Welcome to Glossop Labour Club The only Labour Club in the High Peak constituency

The Founding of Glossop Labour Club - 1906

1906 was a very exciting time.  For the first time there was a group of Labour MPs in parliament. It was a time when socialists were very active in Glossop.  In particular the Independent Labour Party, or ILP as it was known, which was part of the Labour Party, was full of young and enthusiastic members.

A flavour of what it was like to be a socialist in Glossop and Hadfield in 1906, the year the ILP decided it should acquire premises in the town, can be gleaned from reports and letters in the Glossop Chronicle and the North Derbyshire Advertiser.

Time and time again the names of the people who signed the original tenancy agreement for the first premises, which we have framed on the wall in the Club, come up as chairs of public meetings, speakers and correspondents in the press.

January 2

The first event to be reported in the Glossop Chronicle for 1906 was on 2nd January.  This was the AGM of the trades council.  Reports of meetings of the trades council show that it was a very active body at this time.  There were 24 delegates representing 17 societies.   Abel Harrop, one of the signatories on the Club tenancy agreement was elected secretary and William or Billy Hollins as he was known, another founder member of the Club, was elected president.

At the next ordinary meeting of the trades council the following report, with a prophetic warning, appears in the Glossop Chronicle:

"The chairman made a brief reference to the General Election.  He stated that the outlook for labour was much brighter than when they met a month ago.  As a result of the election there would be a Labour Party in the house of Commons, separate and distinct from all other parties, and they could depend upon it that more serious attention would be given to labour questions in the future than in the past. 

"The formation of such a party had not been an easy task and now that the workers were represented by men of their own class they should take the deepest possible interest in the work of the new party.  Efforts would be made to capture the workers party and to create internal dissention but he believed that this new force in British politics would continue to grow in strength.  Now that the trade unionists had a party of their own it was of paramount importance that they should become possessed of their own daily newspapers. Until that was done it was their duty to support those papers which gave prominence to the claims and aspirations of labour."

The next meeting in January was the Glossop Co-operative Society quarterly meeting.  The co-operative societies in 1906 were an important part of the labour movement and their activities were frequently reported in the local press. Abel Harrop was president of Hadfield Co-operative Society. In Glossop they had a library and huge galas were held in the summer in Hadfield and Glossop.  The secretary of the ILP in 1906, Joe Doyle, was later to edit the Wheatsheaf, the monthly co-op paper.

February 9

On February 9th under the heading 'Glossop and Hadfield ILP and the General Election', a correspondent wrote: 

"Between £14 and £15 have been contributed to the General Election Fund of the Independent Labour Party as a result of the efforts put forth by the members of the local branch, who with their comrades throughout the country have been delighted at the return of seven of the ten candidates run under the auspices of this political organisation.

"Two of that number, viz Mr Philip Snowden MP and Mr J R Clynes MP are well known in this district, having frequently addressed meetings in Norfolk Square. . .The debating class held at Hadfield is doing good work, and has been the means of considerably augmenting the number of members of the branch.  Club premises are shortly to be opened in the centre of the town."

In March there was a lengthy correspondence in the North Derbyshire Advertiser on the cessation of the Burnley weavers from the LRC (or Labour Party as it was now becoming known).  One of the correspondents was a B Whitehead who was another signatory on the Labour Club tenancy agreement.

Also in the Advertiser in March was the following report:

"On Sunday evening last, the Glossop section of the ILP opened a Labour Church at Cluskey's rooms, Ellison street.  There was an attendence of about 100.  Mr William Pott [another signatory on the Club tenancy agreement] presided and was supported by Mr Wm Hollins (President of the Glossop and Disrict Trades Council) [also a signatory and known as Billy] Mr Tom Newton [another signatory] and Mr S Robinson secretary of the Manchester Central ILP. . . . Educational speeches on ethical and political subjects were delivered during the evening and hymns from the Labour church hymn book were sung.  It was decided to continue the meetings at Cluskey's rooms until the arrival of summer weather, when open-air services will be held.  Speakers have been engaged for every Sunday evening for the next three months."

Yet another report headed Religious Aspect of Socialsm states:

"Mr J D Doyle, secretary of the Glossop and Hadfield ILP, presided at a meeting held under the auspices of that party at the Free Church on Tuesday evening last."  [Joe Doyle must have been a very young man at this time because Gladys, Tom and Reg all remember him coming in the Labour Club in the 1950s.]  It goes on to say that W. E. Moll, the speaker, contended that the social side of Christ's gospel had long been neglected and no attempt made to establish God's kingdom on earth.  Socialists sought to create an industrial commonwealth, to harmonise the many conflicting interests of life, and to establish a well ordered system of society out of the present chaotic disarrangement.

