History & Heritage
From Kilgrimol School to today
The timeline
150 years on Clifton Drive South
1876
The building rises on Clifton Drive South
A handsome red-brick school takes shape at the edge of the young town.
1876
Kilgrimol School opens
John Allen founds Kilgrimol School in the new building.
1886
The night of the Mexico
The wreck that shaped St Annes and its lifeboat story.
1891
The world's first street collection
A local first, born of that same lifeboat tragedy.
1897
The District Club is founded
The first meetings were held at the St Anne's Palace Rooms, before the club moved across Garden Street to occupy upstairs premises on the corner of St George's Road.
Did you knowThe club did not begin on Clifton Drive. Its first meetings were held at the St Anne's Palace Rooms, before it moved across Garden Street to occupy upstairs premises on the corner of St George's Road.
1928
For sale: one school
Kilgrimol School closes; the building's next chapter begins.
1930
The five-pound promise
The club raises the funds to buy the building outright.
1931
The Mayor opens our doors
Officially opened at 262 Clifton Drive South on 23 May 1931.
1983
President Dawson
Les Dawson serves as President of the District Club, 1983–84.
2025
The doors come home
The Kilgrimol Room's original glass-panelled doors are reinstated.
2026
The club goes online
The District Club, at last, takes to the internet.
Articles
The Building & Kilgrimol School
Half a century a school, four years derelict, and reopened in 1931 as the finest club on the coast.
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The founder: John Allen
A phrenologist, a newspaperman and an inventor of lifeboats - the man who built the house we live in.
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The Kilgrimol Room
A quiet room named after a village that the sea took, in a building named after a school that took the name first.
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The Town the Club Grew Up In
St Annes was twenty-two years old when the DC was founded - and had already lived through the worst night in the history of the lifeboat service.
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Les Dawson at the DC
President 1983–84 - his name on the honours board in the club's own gold leaf, and his chair still in the corner.
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Gifts of Generous Members
A second roll of honour - screwed quietly beneath the things it paid for.
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Club Memories
A living page. The club's history is not only in the boards on the wall - most of it is in what members remember.
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Compiled from the club's own records and honours boards, the framed 1931 opening montage, and the ongoing work of member Steve Singleton. Where we have leant on external local history, we credit our sources beside the passages that need them.