HARTING Old Club will celebrate becoming the oldest surviving ‘friendly society’ in the country on Spring Bank Holiday with traditions hundreds of years old.

Records of 1738 first mention the club, which was formed to help the poor or unemployed people of the parish.

Current chairman, trustee, and fourth generation member David Barnard said: “Friendly societies surfaced in the early 1800s, a time of increasing poverty among farm workers.

“Workers paid in and got financial aid in times of hardship, illness or death.

“As far as we know, they have all gone, or expanded into today’s insurance and assurance companies.

“Ours appears to be the last still run in the original form.”

Members will get the annual Harting Festivities under way on Monday, in traditional manner.

They will meet at 4.30am to gather beech wood from Harting Hill to decorate the steps of the village church, and will erect a ‘tree’ in the square.

Then, wearing blue, red and white rosettes and carrying a tri-colour flag, a reminder of the Napoleonic Wars, they will march through South Harting to celebrate the opening of the festivities at 11am.

At the church, there will be a roll call, a service, and then a second march through the village and back to the Mens Club in Church Lane for a dinner.

Mr Barnard said: “We are very proud of what the club represents historically.”

And in time-honoured fashion, it has its very own mystery. In past centuries, the White Hart pub in the village was its home.

Subscriptions were paid there, and the landlord kept the money in a solid mahogany box with five locks with the keys held by trustees and the landlord.

Mr Barnard said: “About 1914, they started banking in Petersfield and trustees would regularly go and count it to make sure none was missing. In 1958 it disappeared, and no one knows where, or who took it.”

This year’s festivities include craft stalls, a carousel, dog show, sheep shearing, and live music.

Profits are shared among Harting charities and good causes. For details, visit the website www.hartingfestivit ies.org.uk