At another event in March Mr John French [possibly related to the two French women, Florence and Sara French, who are signatories on the Club tenancy agreement] chaired a meeting on 'The unemployed and the Social  Problem'. 

Jack French is referred to in Richard Stone's book as being associated with the SDF - The Social Democratic Federation - another socialist organisation at this time.  He was also a Clarion activist - there was a socialist Clarion choir which used to meet in Hadfield and a Clarion Cycling Club. 

Richard Stone states in his book that signatories on the tenancy document are from the ILP and the SDF.

March 30

Then on March 30th the Advertiser carried the following advertisement:

"Glossop and Hadfield ILP.  A meeting will be held in Clusky's Assembly Rooms, Sunday evening, April 1st.  Chair taken at 6.30 by Mrs French [probably Florence or Sarah, both of whom were founder members of the Club].  Speaker, Miss Adela Pankhurst, subject 'Women's Work for Socialism'.  Recitals during the evening."

A couple of weeks later the following report appears in the Glossop Chronicle about another event concerning women: 

"An interesting lecture was delivered under the auspices of the ILP on Sunday last and was presided over by Mr W. F. Hollins, president of the local Trades Council [and a founder member of the Club].  Mrs Mitchell dealt very ably in the course of her address with the horrors dished up in the daily halfpenny press.  To any even superficial observer, the appalling tragedy of human life, which was to be found in the reports of every daily newspaper must be sufficient conviction that something was radically wrong with the present state of society. . .

"Women had suffered and were suffering from the ravages of unscrupulous men and so long as they were unrepresented in Parliament, just so long would they be refused representative legislation.  Mrs Mitchell wound up an eloquent address by appealing to all the women present to join the ILP which so warmly advocated the cause of the women."

The next ILP meeting to be reported in the press is interesting in that the speaker is a Councillor Doyle of Hayfield.  This is probably the father of the young Joe Doyle, secretary of the ILP in 1906, who came from Hayfield originally, and went on to become a leading Labour politician in Glossop during the twenties and thirties.  He became a freeman of the borough in 1957.  By all accounts a great character and very much respected by everyone who knew him.

May 4

However, to get back to 1906, on 4th May there is a report of a meeting on the subject "what the Labour Party want".  The speaker, who was from Duckinfield, said it must be gratifying to them to have such good meetings and hoped their out-door gatherings during the summer months would be equally successful.

On the 11th May the following advert appears in the Advertiser: 

"Sunday next, speaker, Charles H Spencer of Partington.  Subjects - Station Road Hadfield at 3.30 "How to be Discontented".  Norfolk Square at 6.30 "The Rise of the Labour Party".

June 1

On 1st June there is another big advert: 

"Glossop and Hadfield ILP. [and in big letters] SOCIALISM!  SOCIALISM!  Lectures on the above will be delivered on Sunday next at Station Road, Hadfield at 2.30 and Norfolk Square at 6.30 by Herbert Dean of Manchester."

However, it was obviously thought that these meetings were not enough to get the message across and a couple of weeks later an even bigger event is advertised: 

"Glossop and Hadfield ILP.  Four Days  SOCIALIST AND LABOUR MISSION."

On 22nd June a report of the four day event appears in the Glossop Chronicle:  

"A series of meetings under the auspices of the Glossop and Hadfield ILP were commenced on Saturday evening last on Norfolk Square.  The chair was occupied by Mr Abel Harrop [a founder member of the Club] and there was a large and attentive audience.  The speaker for the evening was Mr Victor Grayson, a brilliant young orator from the Victoria University, Manchester, who it is expected will shortly contest the Colne Valley Division in the Labour and Socialist interest.  His subject was 'The Dawn of Revolution.'

"Sunday's Proceedings.  Mr Frank Lawler spoke at Hadfield in the afternoon and in the evening addressed several hundreds of people in the Norfolk Square.  He insisted upon the necessity of Labour being adequately represented in parliament if the workers were to get the legislation which they desired. .

"Monday.  A large audience again assembled on Monday evening to hear an address by Mr Russell Williams who at the outset referred to his Parliamentary candidature for Huddersfield. . .

"Tuesday:  'Has the church been faithful to Christ?'  Mr Russell Williams spoke on the above subject on Tuesday evening.  He said that by the church he referred to all denominations . . . The lecture which lasted about an hour was delivered with great earnestness and considerable elocutionary ability, and made a profound impression upon the audience.  It was a fitting termination to a mission attended by such gratifying numbers.  Hundreds of pamphlets were disposed of to the large audiences which nightly assembled and the collections taken amply demonstrated the sympathy and appreciation of those attending.  Speakers have been booked for several months ahead including Mr J Ramsey McDonald MP, the Labour Whip in the House of Commons."

