‘The Liberal echo chamber’ what Liberal politics gained and lost with Liberal clubs

In 1981 the Barton- on-Humber Liberal Club was reopened by Liberal MP Richard Wainwright, who asserted that ‘if it wasn’t for Clubs such as this, the whole Liberal movement would die, for they embody the momentum and spirit of the Party.’1 Wainwright had a long association with Liberal clubs, and his claim showed a mixture of experience, nostalgia and optimism, for the role of Liberal clubs in the history of British Liberalism is odern political clubs followed by Conservative and the story of a powerful emerged in the new Constitutional dining clubs around Mpolitical environment the country intended to recruit the and often neglected created by the Great Reform Acts newly represented to the Conserva- of 1832, 1867 and 1884. It was Rob- tive cause, with tickets ‘at such a contribution as well as ert Peel’s relaunch of the Tories price as would be within the reach as the Conservative Party in 1834 of the lowest individuals connected difficult and shifting which first prompted the establish- with the associations.’2 relations in more recent ment of social clubs to encourage Liberal politicians rallied their party support. This started with forces at the , which years. By Matt Cole. the Carlton in 1832, but was soon was founded in 1836 and which

6 Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 ‘The Liberal echo chamber’ what Liberal politics gained and lost with Liberal clubs

opened its Pall Mall buildings in base. Following the passage of the centres of the provinces, but were 1841. Conditions for membership Second in 1867 enfran- still limited in number and far too included support of the Reform chising most men in borough con- exclusive to draw in newly enfran- Act, and it became a meeting place stituencies, and Gladstone’s Secret chised voters and the wider activist for Whig peers and their successors. Ballot Act of 1872 which made a base of the National Liberal Fed- Lord Strabolgi remembered that, democratic discourse with these eration formed in 1877. Though a even at the party’s weakest point in voters even more essential, the few other, smaller clubs emerged the 1950s, ‘we used to have a dinner great Liberal or Reform clubs of at the same time – Tydesley, Burs- every year for the Liberal Peers – a Manchester (1867), lem, Chester, Barrow, Bradford and sort of “thank you” I think – at the and Newcastle (both 1880), Leeds Ipswich all had clubs before 1882 Reform, a rather splendid dinner (1881) and the – it was in the wake of the Third starting with caviar.’3 The Reform (1882) were founded. Reform Act of 1884, widening the competed with Brooks’s in St These clubs enjoyed prestigious franchise in the counties, that the James’s, which had been established Liberal Party patronage, quickly real growth in provincial town in 1764 by twenty-seven leading attracted impressive memberships and village Liberal clubs began. Whig nobles and where Charles and established equally impressive By the end of the century, most James Fox had held court.4 These club buildings. The National Lib- districts had a cluster of clubs of two Liberal gentlemen’s eral Club, built between White- varying sizes, from the great din- clubs were joined in 1874 by the hall and its terraces on the Thames, ing clubs of the cities to the modest and the City Lib- boasted a membership of around village halls or terraced houses in eral Club, and six years later by the 3,500 even at the party’s nadir in small towns where liberal opinion . Though their expan- the 1950s. Asquith was the presi- was shared amongst new voters. sion reflected the increasing scope dent of Birmingham Liberal Club Some of these – such as at Crowle of party political activity amongst and its early officers included John near Scunthorpe, and Leaming- the public in the nineteenth cen- Bright and ; ton – were specifically titled ‘Lib- tury, these clubs remained open Gladstone laid the foundation eral working men’s clubs’. East only to the affluent, and limited to stone of the Manchester Reform had at least six, including London. In the new age of a mass Club’s King Street premises in the 600-strong Torquay and Cock- (albeit still restricted) electorate, 1871 and Churchill was amongst ington club; West Somerset had these were useful only as meeting its early members; and the Leeds eight, with 750 members at Bris- points for the political and social and County Liberal Club, the new tol Liberal Club, where John Mor- elite. building of which was opened by ley was president; Warwickshire, Sir James Kitson MP in 1890, had a which had none before the Second membership