The Social Club

Mrs. Catherine Gray has written about the former Women’s Club and the

change to the present Social Club:

‘The meetings before the Social Club came into being were known as the

Women’s Club, and took place on Thursday evenings except the first Thursday

in the month, which was the day the W.R.I. met We met in the lower Club

room in the Girls Club at 7 p.m., presided over by Miss Challis, matron of the

Girls Club. We played whist, someone would give a reading, sing a song, or

tell a story; some brought their knitting along and we all had a cup of tea

with home baking. This was prior to 1939.

‘Then in 1944 the Club was gifted to the Fife County Council by Dr.

Younger of Mount Melville. It then became the Hostel. We had the use of it

as formerly, but of course there was no matron. Mrs. Stobie, the school-

master’s wife then took over and called it the Social Club.

‘On November 22nd, 1945 a committee was formed comprising Mrs. Stobie,

Mrs. Greig, Mrs. Buttercase, Mrs. Gray, Mrs. Cunningham, Mrs. Smith (sad to

say I am the only one left).

‘We had 35 members, who paid two shillings per annum to help the tea

fund, with any surplus being put into the Club funds. We carried on as we

did in the days of the Women’s Club.

‘We also gave the children a party at Christmas, and in 1947 we took the

Senior Citizens for a bus drive and High Tea. This has continued every year

since. The first outing was to Crail, where we were welcomed by Provost

Calder, and in the years that followed we had runs to Arbroath, Aberfoyle,

Dunblane, Callander, Stirling, Pitlochry, Linlithgow, to mention a few.

‘The membership has dwindled to twelve, as there are many other organisa-

tions now in the village. I took over in 1947. Wehavehadconcertsandtwo

Burns Suppers in years gone by to raise funds. Coffee Evenings and Bring

and Buy Sales with a raffle are now the usual methods of raising money.

The last one, on 8th May 1986, raised £121.

‘We are helped by a donation from the pub (Mr. and Mrs. D. Coutts), and

the shop (Mr. and Mrs. R. Verner), without whose help we would not be able

to do so much.’

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