[Also mentioned in the advert for the event were the Salford Clarion Vocal Union who were to open with the socialist hymn Hark 'tis a new song ringing and were to render further selections during the evening.]

As if all this wasn't enough, a week later another advert appears in the Advertiser:

"Glossop and Hadfield ILP, Sunday next, 2.30 Hadfield and 7 pm Norfolk Square, Speaker W. H. Peck, Subjects 'Socialism, what it is and what it is not' and 'Some Objections to Socialism Answered'.  Saturday, June 23rd Ramble to Hayfield.  Walking Party start 3 o'clock, Town Hall, Conveyances at 3.30.  Members note - Special Branch Meeting at Weavers' Rooms, Sunday June 24th at 10.30 sharp.  Business . . .  Consideration of New Premises."

The next issue of the Advertiser carries the following advert: 

"Glossop and Hadfield ILP, Sunday next, 2.30 Hadfield and 7pm Norfolk Square.  Speaker Adela Pankhurst the famous exponent of Women's Suffrage.     Saturday Next, June 30th.  Meeting of the L. and C. Socialist Sunday School Union at Hayfield.  Glossop comrades start Town Hall 2 pm [presumably to walk to Hayfield].   Members Note:  Branch Meeting, Sunday Morning 10.30 sharp.  Business very important.  J. D. Doyle, Secretary."

In addition to all this activity there were regular letters to the press. 

One of the founder members of the Club, Florence French, aged 25 and a cotton twister, wrote a number of letters on the subject of women's suffrage which drew some irate responses, for example:  "If it is any satisfaction to the egregious non-voter, Florence French to know it,  I have been an elector for the last 13 years.  My mother is much too sensible and domesticated, too sincere a believer in public decorum, to want to go to the public booth.  But it is not such sound women as that who form an argument in themselves against female suffrage;  it is rude and irrelevant men-haters of the Florence French description, happily a contemptible minority.  Arch. G."

Meanwhile Billy Hollins and Abel Harrop were busy in the trades council. 
The following report appears in the Advertiser for 15th June: 

"Trade Unionists and Propaganda work.   The question of the council holding mass meetings and issuing literature, to enable the smaller unions to indulge in more effective propaganda work with a view to inducing the hundreds who are at present outside their respective unions to join the same, has been under consideration for some time.  Without doubt Glossop and District is one of the worst parts of the country so far as the number of non unionists is concerned. 

"There is a considerable number of persons who seem to think that they are extremely clever in being able to reap the benefits that their fellow workers pay for without themselves paying their share towards the cost of gaining those benefits.  What sort of minds these people must have it is hard to understand, but to say the least, they are undoubtedly selfish in the extreme. 

"However, the council have decided that they will, to the best of their ability, do all they can to rescue Glossop from the slough of despond into which it has fallen.  Attempts are to be made to get one or more Labour MPs down to address meetings, after which an effective house to house canvass will be carried out by the unions."

July 6

In the Advertiser dated July 6th there is an advert for more outdoor
meetings in Hadfield and Glossop and also for a Socialist conference at Chapel-en-le-Frith at 3pm on Sunday.  Glossop contingent start Drovers Arms Charlestown at 1pm [presumably to walk to Chapel].

On 3rd August the following report appears in the Glossop Chronicle: 

"A good audience, comprising men, women and children attended a meeting, promoted by the Glossop and Hadfield ILP near the bottom gates at the Dinting Printworks on Monday evening.  This is the first Socialist meeting which the party have held at Brookfield.  Mr William Pott [another signatory on the Club Tenancy Agreement] of Hadfield presided and the speaker was Mrs Bames of Stockport who descanted for about fifty-five minutes on 'Why I am a Socialist' . . .a number of questions were asked at the close."

On 10th August an outdoor public meeting was advertised at Shaw Lane, end of Brookfield on 'The Work of the Labour Party' and in the same advert - An Extraordinary General Meeting of the Party will be held.  Business: To consider the report of Building Committee.  Every member should attend.  Furnishing Committee at 7.30.  [This is presumably regarding the new premises.]

As if Glossop and Hadfield ILP didn't have enough to do locally the following report appears in the Chronicle on 10th August: 

"The Glossop and Hadfield ILP continued their campaign at Hayfield on Saturday evening and conducted a largely attended meeting on the Dungeon Brow.  The whole of the space in front of the ancient building - the Dungeon - was occupied and also the road, somewhere like about 800 people being present.  Mr William Potts of Hadfield [one of the founders of the Labour Club] was again in the chair.
 
