Wakefield working men’s club was at the centre of social change and women’s equality

Their history runs from wresting control of working class leisure time from the ruling classes in the late Victorian era to the star-studded Las Vegas-approach of Batley Variety Club in the1960s and 70s when it welcomed some of the biggest stars of the time.

And in a new book by Pete Brown – author, journalist, broadcaster, food and drink expert – a vision is put forward of the way that clubs became central to the communities of industrial towns and cities.

In Clubland he argues that “they were, at their best, a vehicle for social mobility and self-improvement, run as cooperatives for working people by working people”.

Sheila Capstick believed change was possible in 1974 when she was told she was no longer allowed to play snooker at Wakefield City Club.

She was a regular player, but the all-male committee at the club had decided that women should no longer be allowed at the tables.

With the support of her husband, Ken, who would later be vice-chairman of the mineworkers’ union in Yorkshire during the 1984 strike, she rallied friends and began to picket outside the club.

Ken told the Express: “To play snooker you walked through a room and put your name on a blackboard.

“Some of the men found themselves putting their names after Sheila and that caused some aggro. There had obviously been a complaint so the notice went up.

“There were all kinds of ridiculous arguments like it meant women might tear the cloth on the table.”

After a petition was ignored by the committee she wrote to Cosmopolitan magazine, and the article caught the attention of writers like feminist author Germaine Greer.

Professional snooker players also backed the petition.

Ken said: “It developed from there – from snooker, to equal rights across the board in working mens clubs and social clubs.

"It became about women’s right to a life outside the home. The equal rights in clubs campaign for action or ERICCA – that name was invented by Mark Hibbert who worked at the Express in the late 1970.”

Ken said that the late Mr Hibbert later became editor of NUM Yorkshire’s paper.

The protest and campaign was covered and backed by the Wakefield Express.

The Yorkshire Evening Post’s Brenda Haywood and Pete Lazenby were also named as key supporters of the movement.

The campaign found its way all the way to the CIU clubs congress in Blackpool where 2,000 delegates had gathered.

Ken said Sheila arrived dressed as suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.

It was years later in 2007 when the organisation finally moved for equal rights for women.

Ken said it was a “terrific campaign”.

"There were always people in CIU who were supportive from the start but not a majority.

“Sheila wanted to play a sport, that’s all – snooker. Now we see the English women’s football team winning the European cup, women playing rugby, Nicola Adams climbing in a boxing ring and winning gold medals for her country, and women playing darts in front of thousands.

"It was about women’s rights to have a social life outside the home. What you had then is men saying a woman’s place is the kitchen and all that has changed for the good.”

Despite Sheila and Ken’s campaign they didn’t stop going to the Wakefield club and sometimes held meetings, plotting their next move, while inside.

Ken said: “Clubs were a big part of communities and we didn’t feel like the club was an enemy. We continued to go all the time. They never barred us.

"They had their views, we had ours. And sometimes we had meetings there during the campaign.

“There wasn’t a lot of bitterness – not as much as you’d think.”

In the book, during one of many visits to the country’s clubs, Pete points out the drinking is inexpensive but it’s even cheaper at an off licence and not the main attraction.

He said: “They come to be out of the house. They come to be close to others, if not quite with them.

“They come to talk, to share, to relax, to live with the beer and over the beer. But not because of it.”

He told the Express: “You could see how people just sit at tables on their own and carry conversations across a room. They felt comfortable to be out of the house and with other people.”

Wakefield Labour Club – the Red Shed – hosted a presentation event for Clubland this autumn.

It’s a venue that features in the book and has stood firm to its traditions and principles for decades.

Pete said: “The Red Shed is fairly special, one of a kind. There have been Labour, Conservative and Liberal clubs since the early 20th century, but the red shed as a Labour club is still really active.

“And it is literally a red shed by Trinity Walk shopping centre – it was only meant to be temporary.”

In the book Pete speaks to Red Shed volunteer Pete Wiltshire, who tells him the Red Shed was never a member of the CIU and the latter body’s attitude to women was the reason.

Clubland looks at the way working men’s clubs were ways for working class people to take control of their own free time.

Pete said: “There was an idea that if working men had free time they should be learning things. Bodies like mechanics institutes and learning societies ran courses on aesthetics and geometry.

"But people didn’t turn up because they were knackered and had no inclination to go after a 12 hour shift so they set up clubs for working men to run themselves.”

He said workers, a painter or carpenter for example, would chip in with contributions to what the club might need.

The way it grew by itself is compared to a DIY music scene.

Pete grew up in Barnsley and has early memories of working men’s clubs.

"I remember them for the cheap booze and bad pub singers. I left Barnsley as soon as I could to go to uni.

“But writing as a cultural historian various things I heard that made me quite curious and I found out how little had been written about them.

"I was thinking about class identity and spoke to publishers based in London. They didn’t want it and said people in the north don’t buy books. So the idea became a defiant ‘I’ll show you’.”

Pete Brown’s Clubland is available now.