Blackwell Club is celebrating its centenary this year with a host of special events to mark the occasion. Although the official birthday is November 3 – the date when the club’s inaugural meeting was held in 1904 – celebrations have already been taking place this summer.
In June a Summer Centenary Day was held, involving fun for all the family. Children were entertained with Punch & Judy shows from Professor Greatrix and face painting provided by mums from Linthurst First School, while visitors both young and old had the chance to learn circus skills, try their luck on the coconut shy and play Giant Jenga!
The Hog Roast was washed down with pints of special Blackwell One Hundred bitter, and local MP Julie Kirkbride came along to help club chairman Ian Beavis unveil a commemorative plaque. Blackwell Wind brass band and 60s cover band Rain provided musical entertainment, and the day ended with a charity auction.
Blackwell Club’s annual charity cycle ride was renamed The Centenary Challenge this year, and took place on July 3, with 33 riders covering 3,000 miles between them, on varying routes encompassing Britain’s “other” Blackwells in Derbyshire and Warwickshire. Back at base, awards were presented by parish council chairman Ron Brown. It is hoped that £10,000 was raised to add to the £30,000 from the past three years.
Centenary events continue throughout the year, including a bonfire and firework display on November 6. Find out more at https://www.blackwellclub.co.uk
A brief history of Blackwell Club
Blackwell Club was founded in 1904 as a working men’s club for the village and district, housed in the old Wesleyan Chapel on St Catherine’s Road, then known as School Lane. This stone building, erected in 1847 and in use until the Methodist Church on Greenhill opened in 1882, still stands at the entrance the The Avenue.
It was leased to the club free of charge for three years by its trustees, though the grand sum of £40 had been spent on renovation. It seems that the idea behind forming the club was that wealthy industrial families in the area wanted to “better” the lives of working men in the area.
A series of “smoking concerts” were the first events, involving songs and music performed by the committee. It is interesting to note that ladies were invited to one of these, though it would take 93 years before women could be full club members. Educational lectures were also given, often with an agricultural theme, and an airgun team was formed to play in a local league.
By the 1920s, the club had moved premises, probably to Linthurst Newtown. It moved to its present location in 1936, now under the ownership of its members, and was licensed for the first time. Activities in those days included billiards, dominoes and cribbage, recitals and concerts, an annual flower and vegetable show and various day trips.
In the post-war years, Blackwell changed considerably, with new homes and the M42 being built, the closure of the station and village hall, and population expansion. The club adapted to these changes, particularly by admitting women on certain occasions and eventually letting them become associate, then full, members.
In recent times the club has become more family-friendly, and fuctions as the main social centre for the village.