of 1,650. In the grand Reform Act, and the Lancashire The Victorian and Edwardian circumstances of these institutions, industrial town of Burnley (popu- periods: the high point of Liberals could hear leading party lation 95,000), had at least ten clubs Liberal clubs figures speak, discuss and develop each by 1900.5 It was with the development of ideas for local and national policy, These clubs performed vital representative democracy that Lib- and, equally importantly, raise functions for a campaigning party, eral clubs emerged alongside the funds to fight elections. both explicit and implicit: explic- National Liberal Federation as one These striking examples estab- Barnstaple and itly they were the venues for party of the mobilising forces for a vastly lished high-profile hubs of Lib- North Devon meetings ranging from speeches increased electorate and activist eralism in the growing industrial Liberal Club by visiting party leaders to regular

Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 7 ‘The Liberal echo chamber’: what Liberal politics gained and lost with Liberal clubs committee and general meetings on political and other subjects’ and Liberal Clubs we are most grateful of the local association or Young ‘the rendering of voluntary aid to and we appreciate the loyalty and Liberal socials: Newcastle-upon- Liberal candidates at parliamentary, help of all Club members.’ In the Tyne Liberal Club’s Memorandum municipal and other elections.’ In Federation’s Golden Jubilee book- of Association stated its objects as one year alone of its first decade let of 1953, a full-page advertise- ‘the promotion of the cause of Lib- the club welcomed Campbell-Ban- ment by the and eralism’; ‘the delivery of lectures nerman, Lord Granville, Sir Wil- the Yorkshire Federation of Liberal liam Harcourt, Earl Kimberley, Clubs reflected this support.10 Lord Ripon and Earl Spencer. Later Just as important, however, guests included Lloyd George, was the unstated way in which the R. B. Haldane, Earl Carrington clubs embedded Liberalism in their and Lord Herschell. Smaller clubs communities. Voters who did not like Longridge (1887) and Gainsbor- see themselves as political activ- ough (1902) were opened by visiting ists could nonetheless acknowledge Liberal MPs. Especially at election their broad sympathies with- times many agents used the local out buying a membership card Liberal club as headquarters and or attending meetings – and they even recruited club staff – stewards could meet others who shared their and their families were often resi- sympathies and engage with elected dent, even at smaller clubs – to the representatives and party officers in campaign. the course of ostensibly non-politi- Clubs from Peckham to Lin- cal leisure activities. Most clubs had coln, from Rochdale to Kendal, a regular schedule of whist drives, were the regular meeting place of dances and facilities for billiards, Liberal associations, or provided snooker, dominoes or darts. Many funds to support local associations competed in local sports leagues: or federations. It was to Manches- the tiny John O’Gaunt Liberal Club ter Reform Club that the Roch- in Lancaster ran teams in several dale Radical Association executive sports in the 1920s; Greets Liberal invited Ludovic Kennedy to assess Club was delighted to win the West his fitness to be the Liberal candi- Bromwich Division One Snooker date for the by-election of 1958; the trophy in 1947; Saffron Waldon presidency of Lancaster Reform Liberals ran their own tennis club, Club was, during 1947–49, in the and Winsford Liberal Club won hands of Harold Rogerson – as sole the Manchester Evening News bowl- (and then leading) liberal council- ing cup; and as late as 1977 Hud- lor, parliamentary candidate and dersfield Liberal Clubs Winter rebuilder of the local party in the Games League arranged fixtures post-war years, he used the club as for over thirty teams at each of an organising base, and it contin- snooker, dominoes and All Fours. ued to donate to party funds until Other clubs offered coach outings 1998.6 Egan points out how Dundee to the seaside or the country, or Liberal Association was ‘peculiarly elaborate artistic entertainments reliant’ upon its Liberal club for such as Lewisham Liberal Club’s fundraising,7 and Blondel showed 1902 ‘Bohemian Evening’ featur- that significant elements of Read- ing twenty-four items including ing Liberals’ income had been gen- soloists, duettists and groups offer- erated by the Reading and County ing songs, instrumental perfor- Liberal Club in the decade after the mances, dance, recitation and two Second World War.8 comedians. The