English Gymnosophical Society
Wickford had the first British Naturism Club
During the 1950s, playground conversation between some school boys included talk about the nudist club in Wickford which was said to be in Castledon Road. With hindsight the information was probably handed down from one generation to the next. It was believed to be on the left hand side of Castledon Road, about 300 yards before the railway bridge as you approached from London Road. If this was correct the location was marked by a discrete five-bar farmer’s type gate, with an unmade track beyond. The whole area at the bottom of the unmade track was well shielded by high hedges, giving the impression that it might be the correct location. When I went to work I met older people who told me that Wickford was home to the first British naturism club. So what I had thought was just a school boy’s fantasy was in fact true. Fame for Wickford maybe, but it appears from contemporary reports that the nudist club location in Wickford was closed down in 1926, after being there for just two years – but it was the first!
For the purpose of this contribution to Wickford History I have researched numerous websites, and Wickford is very well documented as the home of British naturism. I have not found any mention of the address or whether Castledon Road was the actual location. Maybe there is someone in Wickford who actually knows. Here I distil what I have learned from various websites.
Michael Farrar, who is quoted on various websites, wrote that the United Kingdom’s first nudist club was started in Wickford in 1924. According to ‘British Naturism‘ the club chose the name ‘Moonella Group’, from the name or nickname of the owner of the ground. The story is that Moonella inherited a heavily mortgaged house with land in Wickford in 1923, which was then made available to certain members of the English Gymnosophy Society. They called the site ‘The Camp’ and it grew its membership from 8 to 25 people, meeting every weekend. Michael Farrar says the original club closed in 1926 because of building on adjacent land. In 1965 Moonella was still alive but their identity still remains a mystery.
In case you are wondering where the word gymnosophists comes from, Wikipedia says:- “Gymnosophists is the name (meaning “naked philosophers”) given by the Greeks to certain ancient Indian philosophers who pursued asceticism to the point of regarding food and clothing as detrimental to purity of thought (sadhus or yogis)”.
At the turn of the century Harold Booth published articles in many magazines about naturism. The English Gymnosophical Society was formed in 1922 by Harold Clare Booth, Mark Harold Sorensen and Rex Wellbye, as a direct result of these naturism articles. The society consisted mainly of male members who met in London at the Minerva Cafe at 144 High Holborn. The same building was also the headquarters of the Women’s Freedom League. By 1926 it had moved to Cheapside and was circulating its own journal and arranging public lectures advocating nudism. It was also renamed as the New Gymnosophy Society. With the closure of “The Camp” in Wickford in 1926 the members were then without a site. In May 1927, ‘Fouracres’ at Bricket Wood, near St. Albans, was acquired with the help of a Derbyshire benefactor, and also was at first called “The Camp”. Harold Booth died in 1943, Rex Wellbye in 1963.
Individuals who were allowed to join the Moonella Group were carefully vetted. An ‘upper crust’ of the original club members conducted the vetting and members had ‘club names’ to preserve their anonymity. There was a very different view of nudism in the 1920s, so members used assumed names to protect their identities. Some of the club names used were: –
Chong and Lorelli (Mark Sorensen and his wife Helen Morley Sorensen), Flang or fflang (Harold Booth), Gart, Moonella, Thwang (Roland Berrill), Tob (Mr. L.B.), Zex (Rex Wellbye).
The Committee had virtually all power in its hands. A member was known, for example, as The Noble Flang or the Gracious Moonella. They were even instructed how to write to one another, beginning “To the Noble Chong, greeting” and ending with a wish without verb or subject, for example “Blue Sky”, followed by the signature.
The wearing of sandals and headbands of brilliant colours was encouraged, provided that they were in Greek rather than oriental style. Jewellery was discouraged. Care had to be taken to avoid complimenting visitors and members upon their beauty. The club kept an attendance book, which in 1965 was still in the possession of Mark Sorensen who died in 1974. Is that attendance book somewhere in Wickford?
Who was Moonella? Unlikely, but there maybe family descendents who still live in Wickford? If they exist will they share their knowledge with Wickford History website?
It would be very interesting to know whether Moonella was in Castledon Road. Had the location been passed down through families over 30 years or was it just children’s playground gossip about the location?
I hope others will add their knowledge about this internationally known two year period of Wickford’s history.
