Wilsden Village Society History

Social Committee 2

In 1973 the WRVS, who supplied Meals on Wheels for the whole Bingley area, approached WVS about the possibility of the society taking over the twice weekly delivery for Wilsden residents. This covered Harecroft, Hallas Bridge, Lee Lane and sometimes parts of Harden as well as the village centre. Enough volunteer drivers and helpers were forthcoming for this to start at the beginning of 1974. Large insulated boxes containing the hot meals had to be collected from Littlelands kitchen in Cottingley, delivered and served, and the emptied tins taken back to Cottingley and washed. It became much easier when the service changed to using frozen meals, which could be supplied in bulk and stored in a freezer in Wilsden. When the volunteers discovered in their first year that there would be no meals in Christmas week because Littlelands kitchen would be closed, they decided that their clients at least should not miss out completely. On December 23rd village society ladies met in Mrs Lloyd’s kitchen to cook a festive meal of pork with vegetables and apple sauce, to be followed by cream trifle. This was whisked out by waiting drivers to fourteen pensioners and ten housebound people.

Years later in 1977 the vicar of Harden and Wilsden, Revd Graham Bettridge, who was a member of the social committee, suggested that a Good Neighbours group might be formed. The committee promptly arranged a coffee afternoon at the village hall to raise money for this. The scheme, which included a luncheon club for senior citizens, was taken on and coordinated by society members Denise Wilson and Pauline Bourke.

When the village hall committee was formed in December 1971 it was quickly clear that some large scale money generating schemes would be needed and these are covered in that chapter.

The social committee continued to fund-raise to cover such things as secretarial and printing expenses, trees and bulbs, room hire when a big venue was needed for a meeting or a dance, the cost of the party for senior citizens and housebound outings. Coffee mornings and ploughman’s lunches at members’ homes were a steady small-scale staple and the society’s president Mrs Downs hosted wine and cheese evenings at her home, or sometimes coffee mornings with the unusual added attraction of a hat bar.

Jumble sales did well but there was usually more stock than could be displayed and sold during the course of an evening and much went for a relatively small amount to a dealer at the end of the sale. This gave rise to the idea of running Nearly New shops. Permanent charity shops were not the feature of our towns that they have subsequently become and it was possible to rent an empty shop for a few days quite cheaply. These might be available for a short time while waiting for new tenants, or in buildings due for demolition. There would not necessarily be light, heating or a water supply. The first of these was held in April 1972 in the former Hudson’s shop in Bingley Main Street. It was open on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and made £332. Another was planned to run for a week in a shop in Bradford the following year. Wilsden Scouts expressed concern that by the time the village society had finished collecting, there would be nothing left in Wilsden for their planned jumble sale, so an arrangement was made to divide the village so that each group had a clear run at specified streets. A very angry letter soon arrived from one of the scout leaders claiming that the village society was in effect poaching and spoiling things for the scouts, but investigation revealed that individuals from both groups had strayed out of their territories, presumably due to careless briefing, and it was very much a swings and roundabouts affair.

Far from seeing themselves in opposition to the scouting movement, it was the village society social committee that made contact with the District Commissioner to ask about the formation of a cub scout group for the village. He was willing to help to set this up if volunteer helpers could be found and in November 1971 the first cub pack was started, for boys from Wilsden and Harden, with WVS member Mrs.Ward helping to run it.

Collecting all the items, transporting them, setting up the shops and then staffing them for as much as a week was very demanding of volunteers. Later efforts were held just for two days at a time, in Keighley and in Wilsden in St. Matthew’s hall.

A much more elegant fund raiser took place in 1973 when Peter and Amy Booth made their home, North Hall, available for an event, billed as ‘Stravaganza’. There was dancing, a wine bar and a lavish carving buffet prepared and served by WVS ladies. The event was repeated on two evenings so that different teams took charge of the preparation and serving and all could attend as guests at one of them. North Hall had an outdoor swimming pool and a spontaneous midnight sponsored swim by one or two jolly guests added to the profit.

Other events combining entertainment and profit included fashion shows, a Christmas food and flowers demonstration and for a few years, village bonfires. The November bonfires were run jointly with the motor club until the scouts asked to take them over. The first one, in 1970, was held in a field in Shay Lane loaned by farmer Tom Wright, with traditional refreshments such as toffee, parkin pigs and hot dogs. Later the bonfire was held on the recreation field.

There were a surprising number of dances. The success of that first Carnival Dance led to a Decimalisation Dance in February 1971, Valentine Dances in following years until the WI took these over, a Leap Year Dance, Square Dances, an Old Time Dance and some with no particular excuse except that it was about time for another dance. All the gala dances were organised by the social committee, much appreciated by the gala committee members who could relax and thoroughly enjoy that end of the day. Perhaps the most enthusiastic dancer of them all was Edward (Ted) Howarth, WVS chairman 1976/77. He could leave a trail of exhausted partners, his wife, the friend who came with them and almost every WVS lady in the room. Marjorie Pitchers gave out little felt badges depicting a stick figures with arms and legs akimbo – our ‘I danced with Ted’ badges to be worn with pride. Most dances were held in the school until Local Government reorganisation in1974 meant there could no longer be bars in schools. The bars were run by a licensee from Cullingworth until Roy Clemence took over the New Inn in Wilsden and took this on. The society then used St. Ives Mansion until the village hall was built. There were a few dances for which a bar was definitely not needed. These were the occasional discos put on for young teens.