History of the Trust
History of the Trust
Norman Garon, who at the time lived at Sutton Manor but without any children, decided in the early 1980’s to follow the example of other great benefactors of the area and in particular Edwin Cecil Jones, Albert and Florence Smith and the Fowler sisters from Cockethurst Farm, and establish a charitable trust. He consulted Philip Tolhurst, whose father John had established charitable trusts for all those benefactors, and the Norman Garon Trust was established in 1982.
In doing so he gave to the trust the freehold of Foxhall Farm on which much of the Park is now sited, and it was his hope that after his death it would be possible to preserve the farms he then had, and the famous Shopland Hall Herd of Friesian Cattle, whilst at the same time generating some income to help young people and particularly the Scouts.
Philip Tolhurst agreed to become a trustee, together with David Evans, who managed a large farming company and Alan Jordan a partner of Savills, both of whom were also leaders of the Essex Scout movement.
It was however dramatic changes in agriculture that occurred towards the end of that decade and the early 1990’s, coupled with the loss of some of the lands held on tenancies prior to Norman Garon’s death, which meant that it was simply impossible to sustain the herd and farms except at great financial loss.
Following Norman Garon’s death in December 1990, the Trustees were therefore confronted with a dilemma. Charity law would prevent them from the running the farm at a loss, and they would therefore either have to dispose of the freehold, thus breaking all links both the Garon families and also Norman’s brother in law’s family, the Steels, who had first established the Shopland Herd, or come up with an alternative solution.
Origins of the Park
Fortuitously one of the trustees, Philip Tolhurst, discussed the problem with a farming friend and they wondered whether establishing a Golf course on the land, as they had successfully done together at Benton Hall, near Witham, could be such a solution. At about the same time one of Tolhurst’s business partners who was on Southend Borough Council, explained that they also had a problem in that whilst they were in negotiation to sell land gifted by Cecil Jones for development for the Waitrose store, they needed Charity Commission approval, which in turn needed the support of Philip Tolhurst’s father as the surviving executor of Cecil Jones. Additionally the Council were also seeking support from the Trust to enable what is now the leisure and Indoor Tennis Centre to be built, as they had insufficient space. He suggested that Tolhurst, who was then based in Chelmsford, should meet the then Leader of the Council should meet at the Essex County Cricket Ground in Chelmsford, so that they could discuss the Council’s issues.
The reason for the location of the meeting was that Southend Borough Council were also under pressure to find a new ground to host County Cricket matches in place of Southchurch Park, which had become increasingly unsuitable, and the Leader and Club Secretary were to meet to discuss that and any possible options.
The meeting concluded with Tolhurst suggesting that instead of just providing space for an access road and carparking, being the minimum requirement for the Council, that the Trust and the Council combine forces to form a new sports park, providing space not only for that access to the Leisure Centre, and for the building to abut the Trust’s boundary, but also for the outdoor Tennis Courts, which the Lawn Tennis Association required as a condition of their support, a new First Class Cricket Ground, a large show ground area to locate events at, and for an 18 hole Golf course and other facilities.
Tolhurst then did a viability analysis for the project, invited tenders for the design and construction of the Golf facilities. Their design would also shape the space available for the other facilities. At the same time the Council progressed all of their design work in particular for the new access road that would serve the new park.
Once all of the design and viability planning was complete, the Leader then proposed and invited Tolhurst to address a specially convened meeting of the Full Council to consider and approve the planning application for all the works. At that meeting Tolhurst opened by first setting out the philosophy behind the proposed Park, in particular that it would focus on encouraging young people’s participation in a range of sports, the various proposed elements now including football pitches, the Cricket Bowl, a driving range, the 18-hole and 9-hole Par 3 golf courses and a clubhouse, as well as the access Road and Car Park to enable the Council’s own development to progress.
The Proposals were given overwhelming support by Councilors.
Thus established the partnership between the Norman Garon Trust and Southend Borough Council, which has enabled the full extent of Garon Park, a facility open to all peoples of Southend, Prittlewell, Sutton and Rochford, whilst also enabling a reasonable income to the Trust so that in particular it could support the Scouting movement within Essex.
Development & Evolution
The first works to be done were to construct the new access road, and carry out a comprehensive archaeological survey, which in turn led to a dig in the area to the north of the clubhouse, where there was evidence of a Saxon ‘street’ with posts holes for huts running in a SE – NW direction. The results of all the finds are in the Southend on Sea Museum. During construction of the Cricket Ground there was also evidence of a large open fire pit from an earlier age.
The cricket ground was built by Anglia Sports Turf, and the square laid with the guidance of Harry Brind the groundsman from the Surrey Oval. It was created in an oval to both minimise the effect of the strong winds on what is the highest area of the Park, and to provide better viewing experience for visitors. Both were to be enhanced by surrounding the ground with trees. The cricket clubhouse was designed and built by the Council who undertook the original maintenance. An underground watering system was provided but this was not well maintained and fell into disrepair.
