New Archdale's 73 club will be "best sports and social club in Worcester"

However, Jason Humphries said hope was tinged with sadness in what will inevitably be a bittersweet moment in the club's history.

The old building in Windermere Drive, source of so many memories, will be demolished within the next six months to make way for the new £1.7 million club which has been designed with input from members.

The new club will be paid for by the sale of land (about three quarters of the size of a football pitch) to Lidl which is building a new supermarket nearby and is responsible for the new look club on the same footprint as the old base.

The popular club has seen membership dwindle but Mr Humphries says he hopes the new sports and social club will prove popular with the community, old and young, giving it a new lease of life which will see it trade for another 40 years.

Over the years the club, which is owned by members, has been used as a pub for socialising and for skittles, tennis, football, darts, snooker, pool, bingo and for bands and dancers.

The last day of trading will be Saturday, March 14 but within six months members hope to be in a new sports and social club.

Mr Humphries, aged 43, said he will be ready to welcome them back.

He said: "It is going to be sad for all the folk who used the club but it's time to call it a day. It could not keep going the way it was.

"There's a lot of history. I do feel sorry for the older people. But it is the right decision for the club. This is a great opportunity for us to be part of the community and to revitalise the area.

"It's going to be great for families and great for everyone in the area.

"We got to make it entertaining and eyecatching for people so they say 'let's go to Archdale's. When they see the new club, bright and sparkly, they will come back hopefully and use it and come and see what we have to offer families in the area.

"It is going to be the best sports and social club in Worcester. No-one in Worcester is going to able to offer what we can offer."

He said thanks must be given to all the members, past and present, who had used the club. "The building is falling apart. It's dilapidated.

"The roof is caving in and there are problems with mould and damp.

"We didn't have the money to do it up. By selling off some of the land we have a lifeline."

The new club will have updated facilities, including a new football pitch, a pub, a large room to hire, a kitchen and new signs to advertise the club and a new entrance on Windermere Drive, facing the road.

Mr Humphries became involved in the committee for Archdale's with Gerry Mowbray who later died and who is still missed at the club.

But Mr Humphries said the club still had a great entertainment committee with around 10 members. The new club will be open to the rest of the community as a pub although he said members would be able to secure discounts and have their own lounge room.

A large metal fence has been erected around the grassed area opposite the clubhouse ahead of work on the new 2,400 square foot Lidl supermarket.

Lidl says the efforts will be stepped up in the spring, with the current work based around investigating the site before preparations start to demolish the clubhouse.

There will be 30 staff on the site, 10 more than the current Lidl on Blackpole Retail Park, which will close once the new site opens.

It will come with 134 parking spaces and the new-look supermarket will lead to a raft of tree planting to improve the landscape.

Lidl is aiming to get the new site fully finished and open during the summer.

History of the club

Archdale's Football Club was formed in 1926 by factory workers from the Birmingham based Archdale Machine Tool Company. In 1926 the factory relocated to Worcester, during this time other sporting clubs were formed including cricket, tennis and bowling.

In the late 1950s the Archdale family sold their interest to Staveley Machine tools. By 1972 Staveley closed Archdale’s despite having made profits of £3 million.

In 1973 the workers bought the club..