Club plots to save historic golf course from the sea

Plans are being drawn up to save a golf course which has lost 10 metres of turf to coastal erosion.

Alnmouth Village Golf Club is the oldest nine-hole links golf course in England and its low-lying, coastal location means it has often been flooded.

But the North Sea has recently damaged part of the course which had not been affected before.

"Whatever it costs, there's no way we're giving up on this course," said club secretary Ian Simpson.

The club has formed a subcommittee to find solutions to the problem of coastal erosion.

One option being considered is to install two or three tonnes of rock armour, large boulders locked together, onto the 100-metre stretch that is most vulnerable to erosion.

However, because the course is in The Northumberland Coast National Landscape, Mr Simpson is not sure if it will be allowed.

"Another option would be to move the fifth green, which would mean taking some more land from the leaseholders," he said.

"We're trying to get a meeting with lots of different parties, so we know what we can and can't do."

Ian Garrett, one of the subcommittee members, said there were a lot of people in the community who cared about the club.

"We are relatively small, and whatever we do is going to cost a lot of money, tens of thousands of pounds," he said.

"It'll take time, and we don't have time because the sea isn't hanging around, but we are custodians of this place and we'll get there, I'm sure we will."

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