Denton Club Ltd
'The Gentlemen's Club'

Wilton St, Denton
Denton Club Ltd was founded in 1876 and on the 5 Jun 1876 a contract was signed with John Gibbons, Contractor of Audenshaw for the erection of a clubhouse with an adjoining steward's house, outbuildings and a bowling green on a plot of land in Wilton St. The architect was Alfred Catlow of Denton and the contract stated that the work must be completed by the 30 September 1877. A penalty of £2 per week was to be implemented if there were any delay in completion. The club was intended for employers in Denton, most of whom were hat manufacturers.

The first club directors were: Joseph Graham, first company secretary of The Lancashire Felt Co Ltd. Joseph Cooper Howe, hat manufacturer. John Kenyon, coal merchant. Joseph Linney, hat manufacturer. Samuel Marlor, gentleman (hat manufacturer). Thomas Moores, hat manufacturer. John Turner, merchant (manufacturer of hatting machines). William Tweedale, bank manager. Thomas Woolfenden, hat manufacturer.
Some of the club stewards were: 1878: Thomas Sands. 1881: John Richards. 1891-1918: John Hignett and his wife Fanny Eagle. 1920: Henry Allen. 1923-1930: Thomas Partington. 1939: Redvers Breakey and his wife Daisy Allen, still stewards in 1962. 1968: Mary Beard.
Mr & Mrs Hignett, club stewards, at the
back of Denton Club, early 20th century.

The club remained open into the 1960s but it went into liquidation in 1968. It was then renamed Clarkson House and it became the headquarters of the Denton Aged Persons' Welfare Committee. In the 1980s it became a snooker club and finally it became a nightclub known as the 'Elephant and Suspender' and then as 'The Studio Barz'. It was during this period that the frontage of the building was rendered with mortar and painted.

Between 1978 and 1981, the M67 motorway was cut through the site of the club bowling green but the building survived to finally succumb to demolition in 2003 in preparation for the construction of the Crown Point North Shopping Park.


Denton Club in its 'as built' form.
The steward's house on the right.

Denton Club, May 1999.

The back of Denton Club looking across the disused bowling green shortly before the M67 motorway was cut through the site. The extension behind the bench seats replaced a veranda.

Wilson’s hat factory is in the background on the far side of Wilton St.

Great War (1914/18)
Following the Great War a Roll of Honour was commisioned to commemorate 12 club members who served in the war. It is understood that all of those named on the roll survived. It was presented to the club by Tom Shorrock Cheetham who is also named on the roll. He was a Denton Estate Agent who was born at Hyde in 1876.


Roll of Honour, Oct 2014.
Tom Shorrock CHEETHAM Dr John COWAN Harry HOWE Stanley Holland MARLOR George A OLDHAM John OLDHAM James W TAYLOR Mark TAYLOR George WESLEY Edward WOOLFENDEN Ellis Taylor WOOLFENDEN Frank WOOLFENDEN

Not named on the roll is Ronald Woolfenden MM, who is related to the above Woolfendens. He died of wounds in France on the 18 Aug 1916.