The following two items will better serve to describe the aims and activities of the society.  The first is an article written by the late Mrs Ivy Punter for the April 1980 edition of the Netheravon, Fittleton & Haxton Newsletter (issue no.20).

During my childhood in Netheravon, over seventy years ago, the chief event of the year was the Top Hat Club fete, which was always held on the 29th May (unless it happened to fall on a Sunday), and for months we carefully saved our pennies to spend on that special day.  The club had been formed about a century previously, as a sick benefit society, and the fete was a means of raising funds.  The village schools were closed for the day, and everybody, young and old, had a holiday.

The Club’s headquarters was at the Dog & Gun Inn, and a huge maypole, decorated with wreaths of flowers was always erected in the yard, where there were also several stalls selling sweets and various other goodies.

Proceedings began at 8.00 am, when all the members lined up in the main road for a roll call (no traffic then!). Absentees were fined half a crown, a fair sum when the average wage in the village at that time was £1 a week.   All members had to be properly dressed, that is wearing a long red, white and blue striped sash over the right shoulder, and afastened under the left arm, and a black top hat trimmed with red, white and blue ribbons.

Led by the Figheldean brass band (so named because it originated there, though in my time most of the players belonged to Netheravon), the club members marched through the village, halting for a while at all the larger houses.  At each, the band played a few tunes, and the club expected to receive gifts of money.  They usually first visited the Rectory at Fittleton, next the Manor, then Haxton Farm, and so on until about 11.30 a. when they reached Netheravon Church, where the vicar held a special service for them.

After this everybody assembled at the Dog & Gun for a cooked meal, laid out in what was known as the Skittle Alley.  The afternoon was taken up with visits to the outlying farms, and finally everybody arrived at the fairground in front of Manor Farm, halfway up White Sheet Hill, where the usual roundabouts, swings etc., were waiting to do business.

During the evening sports were held, and the band played for dancing, on a level space, where the grass was specially cut short for that purpose.

This Top Hat Club lost much of its popularity in the First World War, and in the early nineteen twenties faded out completely.