1 in 4 South Yorkshire working men's clubs fall victim to changing times

Ken Green, secretary of the South Yorkshire branch of the Club & Institute Union, said in 2005 there were 115 clubs in Sheffield, Barnsley and Rotherham, which has dwindled to 87.

Among those to be lost in Sheffield in the past two years are Handsworth, Woodhouse Mill, Ecclesfield, Bellhouse in Shiregreen and Darnall Liberal WMC.Mr Green said it was part of a wider pattern across the country, with the number of working men’s clubs falling from around 4,000 in their 1970s heyday to about 1,500 today.

“The main reason is changing social attitudes,” he said.

“People are spending £100 a month on Sky, they are not going out to be entertained because they can’t afford it.”

Mr Green said he believed clubs will survive but more will still close in the near future.

“I strongly believe the well-run clubs will not closed, they will still be here forever.

But the closures will hit a plateau and I don’t think we have reached that yet.”He said that as well as falling footfall, clubs are also having to deal with the increasing cost of alcohol and rising prices to book comedians and bands.

Mr Green, secretary of the Darfield Road club in Cudworth, Barnsley, said his club recently hired a band for £500 and had taking on the evening of £1,700 – but needed to make £2,500 to make putting on the show worthwhile. Mr Green said entertainers such as comedian Bobby Knutt and opera singer Russell Watson learnt their trade by playing in clubs but fewer performers are now willing to do this. All the top acts used to do their apprenticeships and come through working men’s clubs.

“I have been 41 years in my club. We didn’t need to look after the money in the past, the money looked after itself.

Mr Green said it was important the tradition of working men’s clubs are maintained.

“We are unique in the world. Nowhere else in the world has clubs like we have clubs.

“I’m 65 in August. My 18th birthday present was club membership from my dad. That is how it used to go Nowadays you are finding people are either renting houses or buying property they can’t afford. They can’t afford to spend on leisure.

“Social interaction doesn’t register like it used to.If someone could come up with the answer, they would be millionaires.”

Maurice Champeau, the bar and events manager at Crookes Social Club on Mulehouse Road, Sheffield, said the club has had to make tough decisions to survive after being ‘virtually bankrupt’ just two-and-a-half years ago.Despite recently being used as one of the locations for ITV1 comedy-drama Brief Encounters, the club is still having to be stringent in balancing its books – making decisions such as hiring rooms out to public for weekend functions rather than just being dedicated to members.

Mr Champeau said: “If we weren’t more hard-nosed about the choices we’re making, it will close, because like anything it has to earn its money and pay its own way.

“We’ve had to make changes because of that and we have lost members because of the changes that we’ve made. “

“The fact that not every Saturday night is dedicated to the members in the concert room, but that we do have functions in there that takes that room away from them on a Saturday night has lost us members as a result of doing that.

“But it was a commercial decision that we’re going to earn more from losing those few customers and actually be generating some income from that room.”

Maurice said the club still has a promising future but has faced a variety of challenges to survive to this point.