'A loss to the community' - Buxton social club for adults with learning difficulties shuts after three decades

Members of the Thursday Club on an outing, the group has now shut down as there were no volunteers to take over the running of the club. Pic submitted

The Thursday Club has been a regular in the Buxton social calendar for more than 30 years but as the organisers were unable to find anyone younger to take on the running of the weekly group it has now closed.

Treasurer, Philip Warhurst, said: “This is such a loss to the community and I’m disappointed we couldn’t keep the group going but we tried everything.”Philip, who is a trained accountant, was asked to be the treasurer of the group more than 25 years ago.

He and his wife went along to see what the group was about and ended up volunteering ever since.

He said: “The club is a place where people can come and see new faces and not be with their parents or carer.

“They decided what they wanted to do, be that play dominoes or bingo or do arts and crafts or even a jigsaw.

“The club was their independence and a place where they had control.

“It was popular too we had 25 members most weeks.

“And it was so full of laughter, we enjoyed being there and spending time with the users and going on trips with them.”

Events were arranged to include discos, karaoke, line dancing, exercise classes, Morris dancing and anything to do with music.

Local trips were organised to ten-pin bowling, Tittesworth Reservoir, Blaze Farm ice cream parlour, shows at Buxton Opera House, including an annual trip to the pantomime.

Philip said: “We used to be based out of Queen’s Court in Fairfield but we had to stop during the pandemic and then after we relocated to Hardwick Square but they could only fit us in on a Friday and lots of our users were busy on Fridays so numbers started to drop.

“We are all getting on in our years so we have tried to recruit new and younger volunteers but no one is interested so we made the sad decision to close.”

The members agreed that, having supported BBC Children in Need since 2007, the remaining club funds should be donated to this worthy cause.

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