History

“A Workingman’s Club which has been established for Blackwell and District was opened on Thursday evening by Mrs Chavasse. The idea originated with Miss Brodie, who has displayed a great interest in the movement. The club is housed in the old Wesleyan Chapel, the use of which has been granted free by the trustees for a period of three years. The only expenditure which the promoters have been put to is in adapting and renovating the premises and furnishing. Some £40 has been expended in this direction and the result is to give the members a comfortable and homely place of meeting. The building, it is interesting to note, is opened free from debt.”

The Wesleyan Chapel referred to in this report is the stone building still standing on St Catherines Road, at the entrance to The Avenue (at this time St Catherines Road was called School Lane). This building had been erected in 1847 by the local Methodist Community. It was in use up to 1882 when the present Methodist Church on Greenhill was opened (a gift from the family of Mr Taylor who had come to live in the area and who built his house “Leahyrst” on Greenhill).

The opening of the Club appears to have been very much in the fashion of the time for the more wealthy members of the community to feel a need to “better” the lives of the lower classes. This was also expressed in the aims of the Temperance movement, which was a strong force at this time.
The Blackwell of this period was somewhat different to now, although already at that time it was serving as a home for people working in Birmingham.
The founding members of the Club, or at least their committee, certainly got things off to a good start. During the first few months a series of “smoking concerts” were held, educational lectures arranged with outside speakers and an airgun section formed. Other events during these first years included a musical recital and a lecture on Switzerland which was illustrated with “limelight views”.
This is perhaps a reflection of the great changes which took place in the country at this time. The old class system of landed gentry owning large areas of the country was breaking down. In our particular locality, the influence of the Windsor family at Hewell Grange began to wane and over the next few decades most of the estate was sold off (indeed the present clubhouse is built on such land).
One as yet unresolved issue is exactly where the Club was sited during this period. As mentioned earlier, the Club first started in 1904 in the old Wesleyan Chapel on St Catherines Road, but this usage was initially granted for only three years. However it is fairly certain that by the 1920s, the Club was based elsewhere.