Last updated at 14:39, Monday, 11 June 2012

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FEW Furness social groups have kept going so long and drawn so little attention to themselves as Dalton Book Club.

It was founded in 1764 and still meets every month. Although not the first group of its kind, it is now widely regarded as the oldest survivor in the world and is due to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2014.

To meet this anniversary in sound health the club is keen to attract a few new members to get back to a full compliment of 29.

This arbitrary number is just one of a whole host of ancient rules and token fines which keep alive the traditions which would have been familiar to the first Dalton Book Club members – then called simply ‘Dalton’s Club’.

They met when Mozart was a still a lad of eight and composing his first symphony and when Captain James Cook was about to embark on a voyage of discovery and claim Botany Bay, Australia, for Britain.

Local historian Jim Walton said 17 of the founder members were drawn from a group of men called the Four and Twenty – a kind of local authority which emerged after Furness Abbey was shut by Henry VIII.

He said: “The 24 men who came to rule the lives of everyone in the town were all successful farmers or property owners, and their word was law.”

The current president John Phillipson said Dalton Book Club was a lending library with a changing range of around 100 books to chose from and provided a social occasion for old friends to meet, chat and enjoy a drink.

He said: “The original idea to form a lending library was not uncommon at the time, as small lending libraries existed in Ulverston and in Urswick and in other small towns and villages all around the country.”

In the 18th century books were expensive and out of reach to all but wealthy people. It made sense to share the cost between a group.

Mr Phillipson said: “The Parish of Dalton in those days extended over much of lower Furness and in the early years of the club, some members travelled on horseback to the monthly meeting from homes as far distant as the Isle of Walney and Rampside to the west and to the edge of Windermere to the east.”

With the growth of technology, people have found other ways to gain information but Mr Phillipson hopes that there will always be a need for a Dalton Book Club.

He said: “It can be certain that those gentlemen of ‘Dalton’s Club’ would never in their wildest dreams have thought that their quite small lending library would eventually hold the distinction of becoming the longest continually running lending library in the world.”

Its unique set of records is now kept in the archive at Barrow.

Bill Jones, who will shortly become the new club president, said: “Just about every meeting since 1764 has been recorded with the exception of a few during the war years.”

Membership is by invitation and meetings are held every fourth Wednesday in the Court House Restaurant on Market Street, Dalton.

If you want to find out more about becoming a member, get in touch with honorary secretary Harry Miller on 01229 584178.

First published at 10:41, Saturday, 09 June 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk