Prestigious private tennis club culls Canada geese in secret 'because they kept making a mess on the courts'

Published: 19:51, 5 August 2026 | Updated: 19:52, 5 August 2026 A prestigious private tennis club has secretly shot and killed a gaggle of geese after the birds kept making a mess on the court, members said. Frequently visited by celebrities and billionaires, St George's Hill Lawn Tennis Club in Weybridge sits within a gated estate dubbed the UK's Beverly Hills. The private estate, nicknamed 'The Hill', has been home to music legends Sir Cliff Richard, John Lennon, Sir Ringo Starr and Sir Tom Jones.  Sporting royalty have also dwelled in the gated community, including John Terry, Sue Barker, Jenson Button and 1966 hero Sir Geoff Hurst.  But the club has become so exclusive that owners have decided that even its resident birds are no longer welcome on the grounds. The normally tranquil surroundings were interrupted after marksmen were hired to cull the geese. Neighbours awoke to the sounds of gunshots in the early hours of July 16. Later that morning, they discovered that eight birds had been killed, including goslings. The club has previously appeared to welcome the geese, featuring them in social media posts. The St George's Hill Lawn Tennis Club sits within a gated estate in Weybridge, Surrey The tennis club shared a photo of two adult Canada geese with two goslings In a post in April last year, St George's shared a photograph of two adult Canada geese with two goslings, captioned: 'We have baby goslings on our Lakeside Terrace!'  In 2024, they also shared a post of a family of the birds on the courts in the rain, captioned: 'At least the Canadian geese family enjoyed the courts today.' The 16-acre club boasts 3,700 members and charges £2,664 in annual fees plus an entrance charge for new members of £2,000. Opened by Prince Alexander of Teck and his wife, Princess Alice, in 1913, the Surrey club has 34 tennis courts, 13 of which are grass, and regularly hosts international tournaments. Emma Raducanu triumphed in the UK Pro Series and Classic Tournament a year before winning the 2021 US Open. Members were furious when rumours began to swirl about the culling of the club's popular residents. One member said on social media that an adult and gosling which survived the cull were found 'in a distressed state wandering the local area'. They added: 'The tennis club claim they were pests and murdered them by the club's lake which they used as their home much to the delight of the young and old club members. Such barbaric action in a situation where local wildlife organisations would have taken them in.' One longstanding member of the exclusive sports club told The Times: 'The members have always liked the geese. It is sometimes a bit annoying because they amble on to the courts and leave their poo. 'But that does not mean they had to be shot. It's a private estate and the residents are concerned about a firearm being brought in without any warning.' Another player added: 'The club management ordered this because they felt the birds were making the courts messy. There was no consultation with the members. The club is in a beautiful setting and the birds were part of that.' Some members claimed that the birds had not been culled and were instead relocated to a nearby lake at the Claremont Landscape Garden. The shooting was reportedly carried out by a contractor with a licence from Natural England to cull some species, to preserve public health or safety. In another post, a family of the geese were pictured on one of the tennis courts  Tennis fan Sir Cliff Richard once lived on the private estate in Weybirdge, Surrey Adult Canada geese produce droppings around every six minutes, totalling nearly 1kg a day and numbers of the birds have begun to grow in the UK.  The club's chief executive Miles Hill said in a statement that the decision was taken 'on the grounds of public health and safety'. He said that grounds staff were unable to keep up with the volume of faeces being produced by the birds. Mr Hill said the club is looking at trying to prevent the geese from gathering in heavily used member areas, rather than relying on relocation. Canada geese are believed to have been introduced to the UK when King Charles II received the birds as a gift from a Russian ambassador in 1664. They were installed in St James’s Park, central London. The British Trust for Ornithology says numbers of the birds in the UK have more than doubled since 1984. The current UK population is about 160,000. Populations are now widespread across England and Wales. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reported in April that the number of Canada geese in Wales increased by 753 per cent between 1995 and 2024.