The Fiat S76 or "Beast of Turin" is a Goodwood favourite and can usually be heard before it is seen at #FOS
Sir Stirling Moss was one of the founding patrons of the Festival of Speed, and a regular competitor at the Revival.
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
The oldest existing rules for the game were drawn up for a match between the 2nd Duke and a neighbour
According to Head Butler at Goodwood House David Edney "Class, sophistication and discretion".
As the private clubhouse for all of the Estate’s sporting and social members, it offers personal service and a relaxed atmosphere
The first thing ever dropped at Goodwood was a cuddly elephant which landed in 1932 just as the 9th Duke of Richmonds passion for flying was taking off.
The stunning fish which adorn the walls of the main corridor are hand crafted and represent the fishing documents from Gordon Castle of 1864-1898.
Easy boy! The charismatic Farnham Flyer loved to celebrate every win with a pint of beer. His Boxer dog, Grogger, did too and had a tendancy to steal sips straight from the glass.
FOS Favourite Mad Mike Whiddett can be caught melting tyres in his incredible collection of cars (and trucks) up the hillclimb
Legend of Goodwood's golden racing era and Le Mans winner Roy Salvadori once famously said "give me Goodwood on a summer's day and you can forget the rest".
Sir Stirling Moss was one of the founding patrons of the Festival of Speed, and a regular competitor at the Revival.
Future Lab is Goodwood's innovation pavilion, inspiring industry enthusiasts and future scientists with dynamic tech
Our gin uses wild-grown botanicals sourced from the estate, and is distilled with mineral water naturally chalk-filtered through the South Downs.
Spectate from the chicane at the Revival to see plenty of classic cars going sideways as they exit this infamous point of our Motor Circuit.
Sir Stirling Moss was one of the founding patrons of the Festival of Speed, and a regular competitor at the Revival.
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
Leading women of business, sport, fashion and media, take part in one of the most exciting horseracing events in the world.
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
The first ever horsebox was used from Goodwood to Doncaster for the 1836 St. Leger. Elis arrived fresh and easily won his owner a £12k bet.
The red & yellow of the Racecourse can be traced back hundreds of years, even captured in our stunning Stubbs paintings in the Goodwood Collection
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
The famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
The first thing ever dropped at Goodwood was a cuddly elephant which landed in 1932 just as the 9th Duke of Richmonds passion for flying was taking off.
Estate milk was once transformed into ice-creams, bombes, and syllabubs, and the Georgian ice house still stands in the grounds in front of Goodwood House.
Flying training began at Goodwood in 1940 when pilots were taught operational flying techniques in Hurricanes and Spitfires.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
Ray Hanna famously flew straight down Goodwood’s pit straight below the height of the grandstands at the first Revival in 1998
We have been host to many incredible film crews using Goodwood as a backdrop for shows like Downton Abbey, Hollywood Blockbusters like Venom: let there be Carnage and the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
David Edney, head Butler dons a morning suit "and a smile" every day and has been woking at Goodwood for over 25 years!
Ensure you take a little time out together to pause and take in the celebration of all the hard work you put in will be a treasured memory.
Ensure you take a little time out together to pause and take in the celebration of all the hard work you put in will be a treasured memory.
The first public race meeting took place in 1802 and, through the nineteenth century, ‘Glorious Goodwood,’ as the press named it, became a highlight of the summer season
Flying training began at Goodwood in 1940 when pilots were taught operational flying techniques in Hurricanes and Spitfires.
Built in 1787 by celebrated architect James Wyatt to house the third Duke of Richmond’s prized fox hounds, The Kennels was known as one of the most luxurious dog houses in the world!
Testament to the 19th-century fascination with ancient Egypt and decorative opulence. The room is richly detailed with gilded cartouches, sphinxes, birds and crocodiles.
"En la rose je fleurie" or "Like the rose, I flourish" is part of the Richmond coat of Arms and motto
The oldest existing rules for the game were drawn up for a match between the 2nd Duke and a neighbour
Inspired by the legendary racer, Masten Gregory, who famously leapt from the cockpit of his car before impact when approaching Woodcote Corner in 1959.
The oldest existing rules for the game were drawn up for a match between the 2nd Duke and a neighbour
A 20m woodland rue, from Halnaker to Lavant, was planted by our forestry teams & volunteers, featuring native species like oak, beech, & hornbeam
Flying training began at Goodwood in 1940 when pilots were taught operational flying techniques in Hurricanes and Spitfires.
The latest from our Head Greenkeepers from The Park and Downs courses.
