Viewers of this site may speculate as to its origins, purpose, content and method of construction. This brief section seeks to answer those questions.

Why

Our only previous formal history is the 50th Anniversary 1986 booklet. Since then, aside more or less maintaining the honours boards and trophies, and the creation by the author of a few small pamphlets and publications, little progress has been made in the maintenance of a history timeline of any sort. We could have waited until the Centenary in 2036, but given the difficulties the author has had compiling this version (given the ravages of time) it’s been a prudent decision to undertake this now, and will make the job of the Centenary historian a lot simpler.

What

This history is a website based version, with around 50 web pages which will equate to around 150-200 A5 size book pages. Years of collection of documents and photographs underpins the history, and around twenty interviews have been made in the last year or so, hopefully capturing both historic and contemporary accounts of the Club. Over 1250 documents and photographs are already included (October 2021), and that will increase significantly as the site builds. The casual observer may think that the contents resemble a research archive rather than a history; they may very well be correct!

How

The author has constructed the site in WordPress (using theme ‘Twenty Eleven‘). WordPress is a product described as a ‘Content Manager’ rather than the now outdated term ‘Website Editor’, and is now widely credited as being the software tool used by around 40% of the World’s leading companies. Over 100 current and past Club members, along with many external individuals have been pestered for content over the last year or so: the editorial committee amounts to just one person, so blame is easy to apportion. Any gripes should be addressed to this contact.

….and just before you ask – the site has been constructed at no cost other than the annual WordPress licence, domain mapping and registration charge totalling around £50.