Gill to bed. If
Bert was working behind the bar, Gill would be fetched out of bed to collect
him in their black Ford Poplar. There used to be a gap in the hedge by the
crossroads and they would drive in there down the semi rough and let out their
Labrador dog to chase the rabbits spotted in the headlights. The members played
dominoes in the clubhouse until 11.30 at night. His family had to sit and
wait in the car to lock up the clubhouse. Gill would sit on a crate behind
the bar and try and keep quiet because of course she shouldn't have been
there.
Bert's wife, who was not a member, used to make the match tees at home,
and take them up to the clubhouse. The sandwiches would have four different
fillings. These were always put in a square on the plate so that the different
fillings showed on the outside. She would make four sponge cakes - chocolate,
coffee and plain with fillings of strawberry jam and lemon curd. She made
the tea in a big urn.
Some of the army was billeted up at Corhampton during the war in the field
opposite the clubhouse in tents. Bert watched the doodlebugs going over from
there. A lot of Portsmouth members didn't go home at all. They stayed up
there in their cars because they were safer.
Bert went and worked on the farm during the war at Corhampton Farm for
two or three days a week. Once he got shot at by a Messerschmitt when he
was on a tractor haymaking.
Gill does not think her father ever had a day off until he became ill.
He was rushed into Royal Hants County Hospital with perforated ulcers. She
remembers going in to see him in an oxygen tent. She also remembers being
got up at the crack of dawn so that her mum could get up on the tractor with
the gang mowers, Gill sitting beside her, to try and keep the course in shape
while Bert was in hospital. He was there for about a month - he was really
ill. Before he came out of hospital they had advertised his job.
Bert loved Corhampton. He would never say a bad word about anyone. Their
life was the golf club. It was a lovely really friendly family atmosphere.
They moved back to Alresford in 1955 where Bert became the professional.
He loved it there too and would have stayed until retirement, but his wife
died in 1962 and Bert was unsettled. He knew the secretary at Royal Winchester
who told him that the pro's job was coming up at the Royal and suggested he
made the move there to help get over losing his wife. So he got the job in
September 1962 and retired from there in 1976. He died in 1986 aged 76.