With the weather finally turning cold, hopefully it brings an end to the monsoon weather we have experienced. Unfortunately, we were unable to complete our Greens maintenance using the Dryject sand injection machine, because of the extreme weather we had that week. Heavy down pours would have made it difficult to complete the process and with the risk of storms and lighting in the area, we decided to postpone this until next year. We did, however, manage to pull out a 8mm hollow core during the days we were shut, which removed some thatch/ organic matter from the putting greens. Unfortunately, it was too wet to fill these with sand, but we will continue to sand dust greens throughout the winter months to continue to dilute the thatch and increase greens firmness and trueness. We have also completed a deep tine verti-drain using 10mm tines to a depth of 200mm to relieve any deeper compaction. This will be done another three times before the playing season starts again.
Leaf litter has been continuously falling now for a few months and we have certain areas which really suffer from heavy falls (1,17,18&PG). These areas take a lot of our resources up to clear the playing areas, but we are starting to get near the end of this, as we can now see lots of empty branches on the trees, which is very pleasing to see.
Most of the playing surfaces are in good condition, greens are currently disease free, aprons, surrounds and fairways have strong grass coverage, however, some of the tees are wearing faster than normal. Therefore, we are currently using the mats on the 5th and 12th tees to allow us to recover the tee boxes and have them in good condition for next year. Some tees in the future may have grow mats on them to promote new growth in the colder temperatures, but we will monitor this, as it will be the first time we are trailing this. Fairway mats will also be in use when we deem it necessary to protect their current condition throughout the winter.
With the amount of rain we have had in the past six weeks, the bunkers have become considerably compacted and contaminated. This is mainly due to the heavy down pours eroding away the bunker turf liners on the faces and washing chalk substrate into the bunkers. We have been trying to fluff up the bunkers as best we can, however, we are still struggling to get them back to the standard required. Therefore, throughout the winter we will be adding just over a tonne of sand per bunker to increase the sand depth levels and give them a fresh look again. We will also need to re-line some of the bases on a few bunkers, as they have now become non-existent. Please be aware that this is not a quick job and will take us throughout the winter to complete this task, as we still have other winter jobs to complete too.
Other winter jobs include reconstruction of the 5th and 18th walk off areas, which are extremely worn and are problem areas around the greens. We will also be undertaking woodland management, raising canopies and clearing undergrowth. The areas we will look to complete in regards to the trees is around the 12th tee, 2nd walk way, left of 3rd tees, right side of 13th and 14th copse. We will also look to do some selected areas to expose some really nice mature trees we have on the course.
The long natural rough has nearly all been cut, with only some small areas left and some tee banks which will need to be cut down and removed by hand. The main landing zones will be raked over the winter and a second cut completed on it to remove any excess grass clippings, to promote the finer grasses next year.
We look forward to seeing you on the course!
Rob Dyer, Head Greenkeeper, The Downs Course
The course
A challenging but very productive couple of months. This time of year, does pose a lot of issues for us to deal with, weather, badger damage, worm damage, deer damage, disease pressure and of course lots and lots of leaves.
Let’s start with the weather, a very wet and warm October with 265mm of rain fell in the last two weeks of the month and a further 195mm fell in the first two weeks of November with just over 18 inches in old money, which is why the course has been closed. But fear not, the team have been busy working hard to ensure the future is bright on The Park course.
Aeration
We have done all sorts of aeration work on all areas of the course, to ensure better playability all year round.
Verti-draining fairways
The first time this job has been achieved on The Park course and Scott took the task of the fairways with a 1-inch-thick tine going to depths of 10 inches, to break up compaction which will help with drainage and improve root depth. Even though this job took two hours per fairway to complete we will see an improvement in the performance and playability through the year.
Greens
The greens are in fantastic condition and are completely disease free, our preventative and nutrition programmes are certainly doing the trick. We have taken the opportunity to deep tine the greens with a verti-drain to relieve compaction and aid drainage. Any aeration through these disease pressure months is key. As the temperatures get cooler, we have raised our height of cut and reduced our mowing so not to add unnecessary stress.
Leaves
A large apple tree holds 50,000 to 100,000 leaves. A normal birch averages around 200,000 leaves. An old oak, for which we have several, have 700,000 leaves. So, bear this in mind when you see them on the ground and spare a thought for us. We have billions to pick up.
For us to mow on we spent some valuable time raising canopy’s clearing around the woodland floor to help our bluebells and wild flowers thrive.
We look forward to seeing you on the course!
Simon Berry, Head Greenkeeper, The Park Course