All aboard for day out

By the look on their faces, members of the Cowley Workers Social Club in Oxford were looking forward to their annual outing, write Richard Cook and Tyrone Steele.

Some of the 160 pensioners who joined the party in July 1967 are pictured in St Luke’s Road, preparing to leave by coach for the Vale of Evesham.

The Oxford Mail reported: “Their four coaches were stocked with crisps and bottles, and there was a nurse and committee member in each coach to look after them.

“The tour was paid for by the club, at a cost of about £350."

As we have recalled, the club is said to have been formed by six people, who left Cowley Conservatives to form an organisation for working men.

The inaugural meeting was held on April 15, 1929, at the Village House, opposite the former St Luke’s Church in Oxford Road, Cowley.

The Village House, the former home of a professor, became the club’s first home, opening on May 31 that year.

Early members paid sixpence for a pint of beer, and the club’s first electricity bill was for £1 0s 3d.

It attracted many car workers, giving them the opportunity to unwind from the hustle and bustle of the Cowley plant’s production line and to take part in a range of activities.

They included bingo, pool, snooker, shove halfpenny, dominoes, crib, indoor Aunt Sally and discos.

In its heyday, the club had 4,000 members.

The club had to find new premises when its site was compulsorily purchased for a road widening scheme.

In 1970, it moved round the corner into a new £140,000 building in Between Towns Road.

A special week of activities was held in May 1979 to mark the club’s 50th anniversary.

Do you recognise anyone in the picture above?

memorylane@oxfordmail.co.uk