Some information on what we are about

We have three first-class snooker tables, a tv/games room, an extended kitchen, an extended activity room, a super garden and excellent refreshment facilities. 

We participate in local snooker and billiards leagues, hold regular competitions, events, excursions and exhibition matches.

Membership is open to anyone over the age of 65, or anyone aged 50 and over who is unemployed or in part-time employment. 

We also welcome visitors who need to be accompanied by a Full Member. For fees, please contact us for further information

Regular visitors can apply to be Associate Members who can attend and use our facilities with a Full Member.

Associate Members pay the same table fees as Full Members, can play in competitions and have access to all facilities whilst on the premises.

For a small annual fee, anyone can become a Social Member.

They receive regular email updates about what's happening at the institute, get priority tickets for all events, at lower prices than the public and can attend our meetings.

We currently have around 100 Social Members who regularly take part in our activities

Coffee Mornings are held every first Saturday of the month from 11am until 1pm. 

Come along and enjoy a cuppa and fantastic home made food, purchase some of our garden products and have a look at what we do. We sell tickets for events that aren't already sold out. 

You might even want to become a member

We have a Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, and six other Trustees which make up our Full Committee.

Our Constitution is very important to us, and in the way we conduct our business.

We are very pleased to have the full quota of 10 Trustees.

The committee is formed every year at our AGM, usually during the first week of October

We've recently transformed land at the side and at the rear of our building into a Community Garden. 

It won an Outstanding Award in Northumberland in Bloom.

We are always looking for new members to join us and get involved with planting, weeding and painting, or just socialising in this quiet and secure area. We provide outside activities like barbecues for our members.

The Garden Club meets every Thursday from 1pm

Thanks to grants we've managed to obtain in the last few years we've extended our kitchen, refurbished our toilets and meeting room, redecorated inside and out, replaced our carpets, upholstered and heightened our seats, upgraded our snooker tables, installed CCTV, upgraded our lighting, hot water and ventilation systems, installed an electronic entry system and a new PA system.

And created a Community Garden......

and we aren't finished yet.......

But we're happy with where we've got to..

Due to the popularity of our events, we've  extended onto land we own at the front of the building.

We've also changed the layout of our current main room.

These changes have given us the opportunity to hold other events, and to increase the capacity of our current activities - which sell out almost immediately!

We completed the extension in July 2024

We've now got five groups who've recently signed up to use our new Activity Room.

We're still looking to welcome more small activity groups. 

We have a nicely-furnished tv/games room with new furniture and network points which acts as a meeting/activity room to hold up to 30 people. 

Let us know if you have an idea we might be able to help you with

We've recently replaced one of our snooker tables. We now have three tables in excellent condition, and they are kept in good condition through regular maintenance by our volunteers.

We replace equipment regularly and have an electronic scoreboard which we use for matches.

We have four snooker and billiards teams in total, run regular competitions for our members and host exhibition matches

We run around six nights each year where we have live music, bingo, a quiz, a raffle, a snowball and pie and peas.

These nights sell out very quickly, with our members picking up the 90 tickets before they go on sale to the public.

Many acts have returned several times and we've had groups as well as individual artists.

Our extension means we can get twice as many in as we previously could