Great Haywood Sports & Social Club

Great Haywood Sports And Social Club – The First Hundred Years.

As the Sports And Social Club celebrates its 40^th Anniversary in 2009, some people may be confused by the title of this article. Others, however, will realise that when the club was established in 1969, the building in which it was formed had already existed for a hundred years, but with a rather different purpose.

The building was opened, on the evening of 19^th June 1869 by the 2^nd Earl of Lichfield, who had provided the land and the money, as a Working Men’s Reading Room and library. There was a musical concert that created so much interest that it had to be repeated the following week so that the rest of the village could enjoy it.

Its purposes were very different from today. In the 19^th century the Anson family, in common with many other aristocratic families, believed that it was their responsibility to encourage local people to be religious, thrifty and teetotal. The family had already helped to provide a place of worship with the building of St Stephen’s Church between 1840 and 1858, and a school, with the building of St. Stephen’s School in 1868.

Reading Rooms had been opened in many towns and cities and had slowly spread to villages. Not everyone supported them as some believed that making working men think would make them more aware of their miserable conditions and more likely to cause trouble. Others said Reading Rooms would help working men to improve themselves or, at the very least, help them avoid the temptations of public houses.

The first librarian was Mrs. Elizabeth Vickerstaff and the Reading Room gradually built up a library of books that numbered 350 by 1912. In 1874 the upstairs room had been laid out as a schoolroom for older boys who wished to continue their education but could not be accommodated across the road at St Stephen’s School. There were several desks for the 60 boys and so part of the Reading Room served as a school for almost 50 years. Between the wars, this same room was the meeting place for the local troop of Boy Scouts.

The Reading Room became a popular place where local men could go to read books and newspapers, in order to improve their knowledge and understanding of the world. Membership was open to all local males from the age of 14, with a subscription of one shilling a year.

In the years before the First World War the Reading Room also became the meeting place of the Victoria Lodge of Oddfellows (Manchester Unity, Stafford District) of which the 3^rd Earl of Lichfield was an honorary member. In some publications of the time it was referred to as “Oddfellows Hall.” The independent Order of Oddfellows had been set up in the 18^th century, as an organisation similar to the Freemasons, to protect and support its members in time of need.

Like the Freemasons, the Oddfellows had their own regalia and ritual practices. In the 19^th century it became much more of a working class benefit or friendly society,  although it kept some of its rituals and regalia. Members paid weekly subscriptions into the Lodge, in return for which they could draw money in times of need, usually an allowance during sickness or unemployment, perhaps a small pension in old age and some money at death to assist with funeral expenses. The Lodge also provided its members with social activities and comradeship.

The establishment of the Oddfellows Lodge in Great Haywood was strongly encouraged by the 3^rd Earl. As a founder member of the Social Welfare Association, he was keen that working men should develop the habits of self-help and self improvement. He also supported the establishment in the village of a friendly society for women, the Girls’ Friendly Society, of which Theodora Tylecote became Secretary.

In the 1920’s the Secretary of the Oddfellows Lodge at the Reading Room was Edward Peploe Wood, the last in the long line of coopers, whose job disappeared when the village brewery closed in 1925. He was responsible for paying out money to claimants, including those who were off work due to sickness, or “on the box.” It is said that Ted’s desk was located by one of the windows overlooking the main road, from where he could observe any claimants passing by. Those who appeared to be malingering, or who broke the curfews imposed on claimants, were called before him and given warnings about their conduct.

Between the Wars the Working Men’s Reading Room became known as the Men’s Institute, with a wider range of activities such as billiards, dominoes and card games. Its members were still denied alcoholic drinks, for which they had to nip down to the Clifford between games. During the Second World War, the Institute became the headquarters of the local A.R.P. (Air Raid Precautions.) In 1969, a hundred years after the opening of the Reading Room, it became Great Haywood Men’s Institute and Sports And Social Club, and was granted a licence to sell alcohol, which gave it a completely different role in the community from that envisaged by the 2^nd earl of Lichfield a century earlier.

  Dave Robbie 2009.