Volunteer members of the Ashford Road club have completed a huge revamp to celebrate 125 years of the club being open.

Midday today will see club president Clive Loveday cut the ribbon for its grand reopening.

The club has a long history, established in 1896 as a Working Men's Club for working men to meet and talk.

Members and others involved with the club have completed a massive refurbishment that took several months.

Club secretary Jennifer Brownley says: "I want to say a huge thank you to all of the volunteers who have worked tirelessly to renovate the Ashford Road Club, day and evening.

"The club is a labour of love. There are nine of us on the committee now and we have always done it completely for free. We are all volunteers.

"We've only really paid a couple of professionals during this whole renovation project. Everything else has been done by a small group of members, all of us volunteers.

"I am super proud of everyone. Our committee has really modernised the club. We've just installed a new, state-of-the-art jukebox. We've got five flatscreen TVs, and two projector screens - one upstairs, one downstairs - ready for the Euros.

"We would also like to start allowing smaller businesses to use our upstairs area, and find other news to open up the club to the community."

One huge task was completely replacing the ceiling, as the old building was made of lath and plaster, which can collapse with wear and tear: "We took the whole ceiling down and installed new lights. I've never seen so much dirt and dust in my whole life.

"All of us were there for days on end taking the ceiling down and clearing the waste.

"The whole revamp has taken several months, because we had to socially distance and sometimes did it out of hours, until as late as 10pm. It's been constant cleaning."

Jenny says the club is keen to celebrate its history and heritage: "We have called our upstairs function room the Carr Barr, because the Carr family have been involved either as treasurer or secretary of the club for the last 65 to 70 years.

"We named the room in recognition of all their work.

"The club is actually owned outright by the members. We purchased the land back in 1899 for £600. That's part of how we've survived, with not having to pay rental fees.

"We have an original plaque for the club outside, but we are having an exact replica made and will hang the original plaque on the wall inside for all to enjoy."