THE doors close on Leigh's former Royal British Legion Club for the last time this weekend.

Once one of Leigh's most popular clubs it will be flattened to make way for new homes.

Late last year B and D Croft Ltd, Leigh, applied for planning permission to build 28 apartments and five town houses, with access and car parking, on the site of the Windermere Road club.

Built in the 1950s, it was the base for an active 400-strong Leigh British Legion branch, and in its time was one of Leigh's hottest entertainment venues and widely renowned for its Wednesday nights when lorry drivers crammed the premises.

As membership declined, the building fell into disrepair and after a hard battle for survival, the Last Post finally sounded following the 2000 Remembrance Day parade.

The building was sold to a Leigh businessman who gave it a facelift, renamed it the Leigh Ex-Servicemen's Club and opened it up for community use.

Now the old soldiers who spent many happy hours in the club are sad to see the final curtain fall.

Member John Corbett said: "I don't know what to say. Some good times have been had in that club and to see it go into decline was a shame. Bob Rollins, who died recently at the age of 93, played a big part in getting it off the ground and would have been sorry to see it flattened."

Ex-branch president Bert Paxford said: "It will be a sad day to see the building go. The club thrived during the 60s and 70s and on Fridays and Saturdays there wasn't a seat to be had and we had to extend into the lounge for bingo.

"Sadly a recession in trade followed and with the old soldiers dying off we couldn't stay open. We weren't getting the younger soldiers in to run the club and sadly the situation is still the same with the branch today.

The Leigh branch is now operating from its adopted headquarters at Leigh Conservative Club.