Apsley club closes after 137 years
A SPORTS and social club in Apsley that has been around for more than 100 years has shut down.
The Apsley Village Club in London Road closed its doors for the final time at the end of last year because of financial problems.
The club, formed in the early days of paper factory John Dickinson’s, had around 100 members and offered a range of sports including poker, snooker and darts.
A lifeline was thrown around eight years ago when the land was redeveloped with flats and a new clubhouse was built.
David Taylor, boss of Marston Construction, which owns the site, said: “It was a working men’s club. Unfortunately nowadays they are very hard to keep going.
“There was no bad feeling, it’s reality really. They saw it coming for a long time. We sat down and discussed it for quite a while.”
The clubhouse is currently being converted into a nursery, which is due to open in March.
Apsley historian Peter Ward says the club was formed in 1874 but a clubhouse was built in 1891 by John Dickinson and Arthur Longman alongside St Mary’s Church to cater for the community’s ‘social life’. At the opening ceremony a speech proclaimed: “Prosperity to the Apsley Village Club.” In 1937 the club was sold to the trustees.
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Comments
There are 4 comments to this article
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longtime
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 11:44 AMFrank: the original bowling alley in King Harry Street, the present bowling alley at Jarman Park and the Squash Club were all private companies and nothing to do with the Council. Marlowes parking arrangements have obviously had to change due to the colossal increase in private car use. 1965 was 46 years ago! Tell us a town where you can park for free; I won't hold my breath.
frank k thornton
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 08:09 PMthe h. hempstead councel is CRAP soon as we start or find some where we can have half good time. they get in to close all of it!!!!!! IE bowling alley ?? snookes ?? squash club marlows parking. we was told in 65 we will never pay for parking please LOOK now the lot of them are crap. f k thornton.
robers06
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 08:32 PMI agree entirely with 'Welcome1503' about this being old news. If the paper thinks it's worthy of coverage why did it not do so when it was first announced that it was closing, months ago! I do however have a different opinion about clubs which seem to be closing due to lack of members, which is a reflection on changing lifestyles over the years. Bit like pubs too. The report says the Apsley club only had 100 members which is just not sustainable. Good news about the nursery though, I doubt they will have a problem filling their places.
welcome1503
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 05:26 PMI am not being funny but why months down the line does this paper think it is news...most of Hemel knew this ages ago and unless something is done the same thing could happen to The Cotterells Club which has also being going for more that 100 yrs..The parking situation along there has not done the club any favours and it is almost as if they are trying to finish all the old clubs off..Cotterells is the only street in Hemel which has parking restrictions and permits from 8am to 10pm 7 days a week and no matter how may meetings with councillors and the local MP we have had they all came to nothing...even although some of the yellows were to be burned off by Nov 2010 to allow a few more spaces all that happened was they were repainted....It is a family club where you can take your children and they have live entertainment at weekends and various other nights there are Pool , Darts, Snooker and Quiz teams and also Bingo on a Thursday night..We should be trying to save some of the history of what was originally working men's clubs not killing them ..
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