{"id":242930,"date":"2025-11-04T08:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T08:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/242930\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T08:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T08:08:08","slug":"historic-oxford-golf-club-closes-to-allow-for-new-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/242930\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Oxford golf club closes to allow for new homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n North Oxford Golf Club announced it would be closing last year, to allow Oxford University, Merton College and Exeter College to start work on their planning application to build homes on the site.\n<\/p>\n

\n Golfers said they felt a \u201chuge sadness\u201d at the loss of the course, as they celebrated the final day last Friday, (October 31).\n<\/p>\n

\n The 70-acre site was earmarked as part of a 1,180-home development between Cutteslowe and the A34 in Cherwell District Council<\/a>\u2019s adopted local plan.\n<\/p>\n

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\n A group of golfers known as the Greenway group formed to try and stop these plans from going ahead, but they were unsuccessful.\n<\/p>\n

\n Jill Northover, who is joint Lady captain, said: \u201cThe overwhelming feeling of the members is of a huge sadness at the loss of the club which was operational for 118 years.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis beautiful green space has provided a space where exercise could be taken, and the social benefits of golf are well known.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n She added that there were 200 members of the club there on the last day, with some of them playing one last game of golf.\n<\/p>\n

\n Members of the club joined for a final celebration on the last day (Image: Jill Northover)\n<\/p>\n

\n A celebration was held in the clubhouse after the game.\n<\/p>\n

\n The golf club was established in 1907 and had around 450 members at the time of the closure.\n<\/p>\n

\n The land is largely owned by Oxford University, as well as Merton College and Exeter College.\n<\/p>\n

\n The club\u2019s owners came to an agreement with the landowners and accepted a \u00a34.3 million payment to leave the site.\n<\/p>\n

\n Drone shots of North Oxford golf course (Image: Ed Nix)\n<\/p>\n

\n It is not clear whether the site will remain vacant or whether any demolition works will take place before the planning application is submitted.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Greenway Group took part in a legal challenge along with the Cherwell Development Watch Alliance against the local plan in 2021, but the high court ruled in favour of the council.\n<\/p>\n

\n Oxford University said the three landowners would start developing a planning application over the next year, and that there would be a detailed consultation with neighbours and other stakeholders.\n<\/p>\n

\n While the university could not confirm whether they would be affordable or market homes, or student accommodation, some fears were raised about whether the homes would be meant for professionals commuting to London, rather than as affordable housing.\n<\/p>\n

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\n Additional concerns were raised about the impact construction and added cars could have on nearby roads, as well as the A34 and A40.\n<\/p>\n

\n An alternative golf course site located at nearby Frieze Farm has been proposed as part of the council\u2019s local plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Oxford Golf Club announced it would be closing last year, to allow Oxford University, Merton College and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-242930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}