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Mentmore golf course, which closed 10 years ago, had featured in High Court litigation
A golf course which shut a decade ago has deteriorated and will cost more than £2.5m to revive, a judge has suggested.
Sir Anthony Mann saw figures estimating the cost of restoring Mentmore golf course when overseeing litigation centred on the venue, in Buckinghamshire.
Michael Gaymer, who owns the land at Mentmore, has been embroiled in a civil court fight with a golf investments company which had a lease.
The judge was given detail, during a High Court hearing in London, of what had happened to the course since Mentmore Golf and Country Club closed in June 2015. He has ruled in favour of Mr Gaymore and against the other company’s right to retain the lease.
He said that in 2019, during a earlier litigation stage, expert evidence showed how, because of “deterioration”, the cost of restoration would be £2.5m.
Sir Anthony suggested that greater sums would be required now.
He has overseen an appeal hearing centred on a lease granted to tenant Mentmore Golf and Country Club in March 1995.
The judge ruled in favour of Mr Gaymer and dismissed an appeal by Mentmore Golf Investments that it should keep the lease.
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Mentmore is a country house that was once owned by the Rothschild banking family
Sir Anthony, who has outlined his reasons behind ruling in Mr Gaymer’s favour in a written judgment published online, was told that the golf club had closed in June 2015 – and had not reopened.
Mr Gaymer served a notice to forfeit the lease in January 2017, “in respect of breaches of repairing obligations”.
Judges in local courts had been asked to make decisions.
Sir Anthony said a “saga” began – and proceedings continued for several years
The judge said another company with a similar name, Mentmore Greenland, had also been involved in the litigation.
He described businessman Simon Halabi was a “central player” in the story – while Mr Gaymer said Mr Halabi was, in effect, the “real principal” behind the two companies.
Mr Gaymer argued that there had been a “very serious shortfall” in compliance with the obligations to repair buildings and the course.
Mr Halabi argued that “enough” had been done to “comply with the repairing obligations in the lease”.
Brian Farmer/BBC
A judge oversaw the latest stage of litigation at a High Court hearing in The Rolls Building in central London
Sir Anthony said a judge had ruled in favour of Mr Gaymer, and made a possession order, in October 2023.
Mentmore Golf Investments had then, in December 2023, applied to have the lease reinstated.
A judge at Luton Crown Court had, in 2024, again ruled against Mentmore Golf Investments.
Mentmore Golf Investments then challenged that order and Sir Anthony oversaw an appeal hearing in July 2025.
Sir Anthony, who heard arguments during a High Court hearing at The Rolls Building in central London, dismissed Mentmore Golf Investments’ appeal.
He concluded that the company’s claim for “relief from forfeiture” was part of a “scheme to string out a piece of litigation”.
Mentmore has links to the Rothschild banking family and was the headquarters of the Natural Law Party.
A Rothschild archive website describes Mentmore as a “grand Buckinghamshire country house” built between 1852 and 1854 for Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild.
The website explained: “In 1978, The Maharishi Foundation in the UK purchased Mentmore for £240,000 for use as a headquarters and college; it became the headquarters of the Natural Law Party and campus of Maharishi University of Natural Law.
“In 1992 the Mentmore Golf and Country Club opened, on land previously owned by the estate.”