"The attraction perhaps centred in the speaker, Miss Adela Pankhurst, the well known advocate of women's suffrage.  The chairman said the Glossop and Hadfield ILP had come . . . to convert Hayfield to socialism.  The meeting was rather noisy, but the interruptions, which came from well known local people, were usually of a good humoured nature."

On 17th August there is the following report: 

"Active propaganda work in furtherance of the trade union movement was the object of a couple of open air demonstrations held respectively at Glossop and Hadfield last weekend, the demonstrations having been promoted by the Glossop, Hadfield and District Trades Council."

More public meetings took place throughout August, then on 14th September a large advert for the last open air meeting of the season and "Look out for the social and dance at ILP rooms, September 22nd.  An orchestra of 15 performers will be in attendance.  Tickets 6d each."

September 21

Finally, on 20th September 2006 the tenancy agreement was signed and on 21st there appears an advertisement for "A Grand Social and Dance to be held at the new ILP rooms in George Street.  Songs, Duetts etc will be rendered by efficient artistes and the Hyde and Ashton Clarion Orchestra will play for Dancing."

From then on all sorts of activities take place in the new premises.  There are regular meetings, Sunday evening lectures, regular dances, a reading circle on Sunday afternoons (the ILP had its own library), a Grand Benefit Concert in aid of the widow and family of the late Mr Preston, a recitation of Dickens's Christmas Carol, an organisation committee for High Peak ILP and in the evening a Fellowship Gathering for socialists from all parts of the division.

Finally, the last advert to appear in the press in 1906 is in the Advertiser on 21 December. It reads: 

"Glossop and Hadfield ILP. 
"On Saturday next Victoria Hall.  Great 'Votes for Women' demonstration.  Speakers Mrs Cobden Sanderson, Teresa Billington, Annie Kenney, Adela Pankhurst.  Chairman, Mrs. Pankhurst.  Doors open at 6.30 pm. Admission free, front seats 3d.
"On Sunday, ILP Hall, 6.30 sharp, M Carlsson a Russian peasant, will lecture on 'Russian Prisons and Prisoners as I Knew them.'  Soloist Mr Harold McMinn. 
"On Christmas Eve a Grand Social and Dance will be held in the ILP Hall from 7.30 to 12pm.  Admission 6d each.  All the latest dance music will be played by efficient orchestra.  J.D. Doyle, sec."

So that was the year 1906 and the atmosphere in which the Labour Club was founded.

Obviously there were many other people involved than those whose names appear in the press or on the tenancy agreement.  One person we do know something about who signed the original tenancy agreement, but whose name does not appear as a public speaker or chair of a meeting is John Woolliscroft. He was a joiner and very active in his union. 

In his book about John Woolliscroft Richard Stone says that he is remembered as a quiet, calm, gentle man of good disposition and persuasive manner, who was able to win many to the Socialist movement by reason and argument and an inspired vision of the future. He was closely identified with the Clarion newspaper which he sold from a pitch in Glossop Arcade.  

John Wooliscroft is also remembered as an efficient organiser.  However, he preferred to keep a low profile.  Throughout his entire political career he often chose to remain in the background of activities he had played a significant part in organising. He lived in Hadfield but was noted for not using public transport.  He would walk over the tops for a drink in the Labour Club in the evening and then back the same way at 10.30.

One of the founder members of the Club who continued to play an important role both in the Club and the Labour Party until his death in 1937 was Abel Harrop.  He started out as a spinner at the Top Mill and as we have seen was an active trade unionist.  He was later chair of High Peak Labour Party and president of the Labour Club for many years.  At his 70th birthday shortly before he died he was described as one of nature's gentlemen and someone who had never sought popular favour at the expense of his principles and he always acted from the Socialist standpoint.

Though we only have little glimpses of these people who set up the Labour Club a hundred years ago it is clear from the little we know that they were a group of very committed socialists who also liked reading, dancing, rambling, cycling and singing and were probably great fun to know.

1906 – 1914

The Club's constitution, which has been amended over the years, dates from 1906.  One clause still states that "The committee shall provide means of amusement, opportunities for social intercourse, and also of political education by discussions and lectures and a reading room containing magazines, newspapers etc".

Fortunately the treasurer's accounts for the period 1908-1914 still survive and looking through these accounts an idea of the level and type of activity taking place in the Club can be gained.

