Netheravon Working Men's Club, which was founded more than a century ago and remains at the heart of community life in the village north of Amesbury, has been chosen as the local Club of the Year by the Salisbury & South Wiltshire Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
Allan Smith, the club’s chairman, Andy Linscer, its secretary, and longstanding club member Gary Davis received their winner’s certificate from Keith Foster, co-ordinator of the branch’s club and pubs of the year competition, at a gathering of club and CAMRA members.
Keith said after the presentation: “Netheravon Working Men's Club is a worthy winner of the Salisbury and South Wilts CAMRA Branch Club of the Year award. As well as serving well-kept real ales, often from local breweries, it offers a warm and friendly welcome to both locals and visitors alike. It is a great asset to its local community.”
Allan Smith, who heads a team of volunteers which works hard to keep the club going, said, “This is the social hub of the village. We have karaoke on Boxing Day, pool night on Tuesdays, skittles on Wednesdays and bingo on Thursdays. Heel Stone, brewed by Stonehenge Ales in Netheravon, is our permanent real ale, and we change the others every two weeks.”
As well as the big family event on Boxing Day, the club serves a free curry on Remembrance Sunday, stages a ‘Netheravon’s Got Talent’ night, provides an annual three-course dinner for its life members for a modest fee and acts as a community ‘warm space’ for those struggling with their heating bills.
The club still has the original minutes book from the meeting which founded it on 26 June 1920. Astonishingly, it is still in the same pre-fabricated building that it acquired and moved to in Netheravon High Street in 1925.
Quite apart from the challenges posed by global events such as the Second World War and the Covid pandemic, it has hit financial difficulties on at least two occasions – once in the 1980s and again in 2017 when it was six weeks away from closing. Loans from members kept it afloat, economies were made, and it has survived and prospered.
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