At Manchester show on 6 November, Sarah Cudbill asked me why there was a show in Manchester. Conversations with David Montgomery and Phil Hall have given me the following information, and Phil had photos too, see opposite.
Greater Manchester Mouse Club was formed in 1977. The following paragraph appeared in Fur & Feather:
“NEW MOUSE CLUBI am very pleased to announce that a new mouse club has been formed with a committee consisting of Mrs.D.Cooper, Miss Brenda Dickinson, Jack Hartley, Vincent Burke, Frank Hawley, Ingram Davies, Phil Hall and Derek Taylor.The name of the club will be The Greater Manchester Mouse Club and our first show will be held on December the 10th 1977. Our venue is a modern building in Stretford, 3 minutes from the M63 Motorway, junction A56.”
Doreen Cooper was not an original member of the committee in fact. The first schedule appeared for a show on 10 December, with a new venue of Sale Moor Methodist Church, so presumably the planned venue fell through. There were 54 classes; the judges were Jack Wormald, Eddie Longbottom and Bernard Longbottom. A later report showed Jack Hartley won BIS, Frank Hawley BOA. I don’t know the varieties.
The first secretary was Ingram Davies. Later secretaries were Dek Taylor, Colin Taylor, then myself. I can’t remember exactly when I started as secretary but it was in the mid eighties, so I’ve stuck it longer than all my predecessors put together!
It’s a really good venue but until a few years ago the staging was all kept in the cellar under the floor and had to be lifted out and put back for every show. It was a heavy job.
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