Harry Broadbent was having a bit of a spring clean recently when he came across a piece of local golfing history.

Harry, 89, of Rastrick, rediscovered his book ‘The History of Bradley Park Golf Club’, published in 2000.

The book traces the 36-year history of the club,  from its journey as a treeless tract of land with greens and no facilities to one of the foremost municipal golf courses in the country.

The 70-page publication took him months to write, but as one of the founding members of the club, Harry was happy to gave up his time to record the early days for posterity.

In the 1970’s golf was still regarded as an expensive and elitist sport.

The opening of Bradley Park by the Mayor of Kirklees on August 1, 1977 changed all that locally, giving working men – and a few very enthusiastic  women – the chance to play the game for the first time.

Harry, who worked as chief engineer for a textile company, had learned to play at Fixby at the age of 11 when he caddied for Joe Gent and other influential members. They turned a blind eye in the evenings when he used to sneak back on to the course to play a few holes with a five iron.

In the pre-War years, he and brother Stanley used to help look after the pro shop at Woodsome Hall.

Although no longer able to play regularly, he is an honorary member at Bradley Park and still takes a keen interest in the game.

But despite his love of the game, Harry never joined as club until Bradley Park came along. The new municipal club opened the world of golf to a different set of people.

New members didn’t need to know anybody to gain admittance to the club, as with other clubs in those days. They could simply apply to join.

A season ticket cost £30 and the club grew rapidly. There were 40 entries for the first-ever medal in June 1978, but just three months later, membership stood at 150.

The club was expanding rapidly, but still didn’t even have a clubhouse, changing rooms or pro shop.  Harry is no stranger to battles, he is a veteran of the Arctic Convoys, and his tenacity put him in good stead for leading the vanguard to push for recognition and facilities at Bradley Park.

In early 1979, members wrote an open letter to Kirklees Council and the Examiner asking for money for facilities – and if none was available, then to grant permission for them to construct the necessary buildings themselves.

Three months later Bradley Park was accepted into the Halifax-Huddersfield District Golf Union. And in December, members held a combined prize presentation evening and Christmas dinner at the Pack Horse Hotel, Slaithwaite.

Harry and the committee’s battles continued with Kirklees Council, who had no experience of running a golf club.

For a while the Bradley Park committee feared that the money invested so far would be wasted if the council didn’t go the whole hog and finish the job properly, thereby attracting more golfers to play the course and generate revenue.

But by the end of 1981, thanks to the persistence of the committee led by Harry, members had a pro shop, changing rooms and a clubroom converted from the old booking office. Parnell Reilly was appointed as club professional.

The club’s reputation began to spread and in September 1982, a Pro-Am was held and included players of the stature of Ryder Cup professionals Mark James and Howard Clarke.

Two years later the new clubhouse was built with money from Kirklees and a loan of £9,000 from one of the Bradley Park members at an interest rate of 7% – which was exactly half the interest rate offered by the Midland Bank!

A couple of years later, the practice area was turned into a driving range and the par three course was built.

Improvements to the course and the planting of thousands of trees has continued over the decades. Today Bradley Park enjoys an enviable reputation at one of Britain’s best public courses with one of the country’s foremost professionals.

Harry dedicated 14 years of his life to making the dreams of the early days come true. He recalls: “I started the first committee a few months after Bradley Park opened and was pretty much everything, including chairman. We were all learning together, it was a very good atmosphere.

“I was also Club Captain for eight years and I played in the team. We had a very good team, very friendly.

“There were no trees in the beginning and over the years, the club has improved a great deal. When I last played, it was all in excellent condition, the greens, fairways, everything.

“I feel very, very proud he have been a part of that.”