In The Beginning, There Were Just Two
Staff joined The British Beard Club in 2018. He contacted David Dade of TBBC about creating a local Thatch for the Stockport area.
Staff and Bob (Butty) created the Stockport Beards Club (as an official Thatch of TBBC) in 2018 based on the rules that were passed on by David at TBBC.
The rules are very simple. All members of Stockport Beards Club, must also be current members of The British Beard Club. All monies raised by the Stockport Beards Club are given to The British Beard Club for their charities.
Two Became Three
Paul (who worked with Staff at White Dragon Tattoo) joined in to make it three. They just needed somewhere to make a regular home for future meets.
Local press were asked to promote the Stockport Beards Club
Finding a home
Bob was setting up Vinabod at the time and he suggested that they could host the meetings there. The first official meet was in <April?> 2019.
<I need to insert a pic from first meet in here>
After Vinabod closed down, the group had a few meetings at Remedy Bar (which was being ran by another SBC member, Boff). A few meetings were held there, then COVID and the lockdown occurred.
Lockdown spirit
During Lockdown, the WhatsApp group was used to lift everyone’s spirits. This included: Guess which song, the group photos from a distance, the connection from a far.
It’s what made this club survive something that ended a lot of other things and I think it speaks to the strength and uniqueness of the club and highlights the community behind it.
Post-lockdown
In 2021, post lockdown and it was OK to go back out again, the group moved to the Angel Inn in Stockport, and that’s where we’ve been meeting every month, on the last Sunday of month, since then.