It all started in the top floor flat of a cobblers shop in Cutler Heights Lane in 1900.

As giant chimneys coughed out smoke into the skies above Bradford, four men huddled around a wooden table and pledged to form a Socialist club.

The men were John Helliwell Squires, Arthur Tetley, Jack Hustler and Joseph Priestley and against the harsh background of the Industrial Revolution the Dudley Hill and Tong Socialist Club was born.

Little could they have imagined that a century later the club would be celebrating its 100th birthday, based in the same building in Sticker Lane, Dudley Hill, which they paid 2/6-a-week to hire.

On Wednesday, February 9 the club will celebrate its centenary with the grand re-opening of its dance hall after a £30,000 re-fit but its heart has remained firmly steeped in politics.

George Sewell, its current president and member since 1962, said: "The club has still got the old Socialist principles of doing things for the people by the people but it's a far cry from the old-style Socialism.

"In the fifties and sixties if Labour party members came into the club then you'd stand aside and you wouldn't be allowed into the room where they were meeting. That doesn't happen now.

"We've still got some old-timers like myself but most members are aged between 18 and 40. I think the future of the club is about looking after these people and getting them involved with the club."

Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe, who is a life member, said as the focal point of the Tong Labour Party and an official counting office, the club was the scene of many an election victory for the area's MPs and councillors.

He said Leader of the House Commons Margaret Beckett MP and fire-brand Labour MP Dennis Skinner had both given speeches to eager listeners crammed into the dance hall.

Mr Sutcliffe added: "The club has a place in my heart because it was where I watched the Labour government's general election victory in 1997.

"The Labour Party was born in Bradford in 1893 and the club has a rich heritage with the party. It is a place where you can come to enjoy yourself but also raise a political point with your local councillor or MP."

Andrew McLachlan, 78, also a life member, was the club's entertainment agent in the 1950s and 1960s.

He said: "We've had them all here. PJ Proby sang here, just after he famously split his trousers on stage, and Gerry Marsden who sang Ferry across the Mersey. I got the London Busker Don Partridge to play here although he didn't like the North and Terry Durham also performed at the club, the first female impersonator to come to Bradford."

The club's secretary Roy Render, a life member after joining in 1961, said the club had grown from a membership of just seven in 1900 to its present figure of more than 700.

He said membership reached a peak at almost 900 members in its heyday during the 1950s and early 1960s. Women were only allowed to join as full members in 1993 and pay the straight membership fees of £2.50-a-year.

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