A social club in the region is celebrating its 100th anniversary, much to the delight of its local community who have been there throughout the last century.

Ovington Social Club, which first opened its doors back on July 24, 1921 has been through many different scenarios over the last 100 years, but is still a popular location with customers in 2021.

“It was registered with the CIU - the Club Institution Union in 1921,” said club secretary John Little.

“At the moment there’s about 200 members and we’ve come through the difficult time of Covid.

“We opened up fully on Monday night but we’re still having restrictions – no standing at the bar because I’m a bit worried about the staff and there’s still one or two Covid cases in Ovington itself.”

John, who has been secretary at the club for the last 18 years, went on to explain some of the activities that have gone on at the club in recent times before the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s a social club with members from both the village and outside of the local area,” added John.

“We tend to have fundraising events which have made some very good marks.

“One member up until about last year had an annual Bobby Robson day making funds for the Bobby Robson foundation and made big money into the thousands.

“(They did) things like having a walk to Newburn then having a social night.

“We’ve done work for Marie Curie and Macmillan nursing and Tynedale at Hospice to give them local charities support.

“We have the usual domino’s, darts and pool activities. It’s used by locals for hirings and occasions and we have a very nice function room.

“We’d like it to be more of a village activity unit.

“You can’t force everyone to come but its a very good asset for the village. A lot of villages would like an asset as good as the club that we have.”

“We have done a fair amount of renovation work while we’ve been in the lockdown situation

“We’ve decorated the bar totally and carpeted the passage way. We’ve decorated the kitchen and just revitalised it!

Although the club remains popular 100 years after it first opened, it did however have to recover from a large fire that took place in 1991 that devastated the building.

“It had quite a serious fire and it caused them to re plan the club,” explained John.

“The cellar was moved to the outside wall away from where it was, building the pool room on and generally just getting it into a more up to date kind of building.

"We (currently) have a committee of six which we’d like to double - the more the merrier and the more help is always gratefully appreciated.”