This feature, tells the history, origins & journey of Wakefield Bridge Club. Some of this is from what little recorded history we possess, some has come from personal testimony, and some is borrowed from other sources. We hope that you can enjoy...............
Although nobody can recall the exact date of Wakefield Bridge Club's foundation, Wakefield Express clippings (saved in the above article), records some of our early history, & that when we played our first (friendly) match against the Aysgarth Bridge Club (from Leeds), we ran out narrow winners by 400 points. (We must have been playing Rubber Bridge in this match). By the time of that particular match, the Wakefield Express also records that "The duplicate Bridge drives held by the Club are proving to be so popular, that they are now being held fortnightly instead of monthly. The original meeting night was a Monday evening (after work), and the Club has never looked back since. We have assumed that we actually began in early October 1953, but we cannot 100% prove this - it is our best guess.
That first match, the Duplicate Bridge drives & all the early Bridge meetings, were all held upstairs in the long demolished "Jester Restaurant" which was on Southgate. Unfortunately, we were (evicted / moved) from these premises, when Southgate had all of its properties subjected to a compulsory purchase order. This was because Southgate at this time, was a very narrow street, and with the advances made with motor transport, getting two vehicles past one another proved to be extremely difficult. This demolition took place probably in 1957, as we have discovered pictures of Southgate, taken in October 1956, which show where the "Jester Restaurant" was located.
The Club then moved to Holmfield House, in Holmfield Park in Wakefield. (Holmfield Park together with the adjoining Clarence Park & Thornes Park, were merged together, to form a large grassed area just outside the centre of Wakefield). This was our home for over 30 years, in the building which was owned by one of the incarnations of Wakefield Council. Even the manager of this venue played Bridge at the Club. The Club continued to grow, and shortly after we moved in, a further session was added on a Thursday evening (again, after work). But in 1991 we were forced to move again, when Holmfield House was sold by the Council to a hotel group, who wished to develop the building in their own way. This building we should all still recognise as the Holmfield Arms, where we have recently started a Xmas meal function with our members at.
The Club then moved into two rooms at Wakefield Town Hall. Interestingly, the two rooms were designated as a smoking & non-smoking rooms, in which Bridge was played. However, with the very limited facilities that were available, together with lack of good easy parking, the move here was not very popular with the members. So, we moved again in 1994, but this time, it was our choice.
The Club now began a period of 25 years based at West Yorkshire Sports & Social Club (WYSSC) at the bottom of Sandal Hall Close in the Sandal district of Wakefield. Here the Club had a bit more space and time to start to expand & grow. There was a regular offering of Monday & Thursday evening sessions, which proved to be very popular with the members, although our Club membership never rose above 90 members. As the Club approached its Diamond Jubilee in 2013, unfortunately, the Clubs membership had fallen to less than 60 members. So, after much thought and discussion, a lot of effort was directed at reviving the Club. Open evenings and new teaching classes were started for beginners. These proved to be popular, so much so, that this led to the opening of two brand new sessions, one on a Monday morning & one on a Tuesday evening sometime in 2015. This led to an increase in membership, and so we became the victims of our own success, as gradually, the pressure on us to expand was being forced upon us. With the ever increasing demand for extra sessions, we found out that WYSSC could not / would not accommodate any expansion from our Club, and so the search for larger premises began again.
As 2020 opened, the Club had made plans for a return to Thornes Park, but this time in our own section of the former Thornes House School / Wakefield College, But unfortunately, as we prepared to move premises yet again, the whole world was hit by the Coronavirus Pandemic, which resulted in all Bridge Clubs having to suspend all play, with all organisations & groups in the UK, restricted by law, to not meet together under any circumstances. The last session at WYSSC, was played on Tuesday 17th March 2020, and there was no more bridge in the entire country, until Bridge players with the knowledge of computer systems etc, were able to develop online Bridge.