value of this support was It is easy to forget in the age of recognised by Liberal officials, home entertainment and central especially as the party’s fortunes heating how integral collective plummeted. In 1954, the organis- voluntary organisations were to ing secretary of the West Midlands the social life of all classes, and how Federation asked his opposite num- useful they could be in maintaining ber at Bedworth Liberal Club in the bond now sadly lost between Nuneaton ‘to give all your mem- politicians, activists and the wider bers my best wishes to them for electorate. Colley Lane Liberal 1954, and thank them for the co- Club in Cradley Heath went fur- operation we have always received ther and ran a sickness insurance from them.’9 The Yorkshire Lib- scheme in the days before Lloyd eral Federation reiterated in annual George’s reforms. reports of the 1940s and 1950s that Liberal MP Richard Wain- ‘for the continued support of the wright was a member of Leeds Liberal Clubs and the Federation of Liberal Club from the 1930s, and

8 Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 ‘The Liberal echo chamber’: what Liberal politics gained and lost with Liberal clubs used links with the dozen clubs clubs provided a redoubt for sup- in his constituency of Colne Val- porters and a physical reminder ley to great effect from the 1950s of the Liberals’ glory days. Most onwards. He advised his constitu- of the experience of the twentieth ency organiser in the run-up to the century, however, was to be one 1970 election that rather than try- of decline in the fortunes, of the ing to recruit unwilling patrons of clubs and the party, and of their Liberal clubs to the party, ‘it is more relationship. a question of talking to them, hear- ing from them what is being said locally, and sorting out who can be 1918 onwards: drift and relied upon.’11 decline Though he lost the 1970 elec- The interwar years and especially tion, Wainwright later remem- the period after 1945 saw first a dis- bered that ‘immediately after the tancing in the relationship between defeat, it was agreed (and carried the party and many of the Liberal out) that the Officers visit each Lib- clubs and subsequently the financial eral Club in turn, fraternising and collapse of most of the clubs. running a full-scale monthly public In the 1920s and 1930s the draw with a very wide sale of tick- great clubs of the cities shrank and ets. That certainly helped morale.’12 drifted from the Liberal Party, itself Wainwright regained his seat at the fragmented by repeated internal next election, and at subsequent conflict: the clubs at Manchester elections local Liberal clubs pro- and Newcastle-upon-Tyne aban- vided up to a third of his campaign doned political conditions for costs. He regularly toured the clubs membership; the Bristol Liberal in his constituency on Friday eve- Club’s political committee did not nings, and the political secretary meet after 1929; and in the 1920s of the largest of them watched him Leeds Liberal Club began to rent at work: ‘I could take him to Gol- out space as offices. The number car Liberal Club, and he knew most of temporary members joining people; and he didn’t just stand Birmingham Liberal Club annu- at the bar talking to his own col- ally fell from 78 in 1918 to single leagues. He spoke to everybody in figures in the 1930s;16 at Newcastle the Club – he went out of his way the same figure went from nearly in some cases to talk to people, 700 to barely 100 between 1926 and and they liked that. Since then I’ve 1939. Few, if any, new clubs were found politicians – local as well as founded after 1918, and the smaller Above: Burslem to keep quiet about his apparent national – stand in the corner.’13 clubs also experienced difficulties Liberal Club, with duplicity. If it had got back to his The high point of these devel- maintaining their political iden- detail of gable employers he would certainly opments was the formation of the tity. Though with many it was not have lost his job.17 National Union of Liberal Clubs in so well documented as with their Left: 1913. The NULC linked the hun- more prestigious counterparts until Blackpool Liberal From the earliest stages of the post- dreds of clubs in the country to later, there is clear anecdotal evi- Club, 1897 war period, Party officials were each other, and to the Liberal Party dence of it in the inter-war period. ‘Bohemian expressing their disquiet that clubs nationally because it had guaran- A relative of one official at Port Concert’ at the were no longer fulfilling the use- teed representation on the Liberal Talbot Liberal Club, for instance, Lewisham and