The following is a brief history of the club and some of the interesting people who helped through the years to make build the club as it is now. As remembered by Mr Maurice Snoxall one of the early pioneers of the club

Now, in the beginning (1890) the club was started by a few men, or lads as they were then, of the village in a room above the chemist’s shop (now the car park) in St John’s Road, which was owned by a Mr Marshall, who was a gentleman with a very long beard; also Mr Maylin, known to all as ‘Tommy’ who was white haired and at that time was the Station Master at Boxmoor Railway Station. My father, who was the village postman, was another of the founders and of course knew all the nobility and people of the village.

In those days the club was a reading room, although they did invest in a bagatelle board. The club stayed in these premises until St John’s Church parish rooms in Horsecroft Road which was a two room building with a house for the caretaker.

The first caretakers of the club were a Mr and Mrs Edmonds. They were a very small couple but Joey, as he was known, had an air of authority and was feared by all.

The ‘top room’ as it was known was rented at a cost of 10 shillings per year, and all church functions were held in the bottom room; this had a small kitchen attached, which during the 1914 –18 war, was used as a soup kitchen where we used to queue with a jug for soup and a piece of bread.

When I first entered the club as a young lad of 12 or 13 in about 1920/21 I was allowed to walk and sit quietly on a huge settee that stood on the right hand side as one entered. On the left was a pew taken from St John’s Church. Boxmoor and the billiards table was in the centre of the room which was then the Boxmoor Working Men’s Club.

The heating in those days was just a coal fire and the lighting for both billiards and the room was gas.

A committee was formed and to the best of my knowledge Mr Maylin was Hon. Secretary, Mr Badcock Hon.Treasurer, Mr A G Snoxall Chairman and Mr Bannister, Mr McCarthy, Mr Oliver and Mr (Nobby) Clark formed the committee. The club at that time consisted of some 30 members and the subscription was 6 shillings per year.

The club started to grow as new members were introduced a billiards table was presented to the club by Mr Gulliver who lived in a beautiful house in Chaulden Lane.

The billiard table was a great treasure and asset it was kept in impeccable condition by Mr George Sells who brushed and ironed it regularly.

Cards were the other form of amusement and the same fours used to sit down night after night, playing bridge and solo. The club closed at 10pm.

When Mr Wilkins became a committeeman he introduced us to the Hemel and District Inter-Club League. Other committee members were Mr Byron, Mr Walsh, Mr Bonner, Mr Waller and Mr Smith.

As the club grew and grew so I became more and more interested and at last I was allowed to have the odd game of billiards when only a few members were present. The procedure then was to enter your name on a list and place 4p in the box specially made for the purpose, and this entitled you to half an hour on the table. Snooker in those days was rarely played. The four players that might play were George Sells, Bert Sells, Herbert Holliman and Cyril Clark and they would have a side stake on the game. This was very much frowned upon by other members of the club but gambling went on and I used to see the coppers being slyly passed from one to another after an evening of cards.

In 1919 the St John’s Church boys Club was formed and they used to meet on a Friday evening in the bottom room of the club. It was a get together to pick the team for Saturday’s football match. The founder was our schoolmaster Mr Jenkins, on Sunday afternoons he held a bible class in the same room. The singing was appalling, as one can imagine, about 30 youths with voices breaking. His addresses were always very interesting and after going through a passage of the Bible he always reverted to the football match played on the Saturday.

I remember one particular Sunday afternoon when a tramp passing by heard the singing and just walked in. Mr Jenkins asked him to sit down and invited him to join the service, which he gladly did. Our collection that afternoon was for the sick and needy; he had a good collection.

You may well ask what this has to do with the Boxmoor Social Club – it was from this example that this club has been built, the spirit if which still exists today – and may it continue.

As the lads grew and matured they then joined the CIU Working Men’s Club.

In 1930 St Johns Hall was built and the Horsecroft Road premises were put up for sale. The club soon got down to business and members were asked to donate money to put down in order to raise a mortgage. Mr Andrews (father of Vi Snoxall), Mr F D Snoxall, Mr Wilkins and Mr A G Snoxall were made trustees. In order to make things pay it was evident that a bar was needed and Mr Ken Snoxall (past president) and his partner Mr W Edwards commenced work to build one. This was accomplished with the aid of various members who gave their labour free and the only expense to the club was for materials.