FACT SHEET

The Rotary Club of Sheffield was formed in July 1919, Chartered 24th October 1919, the 24th Club in Great Britain and Ireland.

The Sheffield Club currently has 40 members and the President for 2007-2008 is Stuart Webb. It meets every Monday night 6.15 for 6.30pm at the Holiday Inn in the centre of Sheffield. It is the senior club to four others, which meet in Sheffield. Namely Sheffield Vulcan, Abbeydale, Hallam and Wortley. Overall there are 188 Rotarians in Sheffield.

The Club has a long history of service to the community of Sheffield starting as the club was formed, when it undertook the mammoth task of providing a Christmas treat for the 5000 Sheffield widows and orphans from the First World War.

At the same time it formed within the Club, the Boy's Welfare committee, which still continue today with the unique Castleton Rotary Centre.

Over the years the Club was involved in the inauguration of the penny in the pound scheme, whereby in return for free treatment at the then City's voluntary hospitals, work people subscribed a penny from each pound they earned, with the employers adding one third to the amount raised. From this scheme also Christmas gifts were donated to every patient in hospital at the festive time and in 1969 there were 16 Rotarian Father Christmases on duty. Now the Club provides only one at the Children's Hospital, actually on Christmas Day.

On the breaking out of the Second World War a Services Canteen was established at the Croft House Settlement. It was manned every night by Rotarians and their wives. Statistics of food served are not available, but there is information that 332,000 Service Personnel attended, 997,000 meals and 658,000 cups of tea and coffee were served there. The Rotary Club of Sheffield bore the expenses the Settlement provided additional help and the premises. Rotarians also provided the only means of transport at night to get relatives, city wide, to a hospital, if they had been urgently called.

On the 6th December 1974 through fund raising of £90,000 by the Club, the then Minister of State for Health and Social Security opened the Head Injuries Unit. For several years the Club undertook the raising of the running costs, totalling £16,000 annually. In 1978 it was handed over to the Sheffield Health Authority. In 1991 there was a further substantial fund raising to carry out conversions in the unit, and further contributions have continued to be made over recent years. The Unit is under the wing of the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

The Rotary Club of Sheffield is a major supporter of Drug Awareness programmes in the city and has sponsored the many historic plaques in and around the City Centre. Recently through the work of four members of the club, an illustrated and widely acclaimed Historic City Centre Trail Booklet has been published to raise funds for the club's service activities, associated with Rotary Foundation.

A list of past and present Rotarians of the Sheffield Club reflect the industrial, business, academic, civic and voluntary life of the city. Members of the club speak of or reflect little about the past, which has been rich, but are always looking to the needs of today, and particularly of the citizens of tomorrow.

The Rotary Club of Sheffield is a dual gender Club although at the time of writing this fact sheet there are 3 women members. Wives and partners especially through the Inner Wheel play a great part in supporting the club, its activities and projects. The Club does welcome visitors because so much benefit of Rotary comes from fellowship. After all every member of the Rotary Club of Sheffield started as a visitor.

Castleton Rotary Centre

When the Rotary Club of Sheffield received its Charter in 1919 there were some 2000 boys in Sheffield whose fathers had been killed in the First World War (1914-1918). The care of these fatherless boys became the primary concern of the new club.

In 1920 the club supported an appeal by the Minister of the Victoria Hall which led to forty orphans having a camp style holiday at Bridlington.

This was so successful that the club decided to find a camp site nearer to Sheffield and the first choice was at Derwent in Derbyshire, where camps were held on rented land in 1921 and 1922. There was however a need for a site which could be developed gradually and exclusively as a Rotary centre. A member of the Club then offered the use of some of his land at Shatton and the first camp opened there in 1923 and continued annually until 1936.

In 1936 the present 29.5 acre site at Castleton was purchased by the Rotary Club members for £600, about £21 per acre and a further £1000 spent on the camp buildings. The Sheffield Rotary Camp Ltd. was formed. Capital £2,000. Minimum share £5. All the Sheffield Rotarians bought shares. Shares gradually left or donated or bought by the Club, who now 'own' the Centre, administered by a Charity Committee of the Club. The Ltd. Co. has been dissolved.

The land and building are owned by a charity formed by the Club and known as the Sheffield Rotary Charity.

Alderman Mrs A. E. Longden, Sheffield's first lady Lord Mayor, mother of the late Rotarian, Jimmy Longden, opened the new camp for the 1937 season.

Apart from the war years 1939/45, the camp has continued ever since and apart from giving summer holidays to needy boys - and more recently girls - from Sheffield.

A further development came in 1951 when the annual Castleton International Camp was inaugurated providing for groups of young men - and recently women - from all over the world to spend two weeks together in the interests of fostering and supporting better international understanding. This activity is now organised and run as a District 1270 project, with considerable help from our friends in District 1220.

More visitors meant more buildings and regular up-dating and general maintenance. The old pavillion was built in 1936. Late Rotary and Past President, Jimmy Mudford, donated £7,000 in 1965 to buy the wooden dormitory block. Previously tents were used.

Since 1964 the land and buildings have been made available to other organisations to hire. It is in constant use by Youth Clubs, Scouts, Guides, Schools, Colleges, Disabled groups, Religious groups, A.T.C. etc all use Castleton, from March to November. In recent years over 1,800 people have used our Centre annually.

Recent developments at what is now known as the Castleton Rotary Centre have included the provision of 1981 of a stone built dormitory block, sleeping 44, with central heating and showers, costing £80,000 including £10,000 for mains drainage to the village. In 1985 a stone built communal building consisting of kitchen and dining room, costing £70,000 opened. The project has generated substantial support from the Sheffield District Council Lottery, the Variety Club of Great Britain, the Scout Christmas Postal Service in 1984, the BBC Children in Need Appeals, the Yorkshire TV Telethon, the Sheffield Marathon in 1987 and a number of charitable trusts, plus gifts of cash and fittings from individual members and their companies.

A Charity Management Committee of Club members appointed annually by the Club runs the centre. The summer camps are the responsibilities of a separate Committee of the Club, who draw on the support of the Club members for the running and financing, the now three weeks of the Rotary Club of Sheffield's Summer Camps, now in their 86th year!

The centre is now used all year and bookings are often made 12 months in advance. Details from Rotarian Jeremy Holmes on 0114 281 3132.