The Club: Organized Leisure

In the search for Strange relatives it’s best to be prepared for some odd results. I knew this going in but the membership for one Strange relative in a pig club was a new one on me. I didn’t know if it was a cheeky reference to what the club got up to. Did that mean they met to eat like pigs? I pictured fat squires chowing down at the local pub. Turns out that it was a club for members who got together to raise pigs “for the table”, as the saying goes.

 

Pig club in wartime London 1943 (Not the same era my Strange ancestor was involved in a pig club but it gives the general idea. *

 

The pig club was only one of a multiplicity of clubs and societies that our ancestors could have joined. There were working men’s clubs, political clubs, clothing clubs and various athletic clubs, to name a few. Most clubs met within the community but cycling clubs were set up to take their members further afield. Cycling clubs assisted their members to tour the countryside. At first, cyclists were male but, with the introduction of safety bicycles, women joined the sport and scandalized society by taking up touring as well for this meant unchaperoned ladies out on their own. 

Humber Safety Bicycle **

While the main focus may not be to assist their members in touring with their bicycles now, cycling clubs still exist. Many of the other types of clubs and societies continue to meet although perhaps in altered form. I was interested to read about one of those organizations, the Bournemouth Natural Science Society which began meeting and collecting items of interest in 1903. By 1919 they were able to purchase a building to house their society and collection. Today they are still a community involved concern with an interesting looking museum. Clubs and societies brought people with common interests together and sometimes the organization ultimately became much more. Perhaps your ancestor was one of the founding members of such an association. 

Sources:

Bournemouth Natural Science Society & Museum http://bnss.org.uk/

“The Bournemouth Natural Science Society-Bournemouth’s Well-kept Secret by Steve Limburn” (Reported by Linda Adams).

Dorset Family History Society, Journal Volume 9 No 2 March 2016 

Flanders, Judith. Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain. Harper Perennial, London, 2007

Northamptonshire Archives  http://www3.northamptonshire.gov.uk/councilservices/archives-and-heritage/northamptonshire-archives/research-and-history/Pages/family-history.aspx 

Photos:

* By Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer - 

http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//34/media-34490/large.jpg

This is photograph D 17559 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24361658

** By Science museum, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7708720