ful functions expected of them: in Party Council. Its rules confirmed remembers that: Lee Liberal Club, 1945, a meeting of the London Lib- that their objective and that of their 1902 eral Party Executive agreed that ‘all affiliated clubs was ‘to carry on, The local employer was a Lib- possible information be obtained both amongst its members and the eral, so unless you also professed regarding the status of ‘Liberal general public, propaganda in sup- to be a Liberal you had no access clubs’ in and around London. ‘The port of the Liberal Party.’14 to jobs either in the Docks or Battersea Liberal Association Club In October 1956 – the month Tin Works. Consequently the … and the Ilford Liberal Club … before Jo Grimond took over as Labour-voting constituents of appeared to be typical cases of party leader – the diary column Sandfields joined the Liberal Clubs being Liberal in name only, of Liberal News shows that Liberal Club. As a committee member being actually social clubs run for clubs and Halls hosted party meet- Dai was called on as a repre- profit. The Secretary will con- ings, lectures, socials and dances sentative at certain Liberal party duct investigations and report to everywhere from Hyde to Her- venues and was once quizzed the Committee and to the LPO.’18 eford and Yeadon to Yeovil as well by a newspaper reporter who Similar concerns were raised by as Oxford, Blandford, Torquay, had seen him at the equivalent the Western Counties Federation Tavistock, Chippenham, Poole and Labour party venue only the Executive in 1947: a resolution was Sidmouth – and of course at the previous week. Ever the fast passed appointing a small commit- National Liberal Club in London.15 talker, Dai manufactured some tee ‘to investigate and report on At the party’s lowest point, Liberal tale and persuaded the reporter all Liberal Clubs in its area and to

Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 9 ‘The Liberal echo chamber’: what Liberal politics gained and lost with Liberal clubs

From top: County Liberal Association expressed concern that Soham Lib- Colley Lane eral Hall ‘should not be lost to the Liberal Club, Liberal Party’, and asked their sec- Cradley Heath, retary to secure the deeds for the about 1906. property.23 The members A deteriorating relationship pictured between the clubs and the party include a had been rightly identified. Even warehouseman, in areas of relatively strong contact a painter, a between the two, the evidence of butcher, a works increasing distance was unavoid- manager, two able. The West Midlands Federa- engineers and a tion kept a contact list of at least colliery engine- twenty-nine Liberal clubs in its minder, a twine area. However, this network was maker, a coal misleading in its scope: a fundrais- merchant, a ing raffle in 1952 secured a total sum schoolteacher, approaching £10 from seven of the two blacksmiths addresses on the list (in cases like and four the Woodside Liberal Club ‘after a chainmakers struggle’); but most returned all the tickets to Federation Headquarters. Castleford Some excused themselves as hav- Liberal Working ing already sought contributions Men’s Club from their members for the Liberal Billiard team in Fighting Fund or their own benev- the 1920s olent funds; others claimed to have lost the tickets. Some, like Foleshill Eastleigh Liberal Liberal Club in Coventry, were Club charabanc more frank: ‘Regret we have been outing, 1926 unable to sell any. I am very much afraid that this sort of raffle does not go down well here but we still wish you good luck.’ The clubs were allied to two movements in gradual but seem- ingly inexorable decline: men’s social clubs and the Liberal Party.24 Some therefore understandably sought to play down their relation- ship with at least one of those causes to preserve their membership. Wit- ness to this is borne by the mem- bership figures of the clubs, and by the controversies within them. The chairman of Blackheath Liberal Club in the West Midlands (motto ‘Unity is Strength’) resigned after he found his committee unwill- ing to expel a member who had expressed Labour sympathies in the bar and suggested the club’s window bearing the Liberal Party recommend what action should be future MP David Penhaligon name be removed. The West Mid- taken to encourage such Clubs to into the party, but by then meet- lands Federation was consulted give more support to the Liberal ings were held in private homes about both this incident and a sec- Party.’19 or hired rooms.20 In Scotland, the ond one, in 1953, along with Clem- Truro Liberal Club also closed Helensburgh and Gareloch Liberal ent Davies himself, in which the down following the Second World Club in West Dumbarton was sold Portobello Liberal Club in Willen- War – it had been the former meet- to the Red Cross Society in 1948,21 hall, Staffordshire had apparently ing place of the local association and the destination of the proceeds been sold privately to its secretary.25 where ‘your Liberalism was taken of the sale of clubs became a mat- This decline in numbers and for granted.’ It was also the meet- ter of legal contest in Newbury and party activity in clubs was part ing place of the Trewins, the cou- Leicester in the 1950s.22 In 1945 and of a national picture which saw ple who in 1964 were to welcome 1947 the Executive of Cambridge the National Union’s number

10 Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 ‘The Liberal echo chamber’: what Liberal politics gained and lost with Liberal clubs of affiliates almost halved from was a small and distorted sample: Clubs Committee and the National around 400 to just over 200 between they were by White’s admission Union of Liberal Clubs (still very 1945 and 1962.26 By 1981 the NULC all known to him, and thus from supportive of the party), and sug- could not summon 100 delegates that minority of club secretaries gested a conference of all club to its conference.27 The 1946 Lib- who valued close relations with the secretaries and LPO officers. But eral Party Reconstruction Report party.28 the writing was on the wall, and recommended the formation of a White proposed closer con- nowhere was this better illustrated special committee of enquiry into sultation with the LPO Liberal than in the demise of the most the position of Liberal clubs, which went on to become a standing committee of the party. The LPO Executive returned to the matter a decade later, and took stock of the situation in a report commissioned from a member of the Liberal Clubs Committee, B. S. White. White’s interim report was peppered with health warnings because ‘it is quite possible when further information is gathered conclusions might vary; because of the lack of confirmed information it is brief.’ The diffi- culty in gathering data was itself evidence of the awkwardness of the relationship between the clubs and the party; rather than focus upon this, however, White looked for short-term, individual fac- tors, and the optimistic prospects they implied for turning things around. He attributed the concur- rent decline in memberships of both clubs and associations to poor com- munication and to the fact that ‘the Liberal Party has not been able to give financial aid as other parties have to their clubs.’ White claimed that ‘difficulties have arisen chiefly between individuals on both sides more than general hostility. A great deal of this can be overcome in time by a personal approach of the right type of Federation Officer or representative.’ White pointed to the good work done by many Liberal clubs, espe- cially in the North, West Midlands and Devon & , and argued From top: that ‘if there had been no Liberal Clubs in some parts of the country Newcastle there would have been fewer can- Liberal Club, didates for both Local and General Barrack Road, Elections.’ He proposed a series of 1930 measures to a dozen club secretar- ies and chairmen: they approved Greets Green the ideas of joint membership and Liberal Club mutual publicity drives by clubs snooker team, and associations, and in Liberal winners of News; they were uncertain about West Bromwich party money-raising events at Lib- Division 1 trophy eral clubs or prize competitions (a 1947 Clement Davies Snooker Cup or Jo Grimond Bowls Cup were sug- Bloxwich Road gested); they even thought the North Liberal ambitious idea of opening new Lib- Club, Walsall, eral clubs worth discussing. Yet this around the 1950s

Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 11 ‘The Liberal echo chamber’: what Liberal politics gained and lost with Liberal clubs

From top: high-profile clubs in major popula- tion centres. In each case, declining Garstang Liberal membership was accompanied by Club diluting political identity, and ulti- mately closure. The Liberal Manchester Reform Club even- Working Men’s tually merged on its hundredth Club, Royal anniversary with the Engineers’ Leamington Spa Club to form the Manchester Club, which closed in 1987.29 Likewise in Yeovil Liberal 1967 the Bristol Liberal Club closed Club its doors after annual reports show- ing ‘concern over membership Greg Mulholland numbers’ and ‘many resignations’.30 MP celebrates Birmingham Liberal Club con- the centenary of tinued only in name, sharing the Yeadon Liberal address, and secretary, of the West