THESE children were in a hurry.

They were anxious to get to best seats on the coaches that were to take them on a day out.

They were preparing to leave Oxford and enjoy the delights of Dudley Zoo in August 1961.

The word was given that it was time to board the coach – and they started running towards the coach as the camera shutter clicked.

They were all children of members of Cowley Workers’ Social Club.

We know little about the trip, because when the Oxford Mail published a similar photograph at the time, only the briefest of details were given.

The caption read: “A day out at Dudley Zoo. Some of the 250 children aged nine to 13 who were taken in six coaches from St Luke’s Church, Cowley, on the Cowley Workers’ Social Club annual children’s outing.

“They were accompanied by members of the club committee.”

Cowley Workers’ Social Club is said to have been formed by six people who left Cowley Conservatives to form a club for working men.

The inaugural meeting was held on April 15, 1929, at the Village House, opposite the former St Luke’s Church in Oxford Road, Cowley.

The Village House, the former home of a professor and commandant of the Military Academy at Cowley, became the club’s first home, opening on May 31 that year.

Early members paid sixpence for a pint of beer, and the club’s first electricity bill was for £1 0s 3d.

The club had to find new premises when its site was compulsorily purchased for a road-widening scheme.

In 1970, it moved round the corner into a new £140,000 building in Between Towns Road.

In its heyday, it had more than 4,000 members, about half of them car workers, and had to close its ballroom to prevent overcrowding when top entertainers performed.

Activities included bingo, pool, snooker, shove halfpenny, dominoes, crib, indoor Aunt Sally and discos.

Do you recognise yourself or anyone else in the picture, and have any memories of this and other club outings?