100th birthday celebrations at Frome Bridge Club

THE co-founder of the Frome Bridge Club, Jenny Hazelgrove, recently celebrated her 100th birthday at home with her friends and family on Wednesday 31st May.

Jenny was born in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire in Scotland in 1923 and, after moving to Frome in 1976, set up the Frome Bridge Club with her husband Pat in 1978.

Jenny learned to drive when she was 17, and worked as a driver for the army during the Second World War. She still drives regularly and does all her own shopping.  It was in the army that she met her English husband, Pat Hazelgrove; Pat and Jenny had three children, George, Daphne and James. Pat left the army in 1949, and in 1957 the family moved to New Zealand, where they set up a farm and where their children were educated.

In 1976, Pat and Jenny returned to Britain, and when Pat got a job in Bath, they looked around for a house to buy – and chanced to end up in Frome.  Pat and Jenny had become regular bridge players in New Zealand, and not long after they had come to Frome, Pat thought he would like to do something positive for Frome, and this turned out to be setting up Frome Bridge Club in 1978.

“Frome Bridge Club has had many changes of meeting place, format, and personnel since then, but is now stronger than it’s ever been,” says the club. “Pat Hazelgrove died in 1997, but Jenny continued to play bridge and be on the Bridge Club Committee until the recent pandemic.  She still welcomes people to her house to play bridge, and remains a strong, independent person – and many of the people of Frome are better off for having the Bridge Club that Jenny and Pat started.”

For more information about the Frome Bridge Club visit: https://www. bridgewebs.com /frome/

Pictured: Jenny celebrating her birthday with friends and family.