Club with Liberal Midlands Liberal Federation until Democrat in 1957 its name finally disappeared councillors in from local trade directories.31 Leeds 2013 Liberal Club had only 178 mem- bers by 1941 and was abandoned in 194732 and the representatives of other Liberal clubs in Leeds com- plained in 1954 that they were made to feel unwelcome at the city’s fed- eration executive meetings.33 By 1955 Bradford Liberal Club was negotiating its merger with the local ;34 Holm- firth in Colne Valley closed in 1961, and Blackpool and Garstang in Lancashire held on until the 1970s and 1980s respectively. As recently as 2013 the Liberal club at Ches- ter closed its doors after 130 years. The Devonshire and Eighty clubs closed in the 1970s and of the long- est-established London clubs only the Reform and the National Lib- eral Club still survive – the former now reassuring visitors to its web- site that it is ‘no longer associated with any particular political party, and now serves a purely social function.’35 In 1959, a proposal to drop the word ‘Liberal’ from Newcas- tle-upon-Tyne Liberal Club pro- voked ‘a very animated discussion,’ in which some argued the name was deterring potential new members from joining, but others replied that the building itself ‘was well known throughout the country as the Liberal Club [and] was the home of Liberalism.’ The name was kept, and the membership kept fall- ing until a meeting of only thirty- nine members vacated the premises in 1962, formal AGMs (latterly of two members) being held at the County Hotel until 1970.36 When the Liberals merged with the SDP in 1988, official recogni- tion of the NULC by the party was

12 Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 ‘The Liberal echo chamber’: what Liberal politics gained and lost with Liberal clubs ended, and Liberal clubs lost the Liberals had been around for a Yorkshire Archive Service, Simpson, Secretary, National representation they had enjoyed century and more, that there Sheepscar, ref. LIB/P. Union of Liberal Clubs, 18 Aug. on national party committees. still were enough around to 11 Richard Wainwright to Maurice 2004. Some Liberal MPs like Rich- run a club, and that as long as Burgess, 22 Apr. 1970. 27 ‘Yes Liberal Clubs do matter’, ard Wainwright revived the the club was there, there still 12 Richard Wainwright to David Liberal News, 16 June 1981. The relationship to mutual advan- would be. Ridgway, 16 July 1987. website of the NULC (http:// tage locally, but usually only 13 Barry Fearnley, interview 31 www.interface-wizardry.co.uk/ temporarily or with a strong Matt Cole is a Teaching Fellow Oct. 2008. nulc/, accessed 11 May 2015) air of nostalgia: Nick Harvey’s at the University of Birmingham. 14 National Union of Liberal contains little evidence of recent campaign to defend his North The author would appreciate con- Clubs Ltd. Rules, 1935, p. 1, and activity and gives an impres- Devon seat in 2015 was based tact with any readers with further revised rules, 1965 and 1998. sion of the current state of clubs in the premises of Barnstaple information about Liberal clubs past 15 Liberal News, 5, 12, 19 and 26 Oct. which is further reduced from Liberal Club (where portraits or present. Please email m.r.cole@ 1956. the position in the 1980s. of Grimond, Thorpe and Glad- bham.ac.uk. 16 Birmingham Liberal Club Fort- 28 A copy of White’s interim report stone decorate the meeting nightly Members Book, Bir- is in West Midlands Liberal room), and in 2013 a Commons 1 Lincolnshire and Humberside Times, mingham City Archives, MS Federation papers, op.cit. Four Early Day Motion was spon- 31 Oct. 1981. 810. years later a similar report was sored by six Liberal Democrat 2 Manchester Operative Conserva- 17 Pam Walsh, http://trees. prepared by D. Fletcher Bur- MPs celebrating the cente- tive Association: Proceedings of the ancestry.co.uk/tree/21181252/ den, secretary of the NULC, for nary of Yeadon Liberal Club.37 First Anniversary Meeting, Mon- person/1067859960/ Richard Wainwright, reaching In 1976 Paddy Ashdown was day August 24th 1835 (pamphlet photox/314841ac-d88b-417e- similar conclusions (Wainwright selected as Liberal candidate for reprinted from the Manchester 9c5f-478e8c6b9fd0?src=search papers, LSE, file 8/2). Yeovil at Crewekerne Liberal Courier by T. Sowler, Manches- (accessed 5 Jan. 2015). 