|
From the Dover Express, Thursday, 1
September, 2011. 60p
THIRD WORKING MAN'S CLUB IS FORCED TO CLOSE
Hayday of 1,000 customers a week remembered
Report by Kathy Bailes
A WORKING man's club in Aylesham has shut for good after going into
voluntary liquidation.
The closure means the loss of jobs for one full-time steward and
three part-time bar staff, and an end of more than 50 years of history
for the Snowdown Colliery Welfare Club in Dorman Avenue South.
Mounting costs were responsible for the end of the club, which played
an important part in the lives of generations of Snowdown Colliery
miners and at its peak boasted or serving 1,000 members each week.
It was built in 1958 as a settlement of a claim by Snowdown miners
against the National Coal Board.
Aylesham and District Community Workshop Trust secretary Derek
Garrlty, 67, said: "I remember the first chairman was Sammy Hart. He was
the first in a long procession of miners in charge of the club, along
with Frank McKenna, Frank Deary, Phil Elkin, Sue Hill and Dave Ritson.
All stepped up to keep the club going."
"It was a very popular club in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, with keen
competition to be a committee man."
The club was one of the focal points of the mining community and used
to hold weekend events with singers, dancers and comedians on the stage
in the big hall - until the popularity of bingo, bands and discos took
over.
Mr Garrity, who comes from a mining family and has lived in Aylesham
all his life, said: "At Christmas the club gave each member's child a
present, a pantomime and in the summer holidays they took them to the
seaside - usually Margate - with five shillings in their pocket to spend
in Dreamland."
The club was the trading arm of Aylesham & Snowdown Social Welfare
Scheme, with the aim of raising funds for the charity, but member
numbers decreased and it became insolvent.
AyIesham has now lost three workingman's clubs, the Welfare, the
Legion and the Snowdown clubs and the Greyhound pub.
Dad-of-two Mr Garrity said: "It should mean a brighter future for
those clubs that are left but this is not automatic. They need to serve
the needs of a wider community and compete with a much wider choice of
entertainment."
|
