The Club Champions campaign aims to learn more about the hardworking individuals behind our local clubs. We discuss their services, their stories and what qualities stitch together their community. We want to know more about the future of these clubs, and what drives the champions dedicating their time to these local institutions.
I arranged to meet Jennifer Miller and David Harland at Rawdon and Guiseley Conservative Club to discuss its history and membership. Jennifer is a 20-year patron of the club; David a 44-year patron who spent many days playing snooker with the same five friends. Now the two stalwarts help orchestrate a wide range of services provided by the club, with an eye on the future, refurbishments and appeasing the ageing membership.
The origin of Rawdon & Guiseley Conservative Club
The first iteration of Rawdon Conservative Club was established in 1886, with a total membership of thirty six gentlemen, each paying a subscription of 5 shillings. Originally, the club was little more than a rented building, consisting of a reading room and a games room for chess, draughts and dominos.
Membership grew rapidly, and in 1911 the purpose-built clubhouse opened on Leeds Road – the exact site where it stands proudly to this day. Much has been done to modernise the building in the past 100 years, including a new roof, additional rooms, and a large carpark paved over the vegetable garden and bowling green. However the same ten stones, laid at the front of the club, each inscribed with the names of the first honorary founders, are untouched.
“The cost of building this in those days would have been huge,” says David. He’s right, the cost of the building was £1,512 in 1911, with the land an additional £365. “There must have been some wealthy conservatives chipping in. Could you imagine trying to raise that sort of money nowadays? You wouldn’t stand a chance!” The committee have fended off many speculative offers from businesses and breweries over the decades, offering millions of pounds for the picturesque site and its central location between the hubs of Leeds and Bradford.
The most significant change in the club’s history was when its neighbour, Guiseley Conservative Club closed its doors in 2005. With a promise of continued membership and sustained funds, there was an amalgamation, which is how the club gets its name: Rawdon and Guiseley Conservative Club.
This amalgamation – which overcame Conservative Club legislative issues, community disparities and a marriage of conflicting groups, many of whom had competed in a rivalry of chess, darts and dominos for years – was recognised with a national award. The Sir Marcus Fox Award was presented to the club in 2008, pioneered by Jennifer Miller who accepted the honour in London’s Carlton Club.
A photograph of that moment hangs proudly in the entrance of the Rawdon premises, and was Jennifer’s first stop upon our tour of the club. Jennifer took us through each of the three function rooms, explaining their capacity and many surprise purposes. We also discovered the billiard room, with three pristine snooker tables; the darts area, where the Yorkshire divisions compete; and the two neatly-kept bars, where a double whiskey would set you back £3.
“Cleanliness is so important, you’ve got keep your club clean,” affirms Jennifer. “You’ll find with older people, many of us agree – it’s why we’ve had the toilet’s newly refurbished.” And upon the tour, I took note, the club was exceptionally well-kept.
Hanging on each wall within the club, beyond the pictures of Churchill and of the late Queen, were reminders of an earlier time. Black and white photographs of tramlines and gas lamps, oil paintings of verandas, and even commemorative trowels, owned by the first founders. Memories decorate the walls of a function room which was set up for yesterday’s funeral teas; they hang above the main stage which is adorned with a piano and microphone for communal singing.
Activities, Events and Competitions at Rawdon & Guiseley Conservative Club
“I think we’ve got to accept the fact that people will only come into this building if there’s an activity. They won’t come in for a quiet drink, those days are gone. Now they come to play snooker or dance or sing a song.” Hearing Jennifer say this, my imagination of smoky corners and heightened exclusivity was lost. Instead it’s obvious this club was no more immune to the challenges faced by many of England’s social and working men’s clubs; an aging membership, uninterested youth, and increasing expenses.
“After Covid, getting people out their homes and through the door was a big challenge. We’ve had to adapt.” Jennifer then excitedly walks me through the surprising range of activities taking place each week. The club is home to Mercury Movie Makers on Thursdays, one of the longest-running amateur film making societies founded in 1958. Rawdon’s also known for its classic car club; every first Tuesday, the car park is filled with Minis, Morgans and Austin-Healeys. And each Saturday the main stage features a new entertainer, where patrons are encouraged to play bingo, sing and join in on some late-night dancing. The committee has done everything to foster a sense of belonging, with an unrivalled welcomeness for new and uniquely entertaining societies.
“We had a karate club use our function room for a time. They had their black belt grading here last year. However we’re most often used for birthday parties and anniversaries – and we are doing a lot of baby showers at the moment,” says Jennifer.
No longer does an external petition for venue hire have to go through the scrutiny of multiple committees – If Jennifer thinks your event is good for the club, she’ll happily accommodate on a trial basis. “We offer individuals a minimum three-month membership, allowing them to request an event – that’s how we remain within the Conservative Club laws. But we don’t do hot food on site, and we don’t do 18th birthday parties. We had one, once, never again; it ended with the police coming here, and we don’t have the police here at this club.”
Rawdon & Guiseley Conservative Club’s recent refurbishment
We sit down in the Crowtrees Suite, the newly refurbished section of the club which seats 80; adding to the 200 capacity of the clubhouse. With a Bluetooth speaker system, brand new projector and screen and separate modern bar, you wouldn’t have thought to be within a 19th century building. This sparks Jennifer and David to discuss the past and the future of the club.