To provide water for irrigation, the trust negotiated with the developers of the Waitrose site to take all of their surface water drainage and this provided a supply both for the lakes system within the golf course and also the reservoir next to the driving range. However, it quickly became apparent that, in the typically very dry conditions that often prevail in the area during the Summer months, the capacity of the reservoir was insufficient to meet all the demands on it. This problem was overcome in 1998 when an additional reservoir off Rebels Brook was built.
The various elements of the park were finished over a period of three years with the golf course and related facilities opening in June 1995. The clubhouse was not then complete but that followed six months later.
To the north of the Golf Course the Trust held further lands and buildings which, with the loss of farm tenancies and the Herd, were now surplus to their needs. They therefore decided to make them available for an equestrian center and applied to Rochford Council for permission. The facility was then taken on by the Murrel family and has been developed by them over the years. The Trust though retained part of one barn and a yard to provide facilities for the Greenkeepers, together with access from the north for deliveries.
Although the Council were satisfactorily operating the Leisure Centre itself, they struggled to maintain the cricket ground to the standard required by the County Cricket Club and, after various meetings, it was agreed that a dedicated groundsman would be employed independent of the Council, and that the Trust would provide accommodation for him in one of their cottages.
The park includes four dwellings, two within the original Fox Hall (Farmhouse). This is an unusual house as it was, and still is in part, surrounded by a moat. The house is listed.
Within a short time of opening the Golf Course, the Trust realised that they had underestimated the potential demand, and so entered into discussions with the adjoining farmer to swop land holdings, acquiring the land to the South East of the original course in exchange for land fronting Sutton Road. They then designed an extension to the course with a further nine holes, although this also required them to purchase a further triangular part of land from another farmer.
Planning permission was granted for the extension in February 1998 which was followed by another Archeological survey, again revealing some interesting findings. The extension was designed by the original course architect Alan Walker, and work was completed in 1999-2000.
Having completed such a transformation the Trustees then decided that they should hand over the arrangements of the golf facility to Walker and his partner Charles Cox, who agreed to pay a ground rent and a share of the profits. In 2005 they sold their interest on to other operators who after a time felt that they could improve the course by adding further mounding. Unfortunately they overstretched themselves by also buying other, less successful courses, and with demand for golf falling generally the operation went bust, with Garon Park being drawn into the resulting mess.
The Trustees were faced with a difficult decision: should they just let it fold or should they try to protect the regular users and members, and also the Trusts commitment to the community, by stepping in and extracting the course from the Administrators? They decided on the latter and Tolhurst was asked to lead the bail out. This proved both difficult and expensive, because although the initial price sought by the administrators was not high, they believed there to also be some potential development value in part of the site, so the price had to be increased to reflect that. Further, once back in the Trust’s possession, it found that that the facilities generally were in poor condition, and in particular the irrigation system had been left in a very bad state, requiring substantial and costly replacement. A huge amount of time had to be spent reviving the golf facilities, and this could not have been done without the exceptional inspiration and commitment of Alan Walker.
Over the next few years, the facility also embarked on giving greater support to the community with an outreach program to local schools, sponsoring junior golf across Essex, and also hosting visits by less abled people.
Walker also recruited a first-class Head Greenkeeper who has worked hard with his team to put all the facilities into first class condition.
The Trust has recently undertaken a substantial amount of additional Tree planting on various areas of the golf course (some 6000 in all).
Garon Park Community Interest Charity
In 2015 a group of individuals involved with Essex County Cricket club approached the Trust to discuss resolving issues around the Cricket use, exacerbated by changes in the county game and in particular the calendar and increased use of the County Ground rather than grounds around the county, with demand for evening matches requiring floodlighting. These issues had been emerging over several years but came to ahead with the Cricket authorities critical of the facilities at Garon Park including the lack of a digital Scoreboard. The Trust had previously agreed to and did build a new Scoreboard to resolve that issue. Peter Butler and the trust he had established (EASST) had also been supporting the provision of the cricket facilities for some while. Now it was proposed to create a separate charitable entity to both take over the cricket ground, and then build a range of other facilities on what had previously been the showground.
By this stage the Council’s original interest in the cricket ground and adjoining football pitches had come to an end, and Tolhurst then negotiated with the Council to secure a surrender of their lease of the club house as well, and in due course that, the cricket ground, and adjoining land was transferred to the new CIC on a long lease. So started a new period of expansion with the building of the 3G football pitch, improvements to the club house, and the establishment of the Well Being facility. Also the CIC started its own support for local young people.
Tolhurst subsequently also looked at the other facilities which the Council had built, and in particular the outdoor tennis courts which were no longer being used. After extensive negotiations he again secured the surrender of their lease on two of those courts which enabled the Trust to then let them to Paddle4All to be developed for Paddle Tennis.
About the same time the Trust carried out its plan to build the Adventure Golf facility which was completed in 2021, and has proved a great attraction particularly for families.