Come & Welcome WMC

[Tinkerbelle]

My nan and grandad used to steward the Come and Welcome WMC in the early 90’s … is it now known as the Parkview is this a different place please?

[Margaret Pilkington]

Tinks, I do not think they are the same place.
Now I could be wrong and if I am maybe someone will correct me.
Park view was known by the locals as the ‘bottom’ club.
Clayton was quite territorial and Top enders and Bottom Enders were a breed apart.
My recollection is that the Top club(diagonally opposite to The Greyhound pub at the bottom of Church Lane) was the Come and Welcome.
If there is anyone out there who can give you a better bit of info, then I will bow to their superior knowledge.

[Tinkerbelle]

Ahh ok thanks for that Margaret. I only visited them there once as I was living in Blackpool at the time they were stewarding here and thought the building didn’t look familiar on google street view. I spent a lot more time with them when they had the Pioneer at Church.

Is it still a club do you know? I very rarely have reason to venture Clayton way these days.

[Margaret Pilkington]

No, it is an Indian Restaurant now.

[Tinkerbelle]

Thank you again Margaret :-)

[Margaret Pilkington]

You are welcome.

[Lost in Cornwall]

Come and Welcome was the Middle Club.

[Margaret Pilkington]

See, I knew someone would know.

[Lost in Cornwall]

Can't remember what the top club was called though.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I have lived in Clayton all my married life (58 years in October) but I cannot for the life of me remember it being called anything but ‘the top club’.
It has always intrigued me that there was such rivalry between ‘top Enders’ add ‘bottom Enders’.

My late mother in law lived in Henry Street and when the homes were being demolished for the motorway, she was moved into a flat near the Forts Arms.
She was mortified because that would make her a ‘bottom Enders’.
I don’t think she ever got over it and she did not like living there, but she had no choice.

[Lost in Cornwall]

Margaret I left Clayton nearly 50 years ago but I'll always be a bottom ender.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Yes, and those who were not born here do not ‘get ‘ this division.
I don’t get it because I ‘married’ into Clayton.
My mother in law was a top ender and even though she migrated to the bottom end…she was still a top ender.

[AccyMad]

Originally Posted by Tinkerbelle

Ahh ok thanks for that Margaret. I only visited them there once as I was living in Blackpool at the time they were stewarding here and thought the building didn’t look familiar on google street view. I spent a lot more time with them when they had the Pioneer at Church.

Is it still a club do you know? I very rarely have reason to venture Clayton way these days.

Hi, the Come & Welcome or 'middle club' as it was always known unfortunately isn't a club anymore - it was used as a youth club for a while but to be honest I'm not sure that the building is even there anymore.
The only one of the three still open is Park View - otherwise known as the bottom club