Mr Pat Hughes:
Before the Second World War a village hall had been talked about but there was little money in the kitty. There was £90 given by Captain Warner (a Captain in the First World War), £100 from the Women's Institute and a few other bits and pieces but that was all. Arthur Parkes called a meeting on February 13th 1946, with Arthur Johnson, Major Peter Horrell, Mr Copeland and Mr Fred Cox.
On April 9th 1946 Charles Horrell, grateful that his sons had returned safely from the war, donated an acre of land and an adjacent cottage in Wood Road as a site for a Village Hall. He lived at Wheatstone Park and was involved with the Triplex Foundry, responsible for making the Triplex Grates which most people had in those days. By May 10th, the committee had £1,600 promised. Their share of the building costs for the hall was estimated at £2,000. There seems to have been two schemes put forward, one in about 1947 and another in 1952. It appears there was a lot of talk but very little action at this point in time. It was also a very difficult time financially. It took so long to make decisions and get plans drawn up that support from the Ministry often dried up because there was no more money available. In despair this committee lapsed in July 22nd 1952.
An entry in the Minute Book records a new initiative on Tuesday, December 9th 1958 when a new committee was elected with myself as Chairman, Mr E H Ablitt as Vice-Chairman, Miss Betty Kuphal as Secretary and Mr Jack Taylor as Treasurer. One of the first actions by the new officers was to contact all the organisations asking them to send a representative in order to bring the Committee up to date. As the new Chairman, I was very keen to have all the churches and political parties involved with the project. The Conservative Party was already a presence in the village, but there were no official representatives of the Labour or Liberal parties. My decision to ask them to play a part in the planning did not go down too well with some of the village people.
The next thing to be considered was the site. We still had the land in Wood Road, donated by Charles Horrell, but this was felt to be inadequate because of the growth in the size of the village and the need to provide a large enough car park. This is now the site of the British Legion Club. Messrs Ablitt, Hughes and Woodward arranged to meet the Seisdon Rural District Surveyor to talk over the possibility of an alternative location.
At this time the Chief Executive of Seisdon Rural Council was Mr Baskett. He advised me to have the Hall built as a voluntary undertaking. In this way it would be possible to apply for all sorts of grants and the final cost would work out much cheaper than if the Hall was built by the local authority. He showed his support for the scheme by offering a seven-acre site for a peppercorn rent which would allow for not only a Village Hall but a sports field as well.
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