The Mudeford Club

Mudeford Men's Club was founded in March 1928 by a group of local fishermen, who hired a room in the local village hall to hold their meetings. They brought along their own beer and enjoyed each other’s company. There is evidence that a group had been meeting since 1923, but it was not until later that the Club was properly formed and the first President was The Reverend Wynne-Hall, who remained in office until 1934.

The first Clubhouse was then constructed by the members, opposite the village hall, it was called “The Green Hut”, a green corrugated iron structure, and they named it “Mudeford Men’s Club”, this lasted until 1970. At this time the “Green Hut” was demolished and the Club in it’s present form was built, in stages, as money allowed. Members are rightly proud of the Club’s heritage, the entire project since 1927 to the present day has been funded, designed and built by Club members.

After the Great War, many of the Mudeford fishermen on returning from the war and missing the cameraderie of service life, started to meet in a hut at the rear of the (old) village hall. They soon started to take a drink into the hut with them (which was unlicensed) and consequently the locals started to refer to them as ‘Pussyfooters’. This was because the main proponent of prohibition in the U.S.A. at that time, was ‘Pussyfoot’ Johnson. This was the start of the Pussyfoot Club.
(See the black and white photo in the Men’s Bar of the ‘Stanpit Road Pussyfoot Club’).

The ‘Pussyfoot Dinner’ commenced in 1970 and has been a regular annual event since then. The seafood meal is in defference to the founders of our Club. Fisherman still work out of Mudeford and several familes are members of the Club.