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Lathom and Burscough OPC – a brief history

We can trace the history of the site back to 1881 when Lord Derby, the land owner, granted a man named William Price the ‘right to assign’ a piece of land containing 2 buildings in Cinder Lane, Burscough, under a 75-year lease. William immediately sold the properties to James Gerrard who, nine years later, sold them to James Hunter. On his death in 1930, the properties passed to Margaret Harrison and were duly inherited by John Harrison on her death in 1940. By this time, there were three properties on the site – numbers 22, 22a and 24 Lord Street.

John Harrison sold the properties to Ormskirk photo services in 1946, for the princely sum of £200. The business was in operation there until 1959, when the site, together with the buildings on it – by then no longer leasehold – was sold to the Trustees of Lathom and Burscough Old People’s Club.

We know very little about this time, other than that it was a philanthropic gesture by 3 Rotarians who donated the funds – £250 – for the purchase of the site, which enabled the founding of the Club. Their names have sadly been lost in the mists of time, but we remain grateful to them for their generous and enduring gift to our community. The Club was thus established and first entrusted to the ownership and care of 4 Trustees – Albert Newell, Leonard Bamber, William Fawcett and Henry Whysall, sadly no longer with us, but their legacy lives on.

There are few records regarding the building itself, but we believe that it was constructed shortly after the purchase.

Originally, the Trustees meetings were held at Shepherd’s Saw Mills Canteen in Junction Lane Burscough where, in 1960, they adopted ‘the Constitution’, a legally binding document which is still in force today. The Constitution states that the purpose of the Club is to ‘provide facilities for education and physical and mental recreation…for the benefit of elderly people…who live in Lathom and Burscough’ and that membership is open to any resident who is over the age of 60. Of course, 60 was considered old in 1959, when life expectancy in the North West was around 65. In due course, we may consider re-naming the Club to better reflect the community it serves, but we’ll need to take some legal advice for that, and there are more pressing issues to sort out first!

Traditionally, the Club has been run by a Management Committee, overseen by 4 – 6 Trustees. Perhaps inevitably, over the years, Trustees and Committee members have dwindled – some have died, others have moved away from the area or resigned, which has resulted in a general decline in the range of activities held for members.

There are very few surviving records of activities over the years but, by all accounts, it was a busy happy place to be and we are working hard to ensure that we restore the range of activities we offer.

By the early 2000’s, the responsibilities of running the Club fell largely to one local lady, Edna Arnold, and on her death, to her nephew, Terry Isted. Terry managed to keep the Club afloat right up to the pandemic in 2020, when it was in danger of collapse, as the income streams had been completely cut off, but the bills still came in.

Thankfully, Terry was able to secure a government grant to tide the Club over and then the NHS moved in to use the Club as a vaccination centre which not only brought in income, but also raised the Club’s profile. If you didn’t know the place existed before your Covid vaccination, you certainly did afterwards! It was through knowing the Club as a vaccination centre that some of the new Committee members became interested in helping to shape its future.

Following the pandemic, a small group of volunteers got together with the idea of returning the Club to its former glory. Working closely with Terry we have formed a new Management Committee comprising 14 volunteers, all of whom live in the local area and with fairly wide-ranging interests and expertise.

Terry has now handed over the reins to us and we have been working hard to ensure that we not only remain viable, but also to secure additional funds to enable us to fulfill the aims of the Constitution.

We have a fairly large function room, with a capacity of around 95, which is available for hire for an hourly charge. Hirers range from the very young (such as the brownies) to the very young at heart (such as the U3A). The income from these activities is used to maintain the building and to fund activities for our members. There is currently no charge for membership, so we encourage all our over 60’s to join us – we truly do not think of ourselves as ‘old’!

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