On the social side there were dances, visiting choirs and hand bell ringers, "treat to children", potato pie suppers and operettas.  The Clarion Cycling Club is mentioned.  There was billiards and there were frequent socials.  Also mentioned is the Co-op Holidays Association. 

On a more serious note there are references to debating classes, speaking classes, speakers' fees, purchases of literature and hand bills and a propaganda box.  There are references to the National Labour Press and the purchase of copies of the Labour Leader, a paper of the time.  An entry in 1912 for underclothing  £5 6s 3½ is rather perplexing although one a few weeks earlier for a watch chain is possibly easier to explain.

1914 – 1920

Unfortunately there are no account books or minute books whatsoever for the years 1914-1920, covering the first world war, and this period, which would have had such a great impact on the lives of the predominantly young membership of the Labour Club, is largely unrecorded.

However, in his book about John Woolliscroft – a life-long member of the club – Richard Stone writes:

"The outbreak of the First World War had a devastating effect upon the labour and socialist movement nationally and locally.  Some activists followed the war effort, others became conscientious objectors. . . John Woolliscroft had a conscientious objection to the First World War and was summoned to appear before the local Military Tribunal in March 1916. . . [He] was eventually exempted from military service.

"During the First World War Glossop Clarion Cycling Club continued to operate although subject to internal division between pro and anti-war supporters.  Groups of clarion cyclists, however, continued to have weekly excursions alternating one week in Cheshire and one week in Lancashire.  Young cyclists such as Bill Leatherbarrow Junior would meet activists including Joe Austin [secretary of the Club in 1925] and Joe Blackburn and together they would cycle to places like Havelock to meet internees.  The experience proved a formative one for Bill Leatherbarrow Junior who became a lifelong objector to war."

Bill Leatherbarrow Junior was later to become a local councillor and was an active member of the Labour Club for many years.

From the few documents that survive from this time it appears that the end of 1919 or the beginning of 1920 was the time when the Labour Club moved into new premises in Railway Street.  A letter was sent from P Booth, the secretary of the ILP, to George Bradbury, secretary of Glossop National Labour Party with an inventory attached.  He writes:

"The acquisition by your Party of premises for Club and meeting purposes, and the fact that practically the whole of the members of the ILP are also members of the N.L.P. [National Labour Party] lead my party to the conclusion that the retention by us of our present Club premises would be somewhat redundant.  I am desired therefore to submit for your consideration the following offer, viz:-

The Glosssop branch of the ILP offer to your Party the whole of the Club furniture, goods and chattels as contained in the accompanying inventory and at present held by my Branch."

Among the many items listed in the inventory were:  forms or benches with iron legs and backrests, forms wood, whist tables, billiard table and appurtenance, an eight day time-piece, propaganda platforms, piano, mahogany collecting boxes and spittoons.

It would seem that one-off loans were loaned by individuals and there was also a commitment by individuals to pay so much per month.  The mortgage was for £925 and the premises were bought for £1,354 8s 8d.  Also, it appears that some property had been left to the Labour Club as the accounts, which start again in 1920 (in the same book as the accounts for 1908-1914), show an income from the rent from cottages and from the hiring out of St James' Hall. 

The premises in Railway Street were the old Liberal Club and were on the corner of Railway Street and Edward Street.  According the Gladys and Tom Shaw and Ann Bennett (who remember it from before the move to Chapel Street in 1946) there was a very large room on the upper floor with a bar. There is reference in the constitution to a reading room and elsewhere in the club records of a women’s room. At one time there were two snooker tables.  Gladys remembers a ramp which used to put her in mind of going on board ship.

1920-1940

The years immediately following the first world war were ones of militancy in Glossop as elsewhere but taken as a whole the period between the wars was one of particular hardship.  In Glossop Remembered Neville Sharpe writes:

"By 1921 the local newspaper held reports of large numbers of unemployed who had exhausted their Labour Exchange benefit marching to the guardians’ office in ranks of four . . . In 1931 Glossop had an unemployed rate of 57% and Hadfield 67% compared with a national figure of 19%."

Not surprisingly there was a decline in the population as people left the area and this probably had an impact on the Club.  The average age of club members and Labour Party activists had also increased and there were some deaths.

During the twenties and thirties a number of Club members were elected to the council.  Joe Doyle, who became an alderman (and was the only politician to be mentioned by name in the book Small Town Politics) was one and Billy Leatherbarrow, a stalwart of the Club, was another.  Abel Harrop, who was president of the Club and chairman of High Peak Divisional Labour Party stood on a number of occasions but did not get elected.  Speaking at his seventieth birthday celebration in 1938 "Mr Woolliscroft expressed regret that Mr Harrop had never been elected to the Town Council as he considered that he would have made a very good member."

