Working Mens Clubs

Off-topic discussions, musings and chat
Reginal Perrin
Posts: 670
Joined: Fri 23 Feb, 2007 10:52 am

Post by Reginal Perrin »

I still go in Rothwell WMC occasionally. Hell it's cheap. £1.36 for a Worthies at mo, Green Label still about £1.25 as well.    
Ravioli, ravioli followed by ravioli. I happen to like ravioli.

Trojan
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Joined: Sat 22 Dec, 2007 3:54 pm

Post by Trojan »

Reginal Perrin wrote: I still go in Rothwell WMC occasionally. Hell it's cheap. £1.36 for a Worthies at mo, Green Label still about £1.25 as well.     I can't remember the last time I was in a WMC, I think it was in Ackroyd Street in Morley in the early eighties. Funny really. Morley WMC is one of the three places I've seen Jack Charlton in the flesh - the other two being LBA and Kings Cross Station. Only other footballer I've seen close to was John Charles when he had the Bottom 'oil in Churwell.
Industria Omnia Vincit

gbdlufc
Posts: 80
Joined: Sat 23 Jun, 2007 10:08 am

Post by gbdlufc »

Spent many a good night as a bottle boy and later a drinker in Harehills Working Mens Club on Cowper Street. Not been in for years now though. Anyone remember the old boy glass collector in the games room called Taffy?

wayniac
Posts: 50
Joined: Fri 21 Mar, 2008 3:55 am

Post by wayniac »

I used to go the East Ward Liberal club with my parents. We started going there in the '50s. I used to go out the back of the club and we would yell across the gap to the back of the Cavalier flats and listen to the echo.It was a good club in its day. Jazz and old time music turns on a Saturday night.They had some exhibition snooker matches in the early 70's. I remember seeing Hurricane Higgins play there before snooker became a big time TV sport.Another club I was a member of was Edmund House, I also used to meet my mates at East Leeds WMC for a game of snooker.East Leeds has produced some great rugby league players too.The was also the East Leeds Conservative club, Steve "spuggy" Clark used to run the place. My wife's brother is married to Steve's sister.

Trojan
Posts: 1990
Joined: Sat 22 Dec, 2007 3:54 pm

Post by Trojan »

South Queen Street Working Mens Club in Morley closed in the nineties. It was always called "The Irish League Club" by older people for reasons I don't understand, although there certainly used to be a fairly large population of Irish extraction in Morley. In fact when I was at junior school, it never occurred to me that Docherty, Ryan, Murphy, O'Donnell and Walsh weren't just ordinary Yorkshire names. I believe they came to Morley in the 19th century to build the tunnel. Anyway, South Queen Street was the only licenced place in central Morley that I know of that sold Melbourne Brewery ales - the big wooden gates on Queen Street were painted green with the brewery's name and Courtier trade mark on for years after Melbourne ceased operation.
Industria Omnia Vincit

jdbythesea
Posts: 405
Joined: Sat 02 Apr, 2011 6:14 am

Post by jdbythesea »

I read that Holbeck WMC were having a family fun day on 1st June to raise funds to help the club survive: I hope that the day went well.I haven't been in since my brother and his wife had their wedding reception there in 1975.What surprised me in the newspaper articles (both The Guardian and and Independent ran the story) was that Holbeck WMC is the oldest club of it's type that is still open in the UK.It would be a shame to see it go the way of so many others.

stutterdog
Posts: 859
Joined: Mon 15 Jun, 2009 4:46 pm

Post by stutterdog »

Leeds-lad wrote: Such a lot of WM clubs have gone to the wall over the years,I just wondered if any one had any fond/not so fond memories of any particular ones.Does any one have any thoughts or memories of Hall Rd WMC.Armley? I used to love it before it went bust & then burned down. Hall Road Club was a brilliant place in the late 50's. The awkward age between 15 and 18 was pleasantly filled by me and some friends upstairs there.The steward was kind enough to allow us to play snooker and cards as long as we didn't cause a nuisance. We sometime bought a soft drink from the bar.It was like a youth club at times with as many as a dozen lads playing various games! Great times.
ex-Armley lad

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Leodian
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Joined: Thu 10 Jun, 2010 8:03 am

Post by Leodian »

There is a report about the Holbeck Working Men's Club on pages 6 and 7 of the Yorkshire Evening Post (YEP) today (June 11 2013). This is a link to the shorter online version in the YEP website:- http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... -1-5755629
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.

Chrism
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Joined: Sun 20 Jan, 2008 8:26 am

Post by Chrism »

Clubs I used were the West Ward Libs in Burley (later Stoggy's), Armley Libs, The Denison Hall, Upper & Lower Wortley Libs (AKA The Pigeon Club) and Burley Libs (The first club I was a member of).
Sit thissen dahn an' tell us abaht it.

jonleeds
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Joined: Thu 31 Jan, 2008 4:59 pm

Post by jonleeds »

I cant even remember the names of all the working mens clubs in Morley that I've been in, the main one near to where I lived was Cross Church Street WMC, I'm sure Trojan and Major Houndii will know of this place. Back in the 1970s they used to have a family 'club-trip' day out to Blackpool. Hundreds of families used to go and I believe a train was chartered from Morley Low station. I was only a toddler at the time and I'm, always reminded of the time when I got 'lost' and I ended up in one of those 'lost children' booths they used to have on the beach! Also on the day of Charles and Diana's wedding there was a huge celebration there attended by hundreds of local folks, while the grown-ups watched the wedding in the function room on one of those large projection screen things, us kids were consigned to a side room to eat jelly and buns and watch 'Enter the Dragon' featuring Bruce Lee..!! I remember both my dad and grandad were lifelong members of Cross Church Street, infact my old man met my mum there as she was working behind the bar! They always had to pay their subs, and I remember a lot of blokes would go to "t'club" on a Friday and Saturday night to take advantage of the subsidised ale prices, then perhaps going on a bit of a crawl around the other WMC's of Morley as most allow affiliate members to use one anothers facilities. It was customary to fill up on cheap booze (Stones bitter / Skol lager!) before having a few drinks at 'pub prices' in one of Morley's (then) many pubs.There was Ackroyd Street WMC, Fountain Street WMC and many more. You couldnt get in these places if you werent a member or you had a friend who was a member who was prepared to sign you in. Also as everyone will recall there was a strict 'No Women Allowed' policy except for perhaps certain nights when there was a 'turn' on, usually a 'vocal duo' with some razzmatazz name like 'Diamond Delux' or something. Just like in Peter Kay's 'Phoenix Nights'! Its a shame that many of these places have declined and vanished because I can remember they acted as a hub of the community along with the church which has largely disappeared along with all of Morleys cloth mills and 'real jobs for real men' - i.e, manual labour / engineering etc etc... Gawd it makes me feel ancient that I can remember these things and I'm not even forty...    
Have your fun when you're alive - you won't get nothing when you die... have a good time all the time! - Chumbawumba!

And no matter how things end, you should always keep in touch with your friends - Dave Gedge

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