Trimdon Labour Club

Trimdon Labour Club opened in its former state as a working men's club in 1919, serving beer to mineworkers from a barrel in a farmer's cottage. It fell into disrepair in the 1980s, before the local Constituency Labour Party took on the running of the club. A year later, in 1994, then-Shadow Home Secretary and MP for Sedgefield Tony Blair announced that he would stand to be Leader of the Labour Party. He succeeded, replacing John Smith, who had died suddenly of a heart attack.