THE WOLDINGHAM VILLAGE CLUB

The original plans from 1920 show a much larger club house than was eventually built. It was intended that the building had two side rooms including a 'Ladies Committee Room'. It would have had a much larger frontage including a semi-circle entrance pathway, a lawn, a war memorial, a bowling green, flower beds as well as benches at the expense of the current rear garden area. Effectively, today's garden would have been much smaller with three allotments envisaged instead.

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The total estimated building cost including land purchase in 1920 was  approximately £1,500 which almost 100 years later would be around £71,000. This relatively modest amount suggests that much of the labour, land and building materials were donated free or provided at substantially reduced rates. However, it is not clear why the scale of building did not proceed according to the original plans but it is likely that, as always, the £1,500 was only the initial outlay to get the minimum building erected and that the remaining construction would have to wait until another funding campaign was organised. Alas, a further campaign did not seem to have happened which is hardly surprising in the difficult economic environment of the 1920s and 30s.

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That said, Woldingham nevertheless has a club today and we can only be grateful to the efforts of the 'founding fathers'.