Community spirit reigns supreme at Stanhill Social Club in Oswaldtwistle with the club’s members and Committee working together to transform the venue during the past two years
Situated in the picturesque village of Stanhill in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, Stanhill Social Club was established in 1918 as Stanhill Working Men’s Club, adopting its current name several years ago.
The club prides itself on being right at the centre of the community with a wealth of activities and events taking place within its walls throughout the year; an ever-growing membership which includes local residents of all ages and busy trade throughout the week.
One key reason for the club’s current success is the refurbishment which have been undertaken since the end of the pandemic.
“The club was looking really old fashioned,” says Carole Fisken, a Committee Member who has recently taken over as the club’s Stewardess. “Things were going okay before the pandemic with mostly older members coming to the club.
“After the pandemic, we began to notice that a lot of that older crowd were not coming back as frequently or in as many numbers as before so decided to become a venue that would attract new, younger members as well as catering for existing members.”
The starting point of the process was the refurbishment of the club’s Function Room. “In recent years, it had been a pretty underused asset but it has now been totally modernised,” says Carole.
“The Function Room is now equipped with LED lights which can change colour and create an amazing atmosphere. “We have a fantastic stage and a sprung dancefloor that has also been refurbished.
“Then, the rest of the improvements followed on and during the last 12 months, we've completed a refurbishment of our Ladies’ Toilets, Games Room, Members Lounge and Members Bar and the completion of an outside seating area.
“We have also added a pool table which has been a massive success, especially with our younger members.
“We are extremely lucky to have a very high calibre of people who are willing to give their own time to effect the transformation.
“Our Committee Members and the support team work tirelessly to improve the club and have spent hundreds of hours cleaning, painting and redecorating. “We have members that are professional electricians, joiners, window fitters, plumbers and other skill trades who have helped to improve the club dramatically.
“The paint and decorating supplies were kindly bought for us by a local firm with the bulk of the labour coming from our own membership.
”The next scheduled work, taking place at the tailend of the year, will be the refurbishment of the Men’s Toilets. “A local family of businesspeople, who have been members of the club for generations, has offered to do a full refurbishment on the Men’s Toilets as a gift,” says Carole.
“There are no words that can explain how grateful we are for this and it really demonstrates how lucky we are that our members have such affection for the club and take such pride in how it looks.
“You get people coming in for the first time in years who are just amazed by the transformation since they last visited.”
The refurbishments have given the club a new lease of life and the calendar is full of booking for private functions including wedding receptions, baby showers, christenings, birthday parties and other celebrations.
“Private functions are now a really important part of our income,” says Carole. “We offer two packages for functions, one of which is a full set-up that includes chair covers, tablecloths, sweet trolley, photo backdrop and neon lighting.
“We work really hard at making each and every event extra special for the client and it’s now the bread and butter for the club’s finances.
“The feedback is always really good with the result that we get more and more bookings.”As well as hosting private celebrations, the club has also embarked on a series of its own ticketed events, with sellout audiences the norm.
“It has been an amazing success with members really supporting a variety of shows, including Abba, Beatles, Elton John, Elvis and Freddie Mercury tribute acts,” says Carole.
“We generally stage a tribute show on the first Saturday of every month and the tickets are priced just to cover the cost of the artist so we’re making our money from the bar sales.
“In addition to the tribute evenings, every third Saturday of the month we showcase some of the really talented local singers such as Nikki Lynch, Darrell Smith, Lewis Birtwell, Paul Connor, Nikki Dee and many more.
“We were so proud to see club favourite Darrell Smith recently starring on the BBC at the Northern Soul at the Proms event at the Albert Hall in London back in July.
“Darrell will be performing at our New Year’s Eve party this year which is just fantastic given that he is now super-famous and so in demand.”
Another great success has been Sunday afternoon ‘Killer Comedy’ events.
“These taken place every six to eight weeks in the Function Room with a compere and several comedians performing,” says Carole. “Some people were a bit worried that members wouldn’t be interested in watching comedy in that time slot but it has really taken off and every event is now a sellout.”
The club is a free house and has a wide range of drinks, including Foster’s, Amstel, San Miguel, Wainwrights and Somersby cider.
“Just as making sure the club is really up-together and modern, it’s important to keep on-trend with what you offer on the bar,” says Carole.
“It’’s about making sure you cater for all tastes from traditional cask ale to flavoured gins and other spirits to things like Jägerbombs which are really popular on a Saturday night.
“We have wonderful people in our bar staff team. They are honest, reliable, professional and hardworking.
“They are all local and the feedback from customers is outstanding.”
Charity work is another important aspect of life at the club and the club has a longstanding and ongoing association of the Derian House Children’s Hospice.
“Every month we have Northern Soul and Motown events on Sunday afternoons which raise funds for Derian House,” says Carole.
“The events are fantastic with the organisers and DJs giving their own time for nothing. Since 2008 we’ve raised over £12,000.”
Community is central to the club ethos and a number of local groups and charities hold meetings and fundraisers at the club. The club also takes part in the annual village-wide Ossyfest event.
This is a full weekend which sees local pubs and clubs hosting local bands and singers. Each venue collects a £3 donation fee on the door and collectively this year’s weekend event raised £5,657.35 to give free music lessons to local children and young people.
“It’s great to be part of a community event like Ossyfest,” says Carole.
“We were hosting the final ‘leg’ of the festival on the Sunday this year and were a bit worried that after the two previous days, everybody in the village would be too exhausted to attend.
“We needn’t have worried as it was absolutely packed and a fantastic occasion.
“We have a local pub right across from us called The Stanhill Pub and Kitchen and we work closely with them, always trying to help each other out.
“Both establishments are proud to be part of this village community and don’t see ourselves in competition. “We help to promote each other as we do very different things.
“As an example of this, we have Sky Sports in our club and the pub has TNT Sports so we’re not competing against each other with the same matches on in both venues at the same time.
“As you can imagine, being located midway between Blackburn and Burnley, the club has plenty of fans of both teams so it always gets very busy when either of those sides have a live fixture on television and there is plenty of lighthearted banter between the two sets of fans.
“We also have pool, snooker and darts facilities at the clubs with teams competing in the local leagues.”Clearly this impressive club is postively thriving but it not about to rest on its laurels.
“We’re looking to the future with optimism and just want to keep on delivering the highest standard possible in whatever we do,” says Carole.
“This club continues to be the hub of the community and long may that continue!”