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Editor: Leo Woodland contacted us – “Thanks for all your work on the Moonella site and club. They form part of my MA history dissertation and your research has been enormously useful.
It would have been lovely to talk to people who remember the club, or at least talk of it, but that’s to be over-hopeful given the age they’d be now.
Still, if there’s anything you can add, that would be really useful and well received.
My thanks again for your interest and work. Local historians provide so much that stories of kings and conquests don’t.
Happy days.”
I can confirm first hand there was a naturist club in Castledon Road in the 50s and 60s. It was called the Sunshine Club run by a Mr and Mrs Randall who lived in the bungalow up on the main road. The land behind this was owned by my grandparents who built a holiday bungalow for the family to stay outside London just after the war. At the bottom of that field, beyond a high hedge was the club but the members had to walk through my grandparents’ field to get to the club. As children we used to go down into the club to use the facilities and that’s where I learned to play badminton. Growing up I certainly had no illusions about what we look like after a certain age that’s for sure! As a youngster I never thought about the rights or wrongs, just happy smiling faces and good clean fun!
My mum worked in Chelmsford for the Essex county, and made friends with a woman who Mum told me was a nudist. I assume it was in Wickford as there were no other nudist camps, as far as we knew, around the area. It was fascinating to me as a young child to think of adults walking around with no clothes on. I worried they would catch cold.
I’m currently researching into the link between the Tolstoy Anarchist Colony of the 1890s in Wickford and the Moonella camp of the 1920s, for a publication. I’m wondering if anyone knows whether they involved the same people or the same location.
Also whether the Moonella camp just turned into the Sunbeam camp, mentioned above. Do we know when Sunbeam started?
Oh, this post has made me smile. Anyone who knows me well will know I was born and bred and schooled in Wickford. I had a paper-round for Bessie and Harry Harrington in their shop at the entrance to Station Avenue, leading on to Guernsey and Jersey Gardens. Over the years my weekends saw me scouring the fields with colleagues, carrying out field research and site investigations for crashed wartime aircraft. I’d heard the rumours of a nudist camp in Castledon Road, from my paper-round days, complete with the name of the bungalow ‘Sunbeam’, and high surrounding hedges, but thought, “Nudist camp? Wickford? Get out of it!” Then when down that way looking for the Messerschmitt Bf110 that was shot down on the 7th September 1940, just off of De Beauvoir Chase, a local mentioned the fact again, which stirred my earlier teen paper-round memory, complete with the name ‘Sunbeam’. I thought, “well they must have been brave for the weather round here” We have so much history in Wickford, why not? “Whatever floats yeah boat”, as they say!
Wickford Colony has just been name checked on Downton Abbey
I can confirm that the nudist camp ‘Sunbeam’ did exist and was at 133, Castledon Road. It was run by my grandfather, Fredrick Randell, who was a naturist. My nan Edith used to help him, although I don’t recall her being a naturist. My recollection is somewhat cloudy as I was born in 1957 and for as long as I remember it was a nudist camp. The bungalow that fronted Castledon Road holds many childhood memories, and I can also confirm the plot of land that it stood on was vast, in fact it stretched as far down as Sugden Avenue. The bungalow was demolished some years ago now and the land has been re-developed. If you have a genuine interest in this subject please feel free to ask any questions and I will endeavour to answer them.
Definitely Sunbeam. Main activities were in summer and weekends. Was run by Mr & Mrs Randall. Users played badminton and there were several small buildings that were sited at the end of the plot and just before the brook. Yes, high and thick hedges, but not thick enough!
I was a sunday paperboy for Adcocks of Wickford in the late 50s and early 60s before going to secondary school in 63, and although my main round was Church End Lane, I often did a second round and I recall doing the Castledon Road round many times including a larger delivery to “Sunbeam” which was a fairly large bungalow with a lot of land on the left just before the railway bridge. The talk in the shop was that this was a nudist colony and there was a sign on a large gate at the side saying “private – for Sunbeam users only.” Although I was nosy, peeping inside the letterbox and around the site I never saw anybody. I guess at 9 on a Sunday morning they were all wrapped up in bed . This is an excellent site and since finding it a couple of months ago and having been born, bred and raised in Wickford I see reports from people who I remember at school and leisure.
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