DURING the inter-war years Coventry’s clubs were multiplying as well as moving, like many of the city’s residents, into the new suburbs. Slum clearance programmes saw many people rehoused and they took with them enthusiasm for their clubs.
Walsgrave already had one, established in 1924 with others such as Charterhouse and London Road.
Just as there were links to the City’s diverse industrial base, clubs often reflected the origins of their membership.
Coventry has always welcomed migrant workers from all over the country as well as overseas. Scottish miners were very prominent in Binley Colliery Club and Hen Lane was often referred to as the Little Rhondda Club.
Wyken WMC opened its doors in 1935 and became famous for its male voice choir, possibly due its talented Welsh members.
Poles, Greeks, Hungarians, Italians and others found a home in the City’s clubs in the post-war years alongside Geordies, who had a strong working men’s clubs tradition, and many Irish. The war-time bombings across the city took its toll on the clubs. Barras Green suffered first of all by being damaged by a bomb blast.
On another occasion, it took a direct hit and was demolished, killing 30 people.
The contribution that clubs made to local communities was, fortunately, picked up by post-war Coventry City councillors.
They had the task not only of quickly rebuilding large parts of the city but also of planning new estates and expanding those began in the 1930s.
People needed houses to live in, and quickly, but they also needed somewhere to go in their free time.
And they needed to feel a sense of community, which was particularly important on out of town estates where new residents could easily feel isolated.
Coventry Corporation allocated five plots of land in the suburbs for the building of working men’s clubs and also made favourable arrangements for loans.
In doing this, they showed unique insight and instigated a policy that was a first in the country.
In the late 1940s, groups of men were getting together in living rooms and pubs to discuss how to take advantage of this assistance. One such group were meeting in Canley, the estate where I grew up, to discuss how to establish a club on the allocated site on Marler Road.
This was right across the street from where my parents had been rehoused after the Second World War.
My father was not alone in his enthusiasm for having a club so handy.
It would spare him and his friends the long trek back to the old haunts in Foleshill. Similar enthusiasm could be found in Willenhall, where a club was built in stages as the money became available.
The founders of the Canley Social club put in a planning application in late December 1948 with the original structure going up not long after.
The club began as a wooden hut but it quickly became a popular place with the local residents, just as on other estates.
Young boys could have boxing lessons there and men meet to play bagatelle and billiards.
Wives and children enjoyed concerts and “housey housey” at the weekends.
Much of the early work in building the club was done by the men themselves. Everyone pulled together to make their dream of having their own club come true. This was the same with the Unicorn Working Men’s Club. Times were hard in the post-war years but the men kept their hopes alive and the Unicorn emerged in a Ministry of Works timber-framed hut put up by the members.
Lime Tree Park, situated near the growing Tile Hill estate, was also established in the late 1940s.
Bell Green came a bit later, 1956 and starting off life in a disused Nissen hut. This era of estate club building continued through the 1960s and well into the 70s. Tile Hill Social opened in 1962 with Cheylesmore, opened in 1972, being a relative late comer.
So many clubs were established in Coventry that a local association of was formed which met regularly and its members were no strangers to civic receptions.
The praise heaped upon the clubs reflected the close relationship with the Corporation. This praise also showed the respect which clubs had gained. They were not back room spit and sawdust places after all but places for men and their families.
Respectability was largely gained by the good behaviour of its members which pleased top police officials.
But it also came through having many high ranking members in the City council. 1959, Lord Mayor Alderman Winslow, spoke of his “great pleasure” at being part of the movement. He had been a founder member of both the Radford Social Club, when it had started off in a small cottage, and, later, Coundon WMC.
A later Lord Mayor, Councillor Charles Ward, was a founder member of Cheylesmore Club along with Coventry South East’s MP Bill Wilson.
Alderman Tom Meffen, who became Lord Mayor in 1971, was a member of Binley Colliery. Another local MP, Maurice Edelman, was a vocal club supporter.
Apart from new clubs being set up, the 1960s also saw massive refurbishments and expansions of existing clubs. The wooden huts were cast aside for new lounges and concert rooms, with one club after another embarking on ambitious modernisation programmes.
There seemed to be a competition to see which could become the biggest, most luxurious in the city.
At one point, Coventry WMC would claim this accolade, then Canley Social as it opened a large new lounge and concert room. But other clubs, such as Willenhall, were later seen to be the largest.
Increasing amounts of money were borrowed to provide top class facilities for the members to be proud of. This continued well into the 1970s.
Next week we will look at the clubs in their “golden years” and then how the boom years came to an end and decline set in.
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