One particularly active group within the Labour Club and Labour Party during this period was the Women's Section.  Fortunately the accounts of the women's section for the nineteen twenties and thirties survive and give us a good picture of the activities the women were involved in.  (At this time there does not appear to have been a separation in the Women's Section accounts between political and Club finances.)

There is no mention of any women candidates but they certainly did not confine themselves to social and housekeeping activities – although these do form a large proportion of the record.  Every month there are delegates' expenses to places such as New Mills and Hazel Grove.  There are expenses for delegates to the ILP conference and delegates to Trades Council and ward meetings, for the printing of hundreds of circulars, for the purchase and sale of Labour Women, payment to the propaganda council and affiliation to Glossop Trades and Labour Council.  There are speakers' expenses and in 1926, the year of the general strike, after which the miners were left to fight on alone, there is a miners' fund and parcel for miners' wives.  At the time of the Spanish Civil War there is a donation to the Spanish Fund.

Unfortunately the early minute books of the Labour Club Committee have not survived but according to Club tradition the rectangular wooden topped tables in the Club were made during the General Strike.  The Club also has a framed photograph which still hands on the wall of the Club, of the delegates to the 1924 ILP conference.  Presumably the Glossop delegate or delegates are among them.  

We do, however, have minutes from October 1935.  From the minutes it is clear that there was a full time steward and the Club was probably open seven nights a week and maybe during the day sometimes.  (A minute from 1938 states "Res. that the secretary inform the steward that the Club must be opened not later than 10 am and any deviation from this will be looked upon in a very serious light.")   Given the level of unemployment in the thirties the Club may have been a popular place to go during the day.

In the thirties the connection with the Labour Party was a close one.  A minute dated September 1938 states "membership 4/- per year and all members of the Glossop and Hadfield Labour Party be considered as members of the Club."

The Glossop Chronicle of November 1937 reports that Mr W. M. Halsall was adopted as prospective candidate for High Peak at the Labour Club after which "about a hundred attended the Labour party social held later at the Co-operative Café, High Street West and Mr Halsall spoke to an audience comprising mostly young people.  He made an appeal for young people to take an interest in politics and particularly the politics of the Labour party."  

However, despite this encouraging sign, the Labour Party in Glossop was not in good shape by the end of the thirties.  Richards Stone, in his book John Woolliscroft, cites internal divisions around the question of attitudes to war and conscientious objection but there was also probably disillusionment following Ramsey McDonald's betrayal, an aging membership and the disaffiliation from the Labour Party of the ILP, all of which might have contributed to the local party's decline.

However, Richard Stone writes:  "Even in the 1930s John Woolliscroft could still be found on a Friday evening carrying a wooden platform from Glossop Labour Club to the Market Ground to address large crowds,” while the High Peak Reporter reports that at an open air meeting held by Glossop Labour Party on the Market Ground Councillor Leatherbarrow  

"attacked the National Government's claim of having brought about general prosperity.  Could a country with 1,500,000 registered unemployed with thousands of starving old age pensioners, and with food prices rising faster and to a greater extent than wages, be prosperous, and whose full capacity for the production of wealth was not utilised, be sensibly considered prosperous? was his challenge.  A sort of prosperity did exist, but not for the workers.  The gamblers of the City, the wealthy investor and the profit-maker were the only ones to know it, and on their experience was based the Government’s ballyhoo.”

On March 6^th 1939 the Club and the local party lost their president and chairman with the death of Abel Harrop.  Less than a year earlier his seventieth birthday had been reported in the High Peak Reporter:

"Labour Party Stalwart Honoured at Glosssop.  One of the stalwarts of the Labour movement in Glossop and indeed in the High Peak, Mr Abel Harrop, was honoured at a gathering at the Glossop Labour Club, on Saturday, his 70^th birthday, when presentations were made to him in recognition of his half-century’s work for the movement . . . From the Labour Club Mr Harrop received a walking stick and an umbrella which were formally handed over by Mr Woolliscroft, who spoke of his associations in the early days with Mr Harrop.  Mention was made of the old Clarion Fellowship with which was coupled the name of Mr W. Potts [a signatory on the original tenancy agreement].  He recalled Mr Harrop’s days as a spinner at the “Top Mill”, as an insurance agent and, finally, as a civil servant. . . [Mr Halsall, the prospective candidate, said] we have got in our ranks many of Nature’s gentlemen, and that term can aptly describe our president, and I personally would not change him for all the dukes in Derbyshire (applause)."

