Rustlers Square Dance Club was begun in Alresford in 1980 by Kath and Bert Spinney who had learnt Square Dancing whilst on a year’s teaching exchange in Canada in the mid 70’s.

On returning to England they started dancing at a club in Southampton and eventually persuaded their Caller, Brendan Davis, to come and lead a club in Alresford where they lived. Due to Brendan’s wife being ill, he was forced to give up Rustlers and Dave Negus took over the calling until he moved out of the area in 1983, when Bert, who had been on the same callers’ course as Dave, took over.

Although they had tried to introduce beginners, the numbers remained fairly static at about two squares each evening, so Kath and Bert decided to try to open an extension of the club in Alton and things looked up immediately. On a chilly Thursday evening in January 1993 over 40 potential members came through the door of St Lawrence Church Hall and most of them came back regularly - in fact, a few of those from that first evening are still dancing with Rustlers 15 years on.

A few years later the club moved to Alton Assembly Rooms and began a second evening for beginners so that the experienced dancers could continue at their own level. At about this time, Colin started calling, too.

Over the years many have joined the club as beginners - some of them first trying Square Dancing with the U3A group which Bert has run for about ten years.

Also about ten years ago, Bert and Kath organised a weekend in Bournemouth for Club Members, which proved so popular that it has been repeated each year since.

Often dancers from Alton go to Alresford on Friday evenings to dance there, too, and the club holds regular evenings when dancers from all three evenings get together .

In 2002 Kath was diagnosed as having cancer and it became apparent that Bert couldn’t handle the organisation of the club as well as the calling, so a group of the dancers formed themselves into a committee which took most of the strain - especially after Kath’s death in 2003.