Where do we meet?

The Macclesfield Club is part of Inner Wheel District 5, chartered in 1927 and currently with 15 members. We meet at:

Leigh Arms, London Rd, Adlington, SK10 4NA

When do we meet?

Meetings are held at 12 noon on the first Tuesday of every month. If you are interested in joining us, please contact us via district5innerwheel@gmail.com 

Focus On Macclesfield

The first meeting of the Macclesfield Club’s 15 members was on 8 November 1927 in the home of Annie Morley.  We still have a connection with this event as Mrs Morley’s granddaughter, Dina Hewart, is an active member of our club and, until fairly recently, lived in the same house. Early fund-raising efforts were for Christmas presents for the children of the poor;  jumble sales and whist and bridge drives were the preferred means. Mrs Golding, then District 5 Chairman, visited on several occasions and was much admired for her strong individuality and outstanding presence.  In 1936 she presented our Charter in a ceremony held in the Midland Hotel, Manchester.

In the 1930’s interclub visits were beginning and the Altrincham and Manchester Clubs are recorded in the minutes.  In 1932 Mrs Anthony, a founder member, was District 5 Chairman and three years later she became National President, a great honour for the club.

During WW2 great efforts were made to support the country.  Members volunteered in hospitals, (especially the Parkside Military Hospital), and canteens, also with the evacuee scheme.  Garments were knitted for the Mayor’s Comfort Fund, Macclesfield Hospital and the British Sailors’ Society;  games and books collected for the searchlight battery at Ecton.

A very substantial fund-raising event was a ball held in conjunction with Rotary which featured a full-sized replica of a North Sea trawler which raised the princely sum of £3,200, (equivalent to about £150M in modern day money) and set something of a record.

In 1951 we formed the Macclesfield Support Group for the Leonard Cheshire Home.  When I joined the club in the mid 1970’s Doris Whiting was an active member of the group and was a speaker for the scheme.  Other charities regularly supported were the East Cheshire Hospice, Rossendale Trust, the Blind Society (with whom Mrs Enid Morley, Dinah’s mum, was much involved), the Talking Newspaper for which members of our club did reading, and given that we have a blind member, Lynne Gregory, the Guide Dogs’ Trust.

In the 1970’s and 80’s many members volunteered with good causes, for example a Darby and Joan Club was run in a local senior citizen’s home. But over the years most of these activities moved into professional hands and our efforts now are in fund raising for charities.

In 1979 our members supported the formation of the Macclesfield Castle Inner Wheel.  Like many other clubs our numbers have decreased and the loss of our associated Rotary in the first decade of this century did not help.  We have been fortunate in attracting members who did not have a Rotary background.  I was proud to second Manchester’s first attempt to introduce open membership at the Florence International Convention and, although it was rejected then and again in Dunedin, the light did finally dawn, which saved the day for our club.

At our 90^th Charter Celebration in 2017 we had wonderful support from clubs in our District.  It was our last big event before the virus shut us all down but hopefully not our last.

Barbara Wilson, Club Historian.