1940 – 1960

In the early years of the war the Labour Party as a local branch ceased to function and it was not until 1942 that it was revived by a group of people, some of whom were new to the area.  One of these was Sam Burgess.  His daughter Ann Bennett recalls:  

"My father had been a Conservative, an active Conservative, in Glossop and then he had a long correspondence with Bill Halsall who was our candidate in 1945, and my father was convinced that he was wrong and that the Labour Party was right . . . so he went to see Joe Doyle and said to him 'I want to join the Labour Party in Glossop' and he said, 'Well you’re quite right to do so but there’s no party to join because it’s lapsed'."

Another of the newcomers was Sam Collins, an ex-Communist of Russian origin and very left wing.  Together with Billy Leatherbarrow and Mrs Lawton, who went on to become a much respected councillor and magistrate, they reformed the local Labour Party branch.

To begin with there was some antagonism towards the newly revived branch and there is an entry in the minutes which suggests that the Club committee may have initially refused to allow them to meet in the Club, then they charged them two shillings a meeting for the hire of a room.  Eventually relations improved partly due to the support of Gladys Shaw and Cathy Chatterton – stalwarts of the women's committee - for Sam Burgess when he stood in elections.

On 9^th July 1945 the minute book records that there was a special meeting, Alderman Doyle presiding: 

"Resolved that having heard the statement of the Secretary this meeting recommends a Special General Meeting to take steps to sell the present Labour Club Premises along with the offices and cottages." 

At the Special General Meeting it was: 

"Resolved that we apply to the Co-op for £450 mortgage on the White Lion."

On 30^th November 1946 the new Club premises in Chapel Street were officially opened.

The new premises were smaller than in Railway Street and smaller than they are today, before the toilet block, entrance hall and conservatory were built.  However they were still quite spacious.  There was room for table tennis and meeting rooms upstairs and a snooker table.

In the fifties and sixties, the Labour Party, the Women's Committee, various trade unions and the Trades Council all met in the Labour Club.  There was also a new facility which proved highly popular in the early days in Chapel Street and that was a bathroom.  For 4d a time you could have a bath by appointment.  Another bonus for the older members of the Club must have been that the bar was now on the ground floor (although the women still had to go upstairs to the toilet).

A Club tradition, which Gladys and Tom Shaw remember in the fifties, was the annual ‘football outing’.  This went back to the thirties and the trips Gladys and Tom remember involved three coaches and altogether ninety or a hundred people.  They would go to places such as Rhyl, Morecombe or Blackpool and sometimes stop at a Labour Club somewhere on the way back.  Tom explained how it was paid for:  "You had to go in the Club to pay your buster and you stopped and had a few drinks.  They’d draw out of a hat and everybody got the football team and it was the first one to go eleven . . . it used to pay sixpence a week and threepence went to the buster and threepence went to your outing – to the Club outing."

Dominoes was a very popular activity in the fifties, though as Tom recalls, it could lead to over-excitement at times.  "You see, what they used to do, they’d sort the dominoes out and they put one on one side and the four nearest to that played and [John Mitchell] couldn't get in.  He took his two dominoes with him and wizzed 'em over the houses – if he weren't playing, nobody were playing."

On Friday nights there was a card school, 'a solo school,' remembers Tom.  "Alderman Doyle, Sam Garlick [who was known as pitter patter because of his job at Freeman Hardy and Willis shoe shop] . . . Alderman Hague and Claude Woolley.  They were councillors in Hadfield."  Friday night was also the night that Labour Party subs were collected.  This was Gladys Shaw's job and she used to be known as Mrs Atlee at work because of it.

Needless to say elections were always a time of great activity in the Club.  Gladys remembers:  "Old Tommy Darwent, you know, he'd get that coke fire, it was a lovely glowing – when you'd been canvassing.  'Come on in, I'll get you an oxo.'  He’d make us an oxo when we’d been canvassing.  Tommy Darwent was steward for years.  He was a former baker at the Co-op and he got what they call baker's feet – the floors were hot."

Another activity Gladys remembers are the themed evenings – old English suppers and cowboy suppers.  She also remembers having a pianist and comedians and singers.

The Labour Party held regular public meetings in Glossop in the fifties and sixties and some well known names visited the club.  Tom Shaw remembers: 

"I sat on the hearth by the coal fire and I sat one side and Harold Wilson at the other.  I can remember him asking me what, you know, I wanted, you know from – I said, well, most of the people round here, they live in two up and two down houses, they've no bathrooms, they've no cars, no garages, you know.  I said that's what we want - accommodation and standard of living really, and I mean I remember Morris Webb was the food minister, he came and spoke in Manor Park, he'd only one leg, Morris, and he spoke in the park in support of the local elections . . . but on the Monday after he'd spoke in Glossop he cut the bacon ration, will you believe down half an ounce a week.  Can you imagine half an ounce of bacon? . . . [Mrs Lawton] she'd been a councillor and she lost her seat the following Thursday."

