Club History

Archives of meetings and exhibitions from 1999 to 2011 can be found in Archives 2005 to 2010 and Archives 1999 to 2004.

The South West Meccano Club was founded in 1984 by Malcolm Hanson who had a passionate interest in Meccano and other model building systems.  Malcolm drew together like-minded modellers using the poster shown on the left and the club was born.  Initially, there were just 8 members but the registered numbers peaked at 79.

Malcolm in pensive mood Skegex 2014

Up until 2014, the club had no specific constitution, being run very ably by Malcolm as a one-man band and the club made great progress in those years.  As of 2014, Malcolm indicated his wish to retire as the driving force (and only worker) and a committee was formed under Malcolm's Presidency to spread the load and move the club into its second 30 years.  Our members (builders and collectors) continue to meet and exhibit at our own and other groups' exhibitions and meetings and we would encourage all modellers and collectors, young, old, experienced or novice to join us and move this fantastic hobby forward.

Details about how to contact or join us may be found on the Information about our Club, Contacts and the Join us pages.

One feature of our club has been our annual exhibition held initially at Long Ashton and then more recently at other halls, usually on the outskirts of Bristol.  In the early days, these exhibitions were heavily adverised and very popular in the locality and we were able to use some of the resulting profits to make donations of Meccano building sets to local organisations, principal of which was the Bristol Children's Hospital.

 

You can read more about Malcolm on Malcolm Hanson's Page, and see lots of his photos on the Malcolm's Photos page.