accounts and probably not unique. There is a hint that this was not the first or perhaps the last.
A Promenade Concert had been staged some years earlier in the cricket field and the Sudbury Volunteer Band was engaged for a fee of £3 or £1 “if the weather was inclement”. Admission was 3d (11/4p) and the Institute profited to the extent of £2.5.0d (£2.25p). The result and the event were deemed “most satisfactory”.
By the end of the century, the Library was beginning to limp somewhat and, despite a grant of £10, the position was not healthy and occasioned much discussions and some dissention.
The major event in the first decade of the 20th Century was undoubtedly the decision to adopt the name of ‘The Sudbury Institute Club. This was passed in 1910 and, of course, so it has remained unchanged to this day. It was significant, too, of what we have seen to be the changes in the nature of the Club.
Its original purpose no longer was needed and over 70 years or so it had evolved into something vastly different, although much of its original intentions remained in greatly modified importance. The Library still existed but in less demand and with no likelihood of progress; the Museum persisted and so did the Debating Society; and, to diminishing audiences, the occasional lectures.
Outside the Club, big things had happened. Queen Victoria had died in 1901 and the Boer War had ended in 1902. Wireless telegraph messages had been exchanged between King Edward VII and Roosevelt, the American President, to inaugurate the new method of communication between the two countries. That was in 1903, the year of the first flight of a heavier than air machine but, as yet, there were no Old Age Pensions and it was not until 1909 that they were introduced. In the same year, Bleriot stunned everybody by his Cross Channel flight. As so much was happening so rapidly in the world around, with immense improvements in education and industry and commerce, it was obvious that the Institute Club would find its own character changing and the emphasis of its various activities shifting.
We have reason to be grateful to the year 1910 for in that year a bar was installed. A speaking tube was fixed to aid communication between the bar and the billiard room. Some such but more sophisticated method has since been discussed more than once. There is no record of the length of life of the speaking tube nor how the bar was originally run or by whom, only that the suggestion that Committee members undertook this duty on a rota basis was firmly rejected by the Committee itself.
Little happened in the affairs of the Club worth chronicling for the period of 1910 to 1914. Mostly its achievements, worthy enough in themselves, concerned improvements in furnishings and furniture for the comfort of members and general repairs. But while these discussions of no great moment were going on, the clouds were gathering and the war with Germany was approaching inevitably and was, of course, declared on August 3 1914. No immediate reference to this not unimportant event appeared in the Minutes until September 1915, when the Rev. R. B. Hoyle wrote to the Club suggesting that soldiers billeted in the town and neighbouring districts be allowed to use the Reading Room. This suggestion, believe it or not, was turned down at the time, although six months later other views prevailed and troops were invited to play billiards and bridge matches for the Club and, in July, members of the Forces were admitted as Honorary Members.
A special levy was imposed on members and realised the sum of £8.2.6d (£8.22'/p) to offset a deficit of £8.18.9d (£8.94p).
Although the recreational activities were increasingly to dominate and the cultural side of things were on the retreat, books were still being purchased for the Library. Strangely, the Debating Society seemingly flourished. It could be said that it still does but somewhat less formally and round the bar!
One of the events that affected the town and its inhabitants but gave cause to no comment at any Committee Meeting ~– or at least nothing that was recorded, though it must have been the subject for considerable comment among the members generally – was the Zeppelin raid on East Anglia on March 31 1916. At 11 p.m. bombs fell on Sudbury near the Cemetery in East Street, Constitution Hill, Melford Road and for and links with cricket. Sydney Hyde’s cricket library is in the committee room. Elsewhere. In all, 30 bombs fell in Sudbury and its near surroundings. One Zeppelin was destroyed although the exact location of its execution is not recorded in the annals consulted.
The Club had appealed to the Carnegie Trust in 1918 for a grant for the Library but it was rejected in 1919. However, the Library continued to struggle on, although some books were sold.
The war years had passed without any great event of importance to the Club so far as the records show. There is nothing in them to indicate if any members lost their lives or were seriously wounded, or indeed if or to what extent the Armed Forces claimed Club members.
Subscriptions were now 15/6d (77'/2p) per annum or 8/- (40p) per half year, 4/6d (22'/2p) quarterly plus 2/- (10p) per annum for the use of the Recreation Room.
In April 1920 ‘Veritas’ gave a concert for the Club’s benefit at the Victoria Hall. The cost of the hall was £5 but the concert produced a profit of £18.13.5d (£18.67'/2p). Who or what was ‘Veritas’? About this there is no clue; however, it, they, he or she must have been popular to produce such a good house.
While the Whist Drives continued to be well-attended and useful, once again the ladies tried to assert their rights by asking to hold their own Whist Drive. This was deferred owing to other entertainments but one could be forgiven for regarding the response as in the nature of a snub to which the ladies should by then have become well accustomed.
Certainly there is no indication that it ever took place.
In 1923 the Club was in need of a new Steward and Stewardess and they were sought on the basis of £15 per annum with 5% commission on all subscriptions handled and processed, 5° commission on bar receipts and 2'/2% on receipts from the billiard table. After all, although it was true for a temporary period only, the Club’s finances were in a healthy state with as much as £100 invested in War Loan and the bar doing well. Gold Flake cigarettes were in greatest demand at 1 ld (5p) for 20, whisky and gin 7d (3p) a measure, but although the actual price of a pint of beer seems never to be minuted, the numerous and vociferous complaints about a rise of 1d ('/2p) a pint were. All strangely familiar? Well, except for the prices!
Greene King generously presented the Club with a set of billiard shades in 1918 and yet again the decision on a second billiard table was deferred. The discussion was to go on for many years yet. Familiar, too, to present members was the complaint loudly voiced that the Billiard Handicap started in October 1927 was still not completed by October 1928 but the Committee showed firmness in decreeing that it be so by the end of the year.
With all the discussions about ladies membership that went on over the years (and were to continue to do so), a strange thing came to light only recently, although it is plainly recorded in the Minutes. A lady, Mrs. N. W. Barnardiston, was elected President in 1932 and was to serve as such until and including 1934. This came about, presumably, as a tribute to Major General Barnardiston, who had been a greatly respected President for 41 years until 1919 and who, in that capacity, had guided the Club through many a crisis and difficulty. It would be interesting to have some record of the conversations, opinions and discussions that must surely have preceded the election of Mrs. N. W. Barnardiston.
The new President took over at a difficult time when once again finances were at a low ebb and negotiations commenced to raise a loan on mortgage. Strangely, despite an offer of a loan of £800 from a Committee Member, Mr. Berry, at 5%, although it was recorded in the