Tankersley Park Golf Course was opened in 1907, and was extended to eighteen holes in 1924. It then developed under the expert supervision of Arthur Storey, Golf Professional, Course Designer, Greenkeeper and Golfing Guru. On a few acres of redundant mining spoil and moorland, he laid the foundations of a wonderful test of accurate iron-play. The careless golfer, who strays from the now beautifully manicured fairways, can still find the remnants of the land’s industrial past. Some forty barrow-like mounds left behind in Georgian and Victorian times by bell pit miners digging for coal and ironstone, litter the course. The relatively poor turf found atop these mounds struggles to gain a foothold in the slack and slag left behind by these pioneers of the Yorkshire coal and steel industry. Much of the wonder of this course is that someone could have plotted a route through these obstacles to build the testing holes that now occupy the landscape.

A historic document framed and hanging on the clubhouse staircase shows where the early holes lay. The remains of some of the early tees and bunkers can still be found by the eagle-eyed. And not too long ago, golfers retreating to the sanctuary of the old clubhouse, still bore the black dust on their shoes, gathered from the fairways, and even on dry days, spike cleaning was an essential chore of the Tankersley golfer if the club’s good name was to be upheld on the first tee. The course celebrated its centenary year in 2007, is meticulously maintained and a fair but tough test for the club golfer.