Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited (RIIHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), acquired Stoke Park Limited. The company made this purchase for £57 million (around Rs 593 crore).
This is an iconic private sporting and leisure estate in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire. It is the United Kingdom’s first club. In the case of the mansion building, it was designed in 1788 by an English architect James Wyatt.
The history behind this property makes it an iconic club...
History of Stoke Poges where Stoke Park Club is located
- According to a local historian Lionel Rigby, the earliest known owner of the manor of Stoke and Ditton (Stoke Park estate) was Siret the Saxon, vassal of King Harold.
- After the Norman Conquest at the end of the 11th century, Siret was forced out of the manor and William Fitz Ansculf from Picardy was granted a tenancy.
- 1750 is considered as a key date in the development of Stoke Park, stated the club’s website. However, the history of the Stoke Park estate dates back to the Domesday Book (book was completed in 1086). In 1813, the owner of what was then called the Mansion House (the present Stoke Park Club) and the Manor House wrote what he called an historical and descriptive account of Stoke Poges.
- Henry Hastings, the 3rd Earl, had to sell the property in 1581 to the Crown, due to hardship. He was the last person to inherit Stoke Park in a line of descent that had continued for 515 years since 1066, the year when his ancestors had forced the Saxon prince Siret from his lands.
- The estate was used as private property until 1908. It was turned into the UK's first country club by Nick Lane Jackson, founder of the Corinthian Sporting Club (Corinthian Football Club). He was fondly known as Pa.
- In 1928, Sir Noel Mobbs bought the Club from Pa Jackson, and he transformed it in 1929.
This is first England v. Scotland golf match in 1901. James Sherlock (third from left), later the professional at Stoke Park, captained the England side. Note the lobster pot asa flag, a practice later adopted at Stoke Park |
- In 1957, Mobbs sold Stoke Park Club to the Eton Rural District Council and two years after he died in Bournemouth in 1959.
- In August 1988, IHG (International Hospitals Group Ltd), who had already been renting offices in the Mansion since 1984, bought a long lease on 215 acres of Stoke Park’s original estate. This purchase was made through its subsidiary, Stoke Park Limited (SPL).
- Now , Stoke Park Limited has been acquired by Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited (RIIHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). With this purchase, RIL would manage sporting and leisure facilities in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, UK.
From James Bond to Bridget Jones's Diary was filmed in the club premises
Stoke Park has always maintained a close relationship with the British film industry especially Pinewood Studios.
- Two James Bond movies -- Goldfinger (1964) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) were filmed at Stoke Park. The epic clash between James Bond (Sean Connery) and Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) was filmed here.
The golfing scenes in Goldfinger, the James Bond film, purportedly at Royal St Mark’s (a transparent pseudonym for Royal St George’s), were actually filmed at the Stoke Park Club in 1964. |
- Not to forget, Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) was also filmed in the Great Hall, Lakes and The Pennsylvania Suite with Hugh Grant, Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth.
- In 2004, three movies namely ‘Wimbledon’, ‘Bride & Prejudice’ and ‘Layer Cake’ featured Stoke Park.
These are some of the films that were shot in this iconic place.
