In the 1920s, golf was becoming a popular activity and in late June 1923, the Gazette reported the opening of the course in Crediton. The cutting below begins: ‘The new golf club at Crediton is in full swing. The nine hole course is prettily situated about eight minutes’ walk from the railway station between Bull Marsh lane and Alton Bridge, and is intersected by the river, which affords frequent water hazards, the great bane of beginners, but the joy of the golfer proper‘.

 A lot more detail about the course and its location are given on this website: golfsmissinglinks.co.uk

It also includes information on the golf course in Tiverton that was behind the Athletic track on what is now Amory Park. This 9 hole course welcomed golfers between 1892 and 1924.

There appear to be several versions of ‘golf’ using playing cards, the aim in all of them, as in the game of golf, is to score the fewest points. This game has its own distinctive cards and dates from the 1930s. As well as the card shown here, there are penalties for ‘out of bounds’, ‘bad bunker’ and many more with some that help you on the way to a good score such as ‘holed putt’ or ‘drive 200’.

This scorecard from Tiverton Golf Club is hard to date but looking at the adverts and the phone numbers, we think it is between 1938 and 1950. Let us know if you have any other ideas.

At the same time, there are more adverts for motor cars appearing in the Gazette. Although these prices sound good to us, they were far beyond the reach of all but the richest people. In 1923, the average yearly income was about £73 so the price of a ‘Bean’ was the equivalent of nearly 5 years’ work.

Written by Museum Volunteer, Sue B.