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The Allenby Old Age Pensioners Club:
This Club met weekly on Wednesdays, had a membership of 152, with an average
attendance of over 100. The Club is social, and entertainment and refreshments were
provided at each meeting. Five seaside outings were arranged by this Club, the organiser of
which takes a special pride in the fact that the Club is entirely self-supporting, and that a
small orchestra has been formed by members of the Club.
The United Old Folks Club:
The average attendance at this Club was 170-200. Meetings were once a week on
Mondays and these were social with entertainment provided. The members had several
free outings to the seaside, including one special visit to the country for the elderly housebound.
At each free outing, a gift of five shillings was given to each member, and on one
occasion, a High Tea was provided. There was also an Easter Gift of five shillings to every
member, and during the year two evening outings were arranged to Twickenham and district,
where an entertainment was given and refreshments provided. A Christmas party,
including a gift for each member of ten shillings, Christmas parcels and gifts for the sick
were also provided from this Club, and a free pantomime outing attended by 160 members.
St. John's Church Old Folks Club:
This is a social Club, having 61 members and providing entertainments and outings.
The average attendance at the weekly meetings was 45.
Other Services:
A service for the provision of cheap laundry and a cheap boot and shoe service are
available for Old Age Pensioners. The North Thames Gas Board offers a free service of
inspection of the gas appliances and service pipes in houses of Old Age Pensioners living
alone. The reason for this is to reduce the risk of gas poisoning, a frequent cause of home
accidents and fatalities in old people. The offer includes, if the financial circumstances
warrant this, free replacement of faulty pipes and the free repair of faulty appliances. To
take advantage of this offer, lists of old people living alone are submitted from the Public
Health Department and in due course the homes of the persons nominated on the lists are
visited by the Gas Board Officers. Fresh lists continued to be supplied from time to time.
A visiting library service for old people who were housebound was started early in
1959—operated by the Southall Old People's Welfare Committee, and with distribution
assisted by various young people's groups. This has proved to be a very successful scheme,
not only because the elderly obtain reading material without effort, but because the voluntary
visitors, who include young people from the Girl Guides, give pleasure by their interest
in the old people, and even during the worst weather of 1963 the library van did not fail
in its weekly visits.
Southall Association for the Occupation of the Elderly:
The Work Centre for the Elderly situated in the Municipal Sports Ground, and maintained
by a voluntary association supported in part by Middlesex County Council and
Southall Borough Council, continued to operate throughout 1963. The number working
there at the end of the year was 45. A second Centre in Featherstone Terrace was built in
1963 and opened at the end of the year with 12 workers. Various types of work were carried
out, carding buttons, trimming and stamping of metals bolts, trimming of rubber, sorting
of porcelain fittings, etc.
Any Old Age Pensioner was eligible to apply for work under this scheme and once
taken on was kept on whether his or her output could be considered significant or not.
Payment was made at the rate of 1/- per hour with bonuses at holiday periods. Cups of tea
were provided for the workers, and excursions, visits, and a Christmas party were arranged
for them by the Organisers.
National Assistance Act, 1948, section 47:
National Assistance (Amendment) Act, 1951:
No case was dealt with under these powers during 1963.
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