John Lewis puts Winter Hill Golf Club up for sale

The new owners claim to have rewilded the former golf course to create a ‘scrubland savannah’. This includes introducing longhorned cattle and Exmoor ponies to roam free around the site.

John Lewis Partnership has put the golf course that it owns in Berkshire up for sale as part of the department store and supermarket chain’s efforts to reduce costs and pay down debts. Winter Hill Golf Club, which is located in the village of Cookham, near Maidenhead, said it was in advanced talks with John Lewis over the sale of the site.

The 200-acre site was bought by John Lewis founder John Spedan Lewis in 1938, but the club was not opened until 1976. John Lewis staff have been able to get a discounted rate on annual membership subscription fees, which are currently £1,450, although the club is also available to outside members. Around 20% of the current members are current or former John Lewis staff and their families.

The retailer has already informed staff the club that it would be closing down the club by the end of April, with plans to sell the course, the clubhouse and two residential properties.

A statement from John Lewis 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. With a high level of investment required, for a very small internal audience, we have decided that Winter Hill is no longer the best use of our resources.”

John Lewis is understood to be in talks with nearby Maidenhead Golf Club, which is considering moving to the Cookham site. Maidenhead has until the end of 2025 to leave its site after it relinquished its lease to the local council for a reported nearly £16m in order to enable the development of up to 1,800 new homes.