The Bishop Beveridge Club celebrated its Platinum Jubilee on 5th October, marking 70 years of friendship and fun. Nearly 80 members enjoyed a hot meal and each table had a birthday cake, complete with a 70 candle.
Some forty years or so ago, year nineteen fifty-two,
Some Barrow friends united to see what they could do.
They hired the old adult school hall to plan a social club;
The only other place to meet was in a church or pub.
They drew up rules and schemes and plans to make a constitution,
And very soon this thing emerged, a kind of institution.
A Barrow club for Barrow folk, for a Barrow man they named it;
The Bishop Beveridge Club was born and everyone acclaimed it.
Now Barrow folk could meet each week for cards, a chat, a moan,
Relieve the tension, socialise and lay foundation stones.
The stones were well and truly laid, and cleverly they laid them;
The building now came up for sale but money did evade them.
They worked like mad to raise the cash and watched it mounting up,
Until they saw with pounding hearts, the Treasurer counting up.
They’d got the cash; the hall was theirs and then with hearts aglow
They opened up the doors with pride and watched the numbers grow.
So years have passed and many friends have gone to their reward
But still their work is honoured and they are held in high regard.
The hall is looking lovely now, with carpet, tables, chairs;
With curtains at the windows, we remember our forebears.
We’ll keep the faith with these old friends in nineteen ninety-two.
We toast them all with love and pride and grateful memories too.
Iris Perkins
The club was founded in 1952 and the ethos is the same today as it was then: to provide a pleasant and comfortable place for the over 60s to meet.
Membership is just £5 per year, but you don’t have to be a member to enjoy the varied programme that the club organises, non members can attend most events for a small extra fee.
A currently released film is shown each month; also coach trips to places of interest or just a good day’s shopping experience are arranged monthly. Games afternoons are a weekly feature as are the Thursday coffee mornings and Tuesday singing for fun. Other events are fun quizzes, bingo, speakers or demonstrations and the very popular monthly Friday lunches for single people. Everyone is welcome, just pop into the club on South Street and pick up a newsletter that has all the information of future events.
In 1992 Iris Perkins, a long-standing member of the club, wrote a poem that was published in the Christmas issue of the Barrow Voice in that year. It gives some insight into how the club began. It is reproduced here.
Val Gillings