29 Manchester Reform Club Hall and in 1982 his refurbished ter, 1835) 18 London Liberal Party Executive records, John Rylands Library, offices were opened by David 3 Lord Strabolgi, interview 19 minutes, 20 Dec. 1945, Metro- Manchester ref. MRC, Admin- Steel at Yeovil Liberal Club Aug. 2003. politan Archives, ACC/1446/4. istrative History. ‘which had become little more 4 See C. Sebag-Montefiore and J. 19 Western Counties Liberal Fed- 30 Bristol Liberal Club records, than a working men’s club’;38 Mordaunt Crook (eds.), Brooks’s, eration Executive minutes, 12 Bristol Record Office ref. 36202/ yet today the club at Yeovil 1764–2014: The Story of a Whig July 1947, University of Bris- A/1–3. See also Western Coun- echoes the Reform’s insistence Club (Paul Holberton Publish- tol Special Collections, GB003 ties Liberal Federation Executive that ‘we are not affiliated to any ing, 2013). DM1172. minutes op. cit., passim, and political party!’39 5 The details of club numbers are 20 A. Penhaligon, Penhaligon Bristol East, Bristol South and B. S. White remarked that drawn from local trade direc- (Bloomsbury, 1990) p. 12. Bristol South East Liberal Asso- ‘politics being very much a tories such as Kelly’s and local 21 Helensburgh and Gareloch ciations minute books 1946–71 social thing, if other parties press references; there is also Liberal Association papers, passim., University of Bristol have clubs in an area where some useful reference to the role National Library of Scotland, Special Collections GN 0003 there are no Liberal Clubs, they of Liberal clubs in Lancashire acc. 11765/38. DM668 & DM1172. have an advantage.’40 This was and Yorkshire in P. Wrigley and 22 Egan op.cit. p. 68. 31 See Kelly’s Directory of Bir- unfortunately as important J. Reynolds, ‘Liberal Roots’, 23 Cambridge County Liberal mingham, 1957. about the past as it was irrel- Journal of Liberal History, 80, and Association Executive min- 32 J. Newiss and K. Grady, ‘Leeds evant about the future. How- J. Reynolds, ‘The Strange Sur- utes, 24 Nov. 1945, 17 May 1947 and County Liberal Club: His- ever, to the extent that they vival of Liberal Lancashire’, and AGM 15 Mar. 1958, Cam- torical Notes’, Leeds Civic Trust cooperated with the party, Journal of Liberal History, 85. bridgeshire Record Office, leaflet, July 2004. Liberal clubs lent it not merely 6 Information from George How- R93/73. 33 Egan op cit., p. 68. material resources, but a sense son, interview 27 Mar. 2004, and 24 A measure of the decline in 34 Bradford Club papers, West of its historical existence, John Wilson, Treasurer, Lancas- working men’s clubs more gen- Yorkshire Archive Service, links with long-standing Lib- ter Reform Club, interview 9 erally is that even since the Bradford ref. 50D86. eral values, and a belief in the Aug. 2004. 1970s the Clubs and Institutes 35 http://www.reformclub.com/ intangible property referred to 7 M. Egan, ‘Grassroots Organisa- Union, to which most work- (accessed 11 Jan. 2015). by the Blackheath Club chair- tion of the Liberal Party, 1945- ing men’s clubs belong, has lost 36 Newcastle upon Tyne Liberal man so exercised by his dissi- 64’ (PhD, Oxford 2000) p. 68. half of its 4,000 member clubs Club records, Tyne & Wear dent member as ‘a really Liberal 8 Blondel, ‘The Political Structure (see BBC News, ‘Brewers call Archive Service ref. 200. atmosphere’. In 2015 the Liberal of Reading’, unpublished thesis, time on Barrow working men’s 37 EDM 246, tabled 13 June 2013 by Democrat campaign organiser Oxford 1955, p. 216, quoted by club’, accessed 11 May 2015). Greg Mulholland MP. in Barnstaple could still rec- Egan op.cit., p. 68. The CIU’s enthusiasts’ website, 38 P. Ashdown, A Fortunate Life ognise the value of the Liberal 9 Newton Hyde to Bedworth Lib- http://www.clubhistorians. (Aurum Press, 2009), pp. 176 and club as an ‘echo chamber’ in eral Club, 4 Jan. 1954, West Mid- co.uk/ (accessed 11 May 2015), 200. which Liberals were reassured lands Liberal Federation papers, does not give detailed figures, 39 http://www.libclub.co.uk/ by their shared opinions with Cadbury Research Library, but regrets the necessity for its (accessed 11 Jan. 2015). fellow members.41 The psycho- University of Birmingham, ‘Obituary’ page marking the 40 See report by B.S. White (1956), logical effect of this is not to be WMLF/25. regular closure of clubs. West Midlands Liberal Federa- underestimated, and it proved 10 See for example Yorkshire Lib- 25 West Midlands Liberal Federa- tion papers, op.cit. especially valuable to the party eral Federation Annual Report tion papers, University of Bir- 41 Alice Bridges-Westcott, inter- at its weakest moments in the 1950; this and the Golden Jubilee mingham Special Collections, view 8 Apr. 2015. 1950s. The clubs reminded Lib- booklet are in Yorkshire Lib- ref. MSS 11/i, Box 25. erals and their opponents that eral Federation papers, West 26 Information from Bernard

Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 13