www.wisson.com

Jenny Wisson

www.wisson.co.uk and www.wisson.com

Contact Jenny on jenny@wisson.com

Jenny is one of the best known and most respected women entrepreneurs in the game of golf. Having trained and worked as a PE teacher Jenny joined the Abbotsley Golf Club in St. Neots, Cambridgeshire as the managing director in 1987. Under Jenny’s management Abbotsley grew from its one original course into one of the largest golf complexes in England. Abbotsley now has a second course – the Cromwell – built in 1990, has a par 3 adventure course (which hosted the British Pitch and Putt Championship) and also includes a fitness centre, 20 bay golf range, squash club and a very popular 45 bedroomed hotel.

Jenny worked in partnership at Abbotsley with former British Women’s Open Golf Champion, Vivien Saunders OBE. Vivien was England national coach for 18 years and also a national coach for Ireland and Wales – with teams from all three countries visiting Abbotsley for coaching.

Said Vivien, “I owe so much of my success to Jenny’s hard work and imagination. Her management of Abbotsley allowed me the scope to spend my time coaching.”

Jenny’s work at Abbotsley was rewarded when she was a finalist in the Business Woman of the Year and was Runner-up in the East Region.

In 1993 Jenny and Vivien also bought the Cambridge Meridian Golf Club, just to the west of Cambridge. Jenny can usually be seen out on the course with her very special golden retriever, Barney. Some golfing dogs have to play the game on a lead, never quite grasping the difference between a ball lost and one in play. In Barney’s case his real golfing weakness is water hazards. The problem isn’t so much his going into the ponds and lakes as his endearing habit of rushing up to the nearest golfer and shaking water all over them. So on the lead he stays!

JENNY’S TEACHING
Jenny went to school at Longsands in St. Neots and trained at Balls Park in Hertfordshire, now part of the University of Hertford, from 1969 to 1973. Jenny then taught at the Village College in Swavesey, Gamlingay Village College and Ernulf School in St Neots. She would love to hear from fellow pupils and students on jenny@wisson.com.


JENNY’S GOLF
Jenny is a member of Abbotsley Golf Club, Cambridge Meridian and John O’Gaunt. Jenny is a member of the Association of Golf Club Secretaries and is always pleased to welcome fellow golf club secretaries at Cambridge Meridian. Jenny has played second team golf for Cambridgeshire from her lowest handicap of 7. Jenny was also the British Pitch and Putt Champion and was selected to play for the English Pitch and Putt team in the European Championships.

For those golfers who have never had a hole in one, don’t do what Jenny did. She had a hole in one on the “Mousehole” – the daunting 2nd hole at Abbotsley, but didn’t see the ball go in. She was picking up her tee peg at the time!

Jenny is the world’s number one Seve Ballesteros fan and if she won the Lottery would try to arrange a game with him!


THE WISSON FAMILY

Jenny’s family has farmed in Abbotsley and surrounding villages for at least five generations. Her father, Gerald, who sadly died in 2001, her grandfather, Stanley, and her great grandfather, Thomas, all farmed in Abbotsley. Jenny’s brother, Maurice, has carried on the tradition, as have Jenny’s nephews, Simon, Christopher and Jonathan. Her niece, Sarah, has moved away from Abbotsley but married a farmer/estate manager. Jenny’s nephews all have children of their own (mostly sons). Their choice of toys usually seem to be farm animals or model JCBs or tractors – so it seems odds on that the farming tradition will continue!

For Maurice Wisson, his wife Margaret, and sons Simon, Christopher and Jonathan, write to Southwood Farm, Abbotsley, St. Neots, Cambridgeshire.

Jenny’s mother, Nanda, came over to the UK from Italy at the end of the war in 1946 to marry Jenny’s father. Nanda and the family in Abbotsley keep in contact, of course, with Nanda’s family in Rome. Nanda is a wonderful babysitter to her great grandchildren. But it must come as a surprise to schools when little ones from Abbotsley have odd bits of Italian interspersed in their normal conversation.

The Wisson surname seems to have originated in Bedfordshire or Cambridgeshire, but there are presumably Wissons in all parts of the world. Nanda has worked for several years in developing a family tree and Jenny and Nanda would love to hear from other Wisson family members from around the world. If you are a Wisson or related to the Wissons from Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire do email Nanda on family@wisson.com.

You can also email Jenny at jenny@wisson.com and Nanda at nanda@wisson.com.

SIMON WISSON

Jenny’s nephew, Simon, runs a very specialist business dealing in reptiles, rabbits, mice and hamsters. Simon can be contacted at simon@wisson.com or at Southwood Farm, Abbotsley.

CAMBRIDGE MERIDIAN

For information on Cambridge Meridian Golf Club, view Jenny’s website at www.golfsocieties.com

jenny@wisson.com

THE JENNY WISSON WEBSITE