“We used to take organised trips,” says Jennifer, “to Blackpool, Scarborough, Black Sheep, Beamish. We used to do Ripon Races every year.” – “Now they won’t even come in for a quiet drink anymore,” states David, “we’ve got an aging membership.” – “I know Conservative Clubs that have closed because the entrance was up some stairs,” says Jennifer. “It’s about giving people a little bit more for their money, I suppose. And if they come, they’ll know this is a really good place.” David agrees. Jennifer then recounts: “We recently put the price up on the bar. We resisted for a long time, but now we’ve had to. And one member said to me they could buy the drink in Morrisons for cheaper. And I said to him, ‘well that’s fair enough you go buy it and sit in Morrisons and drink it then!’”
Looking over to the main bar, a premium Saltaire Blonde Ale is priced at £3.60. David catches me, “All of the profits made by the club goes back toward improving the membership. The club is usually profitable every year but we don’t exist to make a profit. We’ve spent £20,000 having the roof done, and then £30,000 on the most recent refurbishment. This suite is a long-term investment, sometimes you’ve got to spend money to accumulate money.” – “It’s just about letting the community know we have this space available, and advertising it in the right way.” Jennifer adds.
David then laughs: “I once got a phone call from someone who said ‘I’m coming to a funeral here, if I buy a drink does the profit go to the Conservative Party? If it does I’m not coming.’ So I was able to reassure them that no, it doesn’t.” The Rawdon & Guiseley Conservative Club hosts charity nights, including one for Yorkshire Air Ambulance. Jennifer and David are looking to increase the club’s charity efforts in line with their financial plan.
Rule Four.
David cuts us off. “There’s one thing we’ve forgotten to mention. Rule Four.” When I asked David what that was, he passed me a small worn book, titled Club Law and Management, and said, “The club exists to support conservatism. And the local conservative party do use the premises. They have meetings here, functions, social events. On Remembrance Sunday, we would lay a wreath at the cenotaph and do the afternoon teas.”
He continues, “Also, we used to host the meetings for The Conservative Association (ACC). They would advise on legalities, and committee members from other West Yorkshire clubs would attend.”
Fires and Insurance Claims
In July 2006, the Rawdon & Guiseley Conservative Club was victim to a large fire. Jennifier remembers, “I got a call at 1:00 in the morning. They said ‘Jen please can you come over, the club’s on fire.’ Turns out it was the glass washer – it had just been serviced and went up in flames.”
“The issue was the smoke damage. The smoke completely ruined the main function room. The bar had to be completely rebuilt and a crucial supporting beam was damaged by the fire. Fortunately no smoke got in the suite which we had just had repainted, but it did get in the snooker room – the cloths had to be replaced. So we were able to carry on in a limited way.” Considering the damages and the business interruption, Rawdon & Guiseley Conservative Club were able to claim on their insurance for around £90,000.
David comments how the team have done a lot to bring the club up to standard in the last two years. “We’ve had a whole lot of electrical work done. New actuation points and fire extinguishers. Kitchen and bar equipment is serviced every year, including the coolers, glass washers and ice machines. We also got the railings redone outside, they were too low and didn’t meet the standard.” It’s clear the team have tried to cover absolutely everything, and the proof’s in the pudding – the club have a clean 20-year claims history.
Discovering the Future of Rawdon & Guiseley Conservative Club
The club are in the process of further building out their events calendar for the year. “Do you remember Stars In Their Eyes?” Jennifer says to David, “We used to do it for sixteen years before covid. We all used to dress up as the person we were impersonating, and get up and sing songs with the keyboard player.” – “A lot of balding Elvis Presleys” laughs David. Jennifer continues, “Our Ron used to make his own suits and, us ladies, we’d have a screen we could get dressed behind. And there was a compere explaining the act, just like they did on Stars In Their Eyes. Other clubs would come with their singers; but that’s all fallen through with the ease of the internet and video conferencing.”
The two agree that they’d like to restart the event and reach out to the local community for singers. They are now planning a Stars In Their Eyes charity night, in discussions with neighbouring clubs and the ACC. David then suggests, “I think we need to get different types of music. Jazz, blues, folk music. We’ve got to have a variety so everybody has a choice. Try enough and you’ll find an act that really sticks with people.”
“Our snooker tables have been getting a lot more use in recent years. It can get very competitive.” Rawdon & Guiseley Conservative Club are certainly benefitting from the recent increase in popularity of professional snooker and darts. They are currently recruiting more players for the snooker club. There are two teams, playing alternate Monday evenings and Tuesday evenings. Practice is open at any time to members and costs only 20p per 8 minutes. And for motivation, there is picture proof that professional snooker player Paul Hunter used to practice at the club during his three-time Masters Championship campaign.
Who are Rawdon & Guiseley Conservative Club’s Club Champions?
David starts, “Any club; be it a football club, a cricket club, or a social club; they need somebody to actually run the activities. Club’s need a good volunteer on their shoulder. For instance, Jennifer gives hours and hours each week for this club. She’s our club champion.” Jennifer smiles and replies, “Well hopefully I’ll keep going for a few more years.”
“Our stewardess, Denise, is extremely good. She’s worked at clubs before and lives on site. She also helps manage the socials as she’s very good with Facebook. We publish there and on the website our acts every Saturday night. And thanks to her, we’ve got a lot more people coming in, and a lot more income.”
Thank you to Jennifer and David for taking the time to talk to me. At Club Insure, we wish the club and committee evenry success, and hope to hear more about any upcoming charity event, specifically Stars in Their Eyes.
