It's a ten-mile journey from the site of the former Penfold Golf ball factory on Bromford Lane in Birmingham to Little Aston Golf Club in Sutton Coldfield. But it's a trip that was at least a two centuries in the making.

While it's only a 20-to-30-minute drive, it's a journey back in time. You see, Little Aston Golf Club sits on the former grounds of Little Aston Hall, a landed gentry estate that dates back to the 1700s. How it became a golf club - the fifth ranked parkland course in Great Britain and Ireland, according to Golf World Magazine - is a microcosm of the shift in England's social structure from the gilded age of Victorian nobility to post-World War II egalitarianism.

Let's take a deeper look, shall we?

A country estate turned subdivision

Little Aston Hall can be traced back to at least 1730, when it was the country estate of one Richard Scott. Scott was not a nobleman, rather he was part of a landed gentry family from nearly Staffordshire. By early 1800s, the estate was purchased by William Tennant, another wealthy landowner. His stewardship lasted until the mid-1850s when the property was acquired by one Edward Swynfen Parker Jervis.

Jervis was, in fact, an aristocrat. He was a younger son of the 2nd Viscount of St Vincent and a distant relative of the 1st Earl of St Vincent. Edwards carried out major improvement to the property, including a lavish rebuild of the Hall itself worth about $7 million dollars in today's currency.

British society was changing, however. The Industrial Revolution gave birth to a new breed of wealth: business leaders who owned factories, trade, banks and transportation. The aristocracy could no longer manage their massive estates, leaving them ripe for the taking. By the early 20th century, Little Aston Hall had changed hands several times after the Jervis ownership, eventually falling into the hands of Birmingham solicitor Joseph Bennett Clarke.

Clarke kept 100 acres for himself and sold off the rest, including a sizable tract to Arthur Greatrex. Greatrex, in turn, leased (and later sold outright) 141 acres of Little Aston Hall to form Little Aston Golf Club.

A jewel in the British Midlands

Little Aston sits on parkland that was once a posh country estate. The rolling, gentle terrain has a softness to it, in stark contrast to the bustling commercial center just 10 miles away. The air feels thicker here, and slightly damp. It's what the English like to call "civilized countryside".

The area itself feels hidden and self-contained, gently exclusive but never flashy. The golf course is certainly not ostentatious. It feels like it's been the way it is for a long, long time and sees no need to change. There's no dramatic scenery, no spectacular vistas - just a golf course that introduces itself with a quiet confidence that warmly welcomes you and gladly rewards a well-struck iron shot.

That Little Aston was originally laid out by Harry Vardon in 1908 and finished by Harry Colt in 1911 shouldn't be a surprise. The course wants you to play the angles and approach its greens with precision. It's not fierce, but it won't let you overpower it. It's designed for shot makers with greens that don't shout at you. Instead, they politely request that you land your ball in the right place if you fancy a chance at birdie.

It's been said that Little Aston is not merely an example of a great parkland golf course. It actually defines what a great parkland golf course should be. You could play it 20 times and feel like each time is the first time. If you're a good player, you'll feel challenged. If you're a great player, you'll be tested.

The second - and final - Penfold Professional Golf League

We remember A.E. Penfold as a brilliant golf ball engineer. During his time at the Silvertown Company, he developed the pure white gutta percha golf ball that miraculously stayed white. Other gutties at that time got dirty easily and would be near impossible to find, even in the fairway. Later at Dunlop, Penfold developed and patented the first golf ball to bear the name Maxfli. And of course, in 1927, he opened his company in Birmingham and became England's leading golf ball manufacturer.

What's forgotten, however, is that Penfold was also a brilliant marketer, using the professional game to promote his company and its golf balls. In 1938, he sponsored the first Penfold Professional Golf League event, a round-robin tournament pitting the twelve best pros of that year against one another. Percy Allis won the first at Sandy Lodge in London. The second was held at Little Aston on June 12th through the 17th in 1939. Each player played 10 matches - two per day - with the top two finishers playing each other on the final day. Players would get two points for a win and one point for a halved match.

The purse of 1,000 pounds was a huge draw for the pros. The winner's share was 200, while 2nd place was 150. The field featured Great Britain's best, including defending champ Allis, Open champs Reg Whitcombe, and Dick Burton and Ryder Cup stalwarts Dai Rees and Arthur Lacey.

Then there was Henry Cotton, an eventual three-time Open champion and leading British golfer of his generation.

After five days of play, the two top players were Cotton with 17 points and Whitcombe with 18. The final, played on Saturday, June 17th, proved to be epic.

Whitcombe, needing to only halve the match to win, drew first blood by holing out for an eagle on the Par-5 second. Cotton evened it up on the 4th, as Whitcombe found two bunkers. Cotton birdied the Par-3 5th to take the lead and later extended his lead with another birdie on the 9th.

Whitcombe got one back on the 11th, but Cotton would go back up by two a hole later. With four holes left to play, Cotton was still up by two. They halved both 15 and 16, but with Whitcombe needing to win the 17th to stay alive - hit his tee shot out of bounds to lose the hole and the match.

It was the only match Whitcombe lost all week.

Since the two men were tied with 18 points each, they split the first and second place prize money (350 pounds) between them.

That would be the last Penfold Professional Golf League tournament. Less than three months later, Germany invaded Poland. Two days after that France and Britain declared war on Germany, marking the formal beginning of World War II.

Little Aston's place in golf history

Little Aston has hosted the British Masters five times, as well as the English Men's and Women's Amateur Championships. Penfold returned to Little Aston in May of 1966 for the Swallow-Penfold Tournament (Swallow was a brand of raincoats and co-sponsored the event). The prize money for the Swallow-Penfold was 4,000 pounds, with 750 going to the winner.

That event was won by Dave Thomas of Wales, who beat Bernard Hunt by one stroke after rolling in a 21-foot putt for birdie on the last hole. Thomas was a four-time Ryder Cup player, losing only once in five singles matches. He was also a two-time Open runner-up. He lost to Penfold staffer Peter Thomson in a 36-hole playoff at Royal Lytham in 1958 and would finish one stroke behind Jack Nicklaus at Muirfield later in '66.

In 2010, Tommy Fleetwood won the English Amateur Championship at Little Aston. It was his final Amateur tournament before turning pro that year.