📸 The Skidmores Story – Part Eight: The Captain

In the 1930s, when the days work was done at Skidmores on The Parade, Stanley Hugh Skidmore did not have far to go.

The Village Club in Mendip Avenue, directly opposite the shop, was where many evenings were spent.

You can picture it, the skittle alley, the crack of the pins, the murmur of conversation rising into laughter.

Stanley was not just one of the players.

He was Captain of the 1930–31 skittles team.

The photograph shows him holding the trophy in his good arm, standing among teammates who were not just players, they were friends. Faces seen every day in the village. People who had worked very long hours in shops, on building sites and in local trades, but who still found time to gather, compete and enjoy one another’s company.

But what stands out most is not just the sport.

It is the kindness.

In 1931, the club formally thanked Stanley for his “assistance and kindness” in organising a fundraising draw for a piano. It is there in the careful handwriting of the minutes, a quiet acknowledgement of the kind of man he was. Someone who gave his time freely and supported those around him.

Later in the decade, he donated a set of darts to the club. The darts team went on to finish runners up in the Worle Dart League. The second photograph captures that moment, trophies out, shoulders squared, pride shared quietly.

Life in the village was not easy in those years. People worked hard, and money was not plentiful. But evenings at the Club mattered. They were where friendships were strengthened, where laughter softened the days work and where belonging was built.

Stanley was part of that, not occasionally, but consistently.