Is your Windows user account linked to a MS account, or is it strictly a Local user account? Who is the provider for your W10 Mail app account?

The system is running on my home laptop

OK, what kind of account is set up in W10 Mail on the laptop, e.g. gmail, outlook.com, aol?

I am running the mail app that comes with w10

Pentley said

I am running the mail app that comes with w10

You are responding by repeating yourself, but you are not answering the questions you are being asked. Progress can not occur without more information from you.

My isp is uwclub who hold the emails they are then passed to W10 mail. Uwclub do not hold the contacts they are only on Mail

Pentley said

My isp is uwclub who hold the emails they are then passed to W10 mail. Uwclub do not hold the contacts they are only on Mail

That is a good start, but sfhowes also asked you

Is your Windows user account linked to a MS account, or is it strictly a Local user account?

This is actually very important information. If you are using a linked MS account then the actions to be taken with contacts is completely different to when your account is one local to only your machine. (note that MS basically make you use linked accounts, so do not assume your account is local. Check.)

Log onto your uwclub account through webmail, select Contacts, and see if there is an option to export them to a csv or some other format, then reply here with the results. The uwclub support doesn't appear to provide much support for this issue.

My webmail on uwclub hold 8 contacts, all my contacts are on W10 mail. I do not use webmail to generate emails unless I am on someone else's machine. I have started manually moving some of my contacts over and although it is time consuming it looks like the best option

Unfortunately, the People app, which stores the contacts for the Mail app, doesn't have an import or export option, so the only way to manage contacts is do it via the webmail account set up in Mail. So, e.g., if a gmail or outlook.com account is set up in Mail, the People app syncs with gmail or outlook contacts, and contacts can be imported and exported on the gmail or outlook websites.