Cheshire Branch

Current status: Active

Welcome to the Cheshire Branch Home Page

A QUICK CHAT ABOUT OUR MEETINGS

We are now back in business at Larkhill Community Centre in Thorley Lane, Timperley WA15 7AZ. The long gap, during which we were unable to meet, was caused by our usual venue being pressed into service as a covid vaccination centre.

Our first meeting was on November 13th 2022, starting at the usual time, 10 am, and this was followed by a Christmas event on Sunday December the 11th. To celebrate, and thank the collectors for sticking with us, entrance was free and there was no charge to the dealers.

For 2023 we will be meeting on the second Sunday of every other month, starting on Sunday the 12th of February. You will find our next date by clicking HERE and working down to our name - just look for our pigeon card, which celebrates "A Cheshire Champion" in 1927, winning prizes and pools of over £600 - and that equates to £ 43,573.50 today. Sadly the pigeon`s name is not on the card, but research will continue!

If you plan coming to see us, we advise that you check out the hall`s own website at http://www.larkhillcentre.org.uk/ and this will give you maps and directions, plus a history of the hall, and a visual tour of the area.

And do note that tea and coffee is available but no food. However it is in easy walking distance to the town of Timperley

A WORD ABOUT OUR DEALERS

By the way if YOU stall out here, drop us a line and tell us what you sell. This is a free advert, simply as a way of promoting the branches and what they do. And we are happy to include photos of your stock and a link to your own website or sales pages

A LOOK INTO OUR ARCHIVES

The Cheshire Branch was founded in 2011, after the closure of Timperley, which you can read about below. It owes its existence to our long term Branch President, John Drew, who was the son of a card dealer from Bridgewater, Somerset - this was actually W.W. Drew, from West Country Branch - who decided that a club for card collectors in the Cheshire area must continue.

He found a small room at the High Lane Conservative Club, and contacted his former friends from Timperley, hoping that they would be able to tell any former members that he did not have the details for.

After a while he discovered that the Larkhill Community Centre in Timperley was available to use, and the Branch moved there in April 2012.

Thanks to his efforts, Cheshire is now one of the largest Society Branches, and he was made a life member of the Cartophilic Society at our Southport Convention in 2014.

Sadly he died in April 2020 but the club continues to remember him with everything they do.

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Timperley Card Collectors Club

This was a non-affiliated club founded by John Knowles of Hale in Cheshire in 1978.

He was also a huge part of the East Anglian Card Collectors Club, being their Auctioneer from 1981 until 2004 and their Chairman from 1987 until 2004, despite the fact that he lived in Manchester, and travelled across every month to attend.

The first Timperley Annual General Meeting took place on Sunday the 11th of March 1979, which seems to point to March being the starting month. As a souvenir of this event, regular attenders were given a set of Tommy Gunn “Medals”, but with a difference as they had the usual plain backs specially overprinted with “TIMPERLEY CARD COLLECTORS Presented to a Timperley Regular on the occasion of the first A.G.M. held on Sunday, 11th March, 1979. John Knowles.” These are listed in our British Trade Index part 3 as TIJ-1 and it also says that they are identical to anonymous set ZJ9-47, which was the Tommy Gunn "Medals"

That was not Timperley`s only card issue, for they also issued sets showing notable cartophilists? These ran to at least thirteen series and each set contained ten cards. The first appears to have been issued in 1980, based on the fact that the second was definitely issued in 1981. These will be listed at the end, to save slowing down the action as it were.

The September/October 1985 edition of “Cartophilic Notes and News” (Vol.13, No.133, p3713) gives more details of this club, said to be a success story from the North, where “John Knowles has successfully created the World`s largest card club”. They had well-attended meetings, and auctions with the sort of stock that encouraged attendance from all corners of the land. And they were also the first card club to hold a two day event.

. In the July-August 1987 edition of “CNN” (No.144 - its volume 14, but this information is missing from the magazine), a half page advert appeared for the club’s 9th Annual Rally, on Sunday September 13th, 9.30 am – 5.30 pm. This was to be attended by forty-two dealers, and there would be a major auction, to include sets of Taddy “Clowns”, Singleton “Atlantic Liners”, Wills “Soldiers” with the drummer, Woods “Yeomanry”, Faulkner “Kings & Queens”, Hudden “Boxers”, South Wales Tobacco “London” etc., plus types Wills “Collotypes”, Taddy “Klondyke”, rare cricket, etc. We will get that scanned and entered as we start the big update!

In 1999 they even hosted the Cartophilic Society Convention at Winsford. The commemorative card for that year was based on Alice in Wonderland, because, as the reverse tells us, Lewis Carroll was a Cheshire man.

The following year I have a record that they were meeting at Green Lane High School in Altrincham. The dates given, February 13th, and March 12th, 2000 were both Sundays.

However in 2011 came the sad announcement that John Knowles could not continue beyond the end of that year and the club closed.

TIMPERLEY CARD COLLECTORS "TIMPERLEY TYPES"

SERIES ONE : "A series of Ten" numbered 1-10, and dated 9.3.80.
SERIES TWO - backs say "A Second Set of Ten" - "Presented to a `regular` at the 3rd A.G.M. of T.C.C. on 8.3.81" - : 11. W. Morgan - 12. P.J. & J. Suter - 13. J. Nott - 14.T. E. Part - 15. Mrs. N. Dawson - 16. S.T. Donaghue - 17. E. Bentley - 18. D.C. Aldridge - 19. J.E. Wareham - 20.J.W.E. Beckett
"A Third series of Ten" numbered 21-30, and dated 1981-82
"A Fourth series of Ten" numbered 31-40, and dated 1982-83
"A Fifth series of Ten" numbered 41-50, and dated December 1982
"A Sixth series of Ten" numbered 51-60, and dated 1983-84
"A Seventh series of Ten" numbered 61-70, and dated Xmas 1983.
"An Eighth series of Ten" numbered 71-80, and dated 1986-1987
"A Nineth (sic) series of Ten" numbered 81-90, and dated 1986-87
"A Tenth series of Ten" numbered 91-100, and dated 1986-87
"An Eleventh series of Ten" numbered 101-110, and dated 1987-88
"A Twelfth series of Ten" numbered 111-120, and dated 1987-88
"A Thirteenth series of Ten" numbered 121-130, and dated 1987-88