There were many more – Barbara Castle on more than one occasion, Fenner Brockway (whose nephew stood for High Peak), Dick Crossman and Bessie Bradock.  Tom Shaw remembers:

"We went to the Town Hall to Bessie Braddock's meeting and you couldn’t get in, and we went, well one or two of us, went down to the Club from the Town Hall because we just couldn't get in and there's this feller sat in the corner who I didn't know and we got talking round the bar and I said I'd like to have heard Bessie like, you know, because she was a real firebrand and this quiet feller in the corner said, 'I've heard too bloody much of her, she never shuts up' and it was her husband and he said, 'I've come in here to get away from her' and he poured out his life story to us and he was leader of Liverpool City Council in the nineteen thirties, forties.  He went to prison for left wing activities in the nineteen thirties . . . he was a real character."

From at least the early nineteen twenties – maybe earlier – through to the late nineteen sixties one of the most successful groups that met in the Club was the Women's Committee.  Gladys Shaw remembers the fifties and sixties:  

"We used to meet every Friday night.  It was more like a social meeting because I recall our mothers were there you know . . . I mean they always helped a lot at elections like, the ladies would do all the folding and stuffing and all that business you know . . . The Club's always been on a shoe string sort of thing but I mean for two years they did the bar free, never took any money and Joyce [Hoy and my sister] and myself, three of us, we did the cleaning for two years.  We had speakers and things like that . . . we used to raise money both for the Club and the Party. . . The ladies used to go for dinner somewhere.  We booked a coach, we used to pay so much a week you know, sixpence a week.  We used to run a lot of jumble sales, the ladies, and we used to have an annual proper sale you know and I remember one time we were onto the men 'You don’t do anything useful, you can blow these balloons up'.  They blew them all up and you couldn't open the door into the room, it was full of balloons, so we decided the men weren't worth bothering with. . . . at the ladies meeting we'd all have a sixpenny port."

Pat Eglin remembers the Women's Committee in the sixties: 

"I was on the Women's Committee and that was just fantastic, the Women's Committee.  There was all these amazing women, most of which should have gone to grammar school and got degrees and God knows what and they all worked for Lux Lux and we had this autumn fair every year.  I dreaded it because they’d just hand you out materials saying, 'Just bag it out Pat that's all you have to do, bag it out,' and of course they'd come back and they'd have peg bags and underwear and lace and they could do it like that and I think they did some in their break times as well you know and I can remember Freda Jones and me, they gave us this big piece of rosebud coloured quilted material and we made a bed jacket out of it.  We struggled with it and I bought it for my mother in law I was so ashamed of it. 

"And they would just, you know,  they had no conception,  but people can have no idea of the way working women worked.  These were highly intelligent women, they worked a full day's work every day . . . they worked their housework by doing things like doing one room a night, their houses were as spick and span as you'll ever see and then they would work for the Labour Party as well.  I mean the competence of those women, it used to make me ashamed to be honest, it really did.  All the money we made was supposed to go to the Party but quite often, I'm sure more than once it went to the Club because the Club was in some sort of crisis so that's where it went, but those Christmas fairs were just a nightmare. 

"There was Joyce Hoy . . . and she was again one of these really hard workers and she always looked like a mini Marilyn Munro . . . blonde hair . . . and there was a real power struggle between Kath Broadbent and Joy and foolishly I thought I could be the broker not realising that they were both enjoying it immensely, you know, and there was never going to be a chance of them agreeing on anything, and that was a real political eye opener to me."

In the sixties a group of young socialists met in the Club.  One of the leading members was Terry Revell, who later went on to become a councillor and secretary of the Club for many years.  Tom Shaw remembers how he first introduced him to the Labour Club:  

"He was an apprentice, Terry, at Ferro Statics.  I used to introduce all the apprentices because the AEU met there you see and they came to the union meeting.  We got a table tennis team going and everything with young lads in . . . Terry was the only one that put up for the council.  I remember him putting up first time . . . there was Tories and Liberals, they all had placards on their cars 'make it so-an-so again' and I said put on yours 'make it Revell a gain – not again' – and he did and he got in."

 So that is the history of the first sixty years of Glossop Labour Club – the centre of more than half a century of political and social activity in Glossop and Hadfield.

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