John Lewis to sell golf course

A GOLF course owned by John Lewis for almost a century has been put up for sale as the department store owner battles to cut costs.

The Winter Hill Golf Club in Cookham, Berks, said it was in advanced talks with John Lewis over a sale. The 200-acre site was bought by John Lewis Partnership founder John Spedan Lewis in 1938 with the vision that he would create a golf course. However, the club was not opened until 1976, 13 years after his death, having been kept as farmland during the Second World War.

Since then, John Lewis staff have been offered a discounted rate on membership for the golf club, although the club is also open to outside members. Around 20pc of Winter Hill Golf Club members are working or retired John Lewis Partnership

staff and their family. John Lewis told staff this week that it would be shutting the site by the end of April, with plans to sell the course, the clubhouse and two residential properties.

A spokesman said: “This isn’t a decision we took lightly. However, the golf club is no longer used as the employee benefit it once was, with just one in five members now having a link to the partnership.”