… is certainly a date to remember because it was on that day that the doors of the North Countrymen’s Club first opened for its seventy-six members and nineteen associate members. It appears these fine gentlemen laid down something of a marker for the Club because first-day bar takings were £19.6d. In today’s coin that is over £1,000!
However, to plot the entire history of the Club we need to go back in time by twenty-three years. In 1921 the former stables of the Vicar of St Mary’s Church (now the Arts Centre, just across from our front door) were populated by World War One soldiers who formed the Old Comrades Club, which ran until the early 1940s.
The reason for it closing was quite simple. The Second World War broke out and many members were called up.
Fast forward, though, to 6 March 1942 and an inaugural supper and social evening was held to launch the Society of North Countrymen at the Fleece Hotel in Head Street, which was demolished in 1970. On 10 August 1943 a decision was taken to form the Club, which finally happened on 7 December 1943.
In 1944, the Company acquired the freehold of the present club premises, 4 Church Street, formerly owned by the Royal Ancient Order of Buffaloes. On 2 February 1945 the name was changed from the Society of North Countrymen to the North Countrymen’s Club.
By the 1970s the very astute shareholders of the Society, as it had by then become known, decided to separate the activities of running the Members’ Club, from the ownership of the freehold premises which for many years has been leased to the Club under a formal lease – but at below market value rent, and pitched at a sum which broadly covered the Society’s outgoings.
The individuals who drove this venture were a collection of local people:
These magnificent seven subscribed for a single £1 share each – but the Authorised capital of the Company was stated to be £1000.
There are various conjectures regarding where the bulk of the other £993 came from – the most popular being that the subscribers were concerned to preserve their “beer ration”, which was difficult during war years. Nevertheless, they succeeded and one way or another the remainder of the £1000 was quickly subscribed.
That remains the position today – the Club premises are still owned by the Society – The Society of North Countrymen (Colchester) Limited – and are leased on a recently-renewed twenty-year lease to Trustees representing the Club. The terms of the lease are by all accounts much less than the true market worth which goes a long way to the current success and stability of the Club.
And just in case you are wondering, our emblem is a cockerel or the Cock of the North with the North being the “North County of Staffordshire”, from where many of our founders originated. The emblem has recently been refreshed to highlight our 80th anniversary, free of charge, by Peter Gore, who has also designed this website gratis.
Thanks to another Peter – Southgate – for providing much of the background for this article.
