A History of Seaham Phab Club
In the first of a series of histories chronicling great Phab clubs of the past, Susan Topping recounts the journey of Seaham Phab Club, the club she helped run for over 40 years.
Seaham Phab Club ran for approximately 60 years and was set up by Diana Robison, a Geography Teacher at Seaham Comprehensive School. The club was based there for many years and recruited its non-disabled members from the school's staff and sixth form, which is how I became involved with the club.
I started as a volunteer with the club in 1981 when I was in the sixth form and Karen Blackford started the following year. We have been involved in running the club since Diana retired in 1987 and kept in touch with her until her death a couple of years ago. Until the club closure we had one member with us who started before Karen and me – Michael McQuillam!
During 1980s/1990s we took part in a number of outdoor activity weekends, mainly at Askrigg in Yorkshire and also at Kielder and the Calvert Trust in the Lake District where our members took part in activities such as abseiling, canoeing, rock climbing, windsurfing and archery. The club also took part in many Heartbeat Hikes in both Leeds and Manchester. We also used to have at least two day trips away each year to places such as Whitby, York, Leeds, Bridlington and Seahouses.
In the early days we used to meet up with Southwick Phab for social events then for a lot of years we used to meet up at least twice a year with other Phab Groups in the Durham area including Dunelm and Abbey Phab for Easter parties, Christmas parties, activity days, residential weekends and for the celebrations for Phab's 40th and 50th anniversaries.
Until Covid hit we were based at Dawdon Youth and Community Centre and met once a fortnight on a Monday evening where we did things such as quizzes, bingo, games nights, ceramic painting, we also used to have meals out at various local pubs/restaurants and go ten pin bowling and have social evenings with Durham Phab groups. The club had many annual residential weekends away and in the past have been to the Trefoil Centre at Edinburgh, York, Blackpool, Leeds and Center Parcs in the Lake District.
When our group became older and smaller our residential weekends were held at The Blackwell Grange Hotel in Darlington for leisurely weekends of eating, swimming and shopping. We have also enjoyed many Saturday nights out at the local greyhound stadium too and on occasion have been successful with our bets! A few members of the club used to meet up every two months on a Saturday evening and go to a local bistro for tapas.
As well as members subs and raffles, we received our funding from the local Ladies and Men’s Darts teams and we were amongst a group of local charities in the area invited to various events held by the Mayor/Town Council who also gave us funding which was mainly spent on our transport for outings.
After Covid we decided to meet monthly on a Saturday. Karen and I decided to retire after over 40 years of Phab adventures, so the club closed at the end of 2023 with around 14 members - and most of us still meet once a month on a Saturday at one of our local pubs!
