Woods Ware China at the Serving Hatch

Tea With Beryl, Jasmine and Iris I once found a full complement of Woods Ware china in Beryl. The Beryl (green) set is my favourite – even though my own set is Jasmine yellow – it’s just what I found in a charity shop one day. I have one Beryl dish, purloined from work. Nobody noticed. Not only do I prefer the colour of the Beryl set best of all – the muted utility green is very appealing – but Beryl is such an appropriate name for a tea service once most ubiquitous in village and parish halls. There must have been many Beryls serving tea in them over the years. Jasmine and Iris (the blue set) are not such common names.  I did know an Iris once. She was a coffee drinker. Such a nuisance when Beryl has made a nice pot of tea for everyone. Coffee drinkers at village hall events right get on my nerves. Read my story about Molly Bilsthorpe and the tea leaf reader here

Classified Ad, The Times, August 1934 New village hall waiting for electricity, will anyone LOAN or SELL cheaply HANGING OIL LAMPS? Tilley Preferred. Particulars to Miss Tritton, Finchingfield, Essex. Instagram: @Woodswarechinaservinghatch

Disgraceful Scenes in Cobham In May 1938, The Times reported on a Charity Commission investigation that was taking place into dances at Cobham Village Hall. The official inquiry took place within the hall, where 300 local inhabitants gathered for the hearing, seemingly in rather a feverish mood. The inquiry had been launched following complaints from a Mr Daly, Church Warden. He had asserted that the “goings on” at the hall “rivalled the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.” The shocking scenes that he had been subjected to included: ·         A drunken couple falling over a heap of coal ·         A woman with her head on a man’s breast Mr Daly went on to assert that “there was no cuddling in my young days…I thought I was in France.” Both the clerk to the trustees and the caretaker said that they had seen nothing. The licensee stoutly defended the sobriety of the people of Cobham and said that though loca...

Bloomers We are keeping the village in bloom Me and Rita And the butcher, old William Froome. We quarrel over petunias In the baskets And begonias and zinnias. But geraniums on roundabouts We all agree Should spell out ‘welcome’ for all to see.                              Sarah Miller Walters Read 'Temporary Accommodation' - the story of a village gardening competition here

Furnishing and Decorating Your Village Hall As recommended by the National Council of Social Service, 1945 The interior effect of a hall is made or marred by the way it is furnished and decorated. Good window and stage curtains harmonising with the colour scheme will add dignity to the hall. Chairs should be strong and comfortable and able to be stacked for storing. Steel chairs are light and strong, made in various attractive colours and easily stacked. Backless forms should be avoided. Three or four arm chairs in the committee room and