How Mr Green’s house became a club
THE former Dudley Conservative Club at the top of Castle Hill still stands today, though these days as a commercial meeting venue.
The impressive Georgian building was there long before the local Tories adopted it as their home, however, having been built in 1790. A programme from the Bugle collection, printed in 1934 for the fiftieth anniversary of their move into the venue, gives an insight into the early years of the club, as well as some photographs of it, inside and out.
History
An account of its history begins:
“The year 1884 found the Conservative cause in a none too healthy state, both in the country generally and in Dudley itself; it was felt, therefore, that steps should be taken to obtain a permanent home where the Party could make use of its talents to the best advantage.
“It was decided to hold a meeting at the Saracen’s
Head Hotel on Monday, February 25th of that year, to thoroughly discuss this important matter.
“After due enquiries, the Committee reported that the house occupied by Mr Abraham Green appeared to be most suitable for the purpose, and it was eventually secured, and has been the home of the Conservative Party ever since; it is situated in the Birmingham Road, just below the church of St Edmund, and stands in its own grounds.”
The first president was the Rt Hon Earl of Beauchamp, and among the many vice-presidents were the Marquis of Salisbury, Lord Randolph Churchill, the Earl of Dartmouth, Brooke Robinson, Alfred Hickman and Gilbert Claughton. All the building needed was repainting outside and in, before it was formally opened by the Earl of Beauchamp on October 14th. A celebratory dinner followed, though not in the new club, but at the Dudley Arms Hotel.
An account of the club written in 1926 describes a smoke room, a bar which featured photographs of all the club’s chairmen, secretaries and treasurers since its opening; a dining room, billiard room with two tables and a couple of Carpathian stags shot in Bohemia by the Earl of Dudley; a card room and committee room; a spacious hall and “excellent staircase with fine balustrade, at the head of which are two fine stained glass windows, the gift of Mr A.E. Duesbury.”
Parties
In the early days, garden parties were held in the grounds during the summer, and Ladies’ Nights in the winter, with a grand ball for the members each year.
Those members were of course the richest section of Dudley society, but they were keen to point out that back in 1886, with ‘distress in the Borough being acute’, they had distributed 80 quarts of soup and 80 loaves on two days a week to deserving cases, ‘irrespective of politics.’
It’s not likely that 80 helpings of soup would have gone very far among the working poor of a town the size of Dudley, but presumably the Earls, Lords and loaded business owners felt their consciences lightened considerably by that gesture.
Ball
To mark Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee in 1887 the club hosted a Garden Party and Ball in the grounds, when 600 guests were entertained by the light of dozens of fairy lamps. Around that time, “a curious prejudice against smoking in the Club seems to have existed ... it was forbidden to do so before 8pm, in the dining room particularly.”
Sport
The sporting side was one of the most important aspects of club life. It proudly displayed several challenge cups from a variety of sports, including the H.W. Hughes Billiard Cup won in 1913, the E. Hastings Grainger Snooker Cup won in 1914; and the Ronald Hughes Consolation Cup from 1923.
The club also offered trophies to be won by their own members: the Arnold T Stevenson Cup, won by the player to make the highest break each year, the John Hughes Bowling Green Cup, and the Championship Jack, an ivory bowling jack dating from 1770, which used to be awarded annually, but later put away for safe keeping.
Old guard
Even back in 1934, it seemed to the old guard that the younger generations were less interested in their way of doing things. As the written account says in its closing paragraph:
“To deal with the postwar period, a glance through the Membership List shows startling changes, old members
have passed on (stalwarts in every sphere of life) whilst with the mass production of motor cars and other outdoor attractions, the younger generation does not take up club life so much, yet after all, the fifty years’ reputation of the club stands very high
and is looked up to by the other clubs in the borough as the senior or more commonly called Big Club.
“Maybe some of the older members looking back will regard that period as the Golden Age of Conservatism, but they can look forward with confidence to the day when they must perforce hand on the torch to another generation in the sure belief that it will be tended with the same care and burn as brightly as it has hitherto done in their day and generation.”