SULGRAVE SICK AND DIVIDEND CLUB
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This was created some time in the 1920s, primarily to provide a cash benefit for anyone who became ill.
It was properly constituted with the appropriate officers and stewards appointed at each Annual Meeting.
Members subscribed on shilling (5p) a week to the Treasurer of the Club, who sat in the present Reading Room each Monday evening, and themembership included people from most of the surrounding villages as well as Sulgrave.
A member who fell sick was entitled to a cash benefit of ten shillings (50p) per week for the first six weeks of illness, after which a doctor's certificate had to be produced by the claimant for the benefit to be continuyed. it was the duty of the Club's officers to ensure that all claims were genuine.
In order to boost the Club's funds, a whist drive and dance were held once or twice a year, and there was also an annual Club Day, usually held at the beginning of June, when various events took place and a band played and marched round the village led by the chairman of the Club. A small fair also attended, setting up on the grass by the church or on the green near the Old Stocks, and usually remained for a day or two after the Club Day.
The Club's activites appear to have been suspended during the 1939-1945 years, but were resumed after the war, this time the members subscriptions being collected in one of the rooms at the Six Bells public house.
At the end of each Club year in December, the balance remaining in the Club's funds was divided between the members and paid out before Christmas, and this was, therefore, the 'Dividend' part of the 'Sick and Dividend Club'.
With the improvements in state sickness benefits after 1948, the Club's value began to diminish and it was finally closed down.