Reference
X527
Title
Records of the Bedford Club, De Parys Avenue, Bedford
Date free text
1879 - 1956
Production date
From: 1871 To: 1956
Creator
Admin/biog history
The first meeting of the founder members took place on 28 July 1879. At first the club has premises rented from Mr Miller in Dame Alice Street, next door to the old Bunyan Meeting Manse. The Manse was later the site of the General Post Office. The members were leading tradesmen and members of the professions in the town, and in the early years there were few of the "Anglo-Indians" and retired service people whose temporary residence in Bedford for the sake of the schools gave such a distinctive character to the town between the 1870s and the second world war. One finds among the members a surgeon, builder, draper, hotel-keeper, inland revenue officer, schoolmaster, ironmonger, corn merchant, station master, tailor, solicitor. When the club first opened, the hours were on weekdays 10am to 11.30pm, and Sundays 3-10pm. The first club servants, Wheatley and his wife, were engaged from 1 October 1879. The rules were much concerned with the billiard tables, and the proper election of new members and sales of shares. No games were to be played on Sundays; no members were to retain a periodical or paper longer the 10 minutes after another member had expressed a desire to see it; no dogs allowed on the premises. The first minute book ends in February 1885, with the Committee having given Mr Miller notice that the club was going to quit the premises in Dame Alice Street. The second minute book of "The Bedford Club and Bowling Green Company Ltd" commences on 18th August 1885, with the new building well under way. The architects were Messrs Anthony and Young; the contractor Mr Foster.
Deposited by the Committee, 12 May 1976
Level of description
fonds