Wakefield Bridge Club started up playing again, but online on Monday 10th August 2020, and it became apparent that this was the only option for Bridge players, to play Bridge, as we were still unable to meet up. In September 2020, Thursday evening sessions restarted again, but online, shortly followed by Tuesday evening sessions & Monday morning sessions, also in September 2020. We only played, with the help & assistance of Oliver Cowan, who had started up the Oliver Cowan Bridge Club as an online entity during the pandemic. Initially we played all sessions in conjunction with Oliver, who has expanded his Bridge Company greatly, and continues to this day, with the Play without the Experts session on a Tuesday evening, which was developed at this time. Bridge at Wakefield, continued in this way until the lifting of pandemic restrictions. When we were able to meet up again. Wakefield Bridge Club started playing face to face (F2F) Bridge again on Monday 19th July 2021, after nearly 18 months away. We had in the intervening time, taken possession of our latest venue, and so we were able to start up as soon as the restrictions were lifted, which allowed larger groups to meet up. We started to run nearly all of our sessions ourselves, but we continued to operate Tuesday evenings in conjunction with Oliver. However, towards the end of 2021, we started running this session ourselves as well. We continue to this day, to have a good working relationship with Oliver Cowan.
Our expansion plans, began with the opening of a brand new Friday morning session, which started on Friday 20th November 2020, and successfully continues to this day. We also started an ill fated Monday Afternoon session on Monday 9th January 2023. This was never well supported and we finally pulled the plug on this session with the last session taking place on Monday 13th May 2024. In 2024, we completed a far reaching survey of our membership, whose conclusions, still have to be put into action,
And so we continue, with a growing membership, which has increased to well over 170. But the world of Bridge has changed a lot over the years. With the advent of television, computers, mobile telephones etc, the choices have expanded. From the early days of Bridge being an after work pastime, this is now becoming more of an anytime of the day pastime. The other noticeable thing. is that more & more of our members are from the older generation - perhaps this is a statement of the amount of choices of activities that have emerged. We will see what the future holds...........
Some additional venue information for you.....
- The Jester Restaurant - The Jester Restaurant was situated on the west side of Southgate, towards the top of the hill (just above where the current Wakefield Express offices are). When the Jester was demolished, it became the site of the first supermarket in Wakefield - do you remember Queen's? Behind the supermarket and the other shops in this block, was the Mecca dance venue of Wakefield, with its entrance nearer to the cathedral. This was all demolished again to make way for the current Ridings Shopping Centre which was opened in 1983. This was a first for the UK, as it was built with a theme imported from the USA of having a central food court. This became a template for other shopping centres around the UK. As far as we can tell, the imprint of the Jester Restaurant is directly underneath the Primark shop in this shopping centre.
- Holmfield House - This was originally built in 1833, and then it exchanged hands a few times, until in 1918, it was purchased by Wakefield Corporation, along with the 14 acres of Holmfield Park. It has seen use as a museum, an art gallery, and as a school amongst other uses. Fundamentally, it has had a whole host of alterations & extensions, but some of it still survives in the outer shell of the building. The house used to have quite a significant garden rockery, and some of this has been removed, during the hotel alterations, and can now be found in the "Secret Garden" in Thornes Park. The building still exists, but as a hotel and restaurant complex, which in recent times, has seen us use this venue for our annual Xmas meal in December.
- Wakefield Town Hall - The building which still stands on Wood Street in Wakefield, was built in 1883, to replace an earlier building on the same site, which dated from 1800.
- West Yorkshire Sports & Social Club (WYSSC) - This must have been built after the houses of Sandal Hall Close were constructed in the late 1960's or early 1970's. The houses were all built originally to accommodate police officers, but this has altered now. The original building was known as WYCO (West Yorkshire County Officers). Over the years, the land and building has been subject to numerous attempts & some rumours, to convert this land to housing, but it still stands as a sporting venue.
- Thornes House School - Built in 1921, this was a school for over 60 years. The original buildings were destroyed by fire in 1951, but another school rose from the ashes on the same site. A new school was built at the bottom of the hill in the 1980's and renamed as Cathedral School. The old school, was converted to being additional facilities of Wakefield College (for 16 - 18 year olds). The buildings have gone through a variety of uses, and at present are occupied the "Penny Appeal" charity. We occupy in our two rooms, an area that used to be used for reprographics, though other former pupils / students of our membership, remember it being used for other purposes as well.
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