Look at the poor old clubhouse of the Morris Motors Athletic and Social Club in Crescent Road, Cowley, not long for this world, with its rotting 1920s, vaguely Art-Deco design. Then look at the new Lord Nuffield Club building, handed over to the committee this week, and you will see just how much industrial Oxford has changed in 80 years.

They may be on the same site, but they could be on different planets. Both are monuments to private enterprise and social conscience, but the first was the fruit of the paternalistic Lord Nuffield, anxious to instil a healthy body and mind in his car workers.

The second is the product of something called community spirit, led by individual successors of those workers and fuelled with money from the property boom.

The 30,000 sq ft £4.5m-£5m clubhouse, complete with a 25m rifle range, ballrooms and bars fitted out in light American oak, squash courts, and snooker room, not to mention a playing field and bowling green, has at long last been handed over to the club's management committee by developer Eddie Costello, of Chesside Homes.

Mr Costello said: "The fact that the club has been completed is down to the new committee, particularly Norman Goodey, Michael Kelly and chairman Rod Smitham, who worked tirelessly to bring this about in the face of extraordinary difficulties."

Committee member Mr Goodey added: "It's really down to this developer. After the bad publicity, no-one would help us except him."

He added: "We put together a business plan with the help of MBA students at Oxford Brookes University. We have already taken on 12 new staff, including manager Brian Hirschfield, and we are looking for another 23."

The bad publicity stemmed from infighting between committee members at the club, which prevented development for more than three years, and at one stage put the club into the hands of the official receiver.

And even this week, the club had to threaten former chairman, Tom Doliamie, with court action to gain repssession of the flat he occupied in the old clubhouse. The club needed vacant possession in order to demolish the building and continue the development of the site.

Mr Costello said: "There were many members who simply did not want to see change. But it had to come.There was the time members of the darts club went into their room in the old club - and the ceiling fell down.

"At first the situation looked difficult. Then I found there was a committee in place with whom I could work. And now Oxford has a club to be proud of - but this has happened through private social enterprise, without help from the politicians."

The new clubhouse has been built with money earned in part-exchange for former club land, on which Chesside Homes has so far put up 23 flats and six houses, selling at asking prices of about £250,000 and £370,000 respectively.

Phase two of the development will involve building another 11 houses and 21 flats on the site on which the old clubhouse still stands.

Club secretary Michael Kelly said: "We want to bury the past and look to the future now. We haven't yet decided who we shall invite to perform the opening ceremony or when it will be. But we think that when members see this great new clubhouse they will want to join up.

"We envisage that the club will have a £2m annual turnover and be free of debt within a few years. Already the Oxford University Hunting Gun Club has agreed to pay more than £2,000 a year to use our range."

He added: "Part of the trouble in the past stemmed from members thinking that if the club closed they would all receive a share of money paid by a developer.

"But they didn't realise that most of the club land, the playing field, for instance, would never receive planning permission."

The recent, often acrimonious goings-on at the club gave an unusual insight into the world of property developers.

Rewards can be great but the patience of a saint is sometimes needed. Mr Costello said that if house prices hold up - questionable in the present climate - he "should be financially okay".

However, he added: "But 30 per cent of this development is for social housing, from which I shall not make a penny. Politicians at all levels made encouraging noises but never came up with help - such as offering to decrease the amount of social housing demanded."

The club's recent troubles date back to February 2004, when the committee sacked its chairman, Tom Doliamie, following a dispute about the size of the proposed new clubhouse.

Later that year, a court decided that his sacking had been illegal - and he, in turn, sacked the committee and sued them for delaying development. The county court has ordered former committee members to pay costs, though the exact amount has still to be decided.

Matters were further complicated when Tom Doliamie was declared bankrupt and stepped down as chairman.

Social membership of the club stands at £16 a year. Full gym membership is £48 a month.

Mr Kelly said: "The great change here is reflected in the change of name. This is now a community club open to all, not just to those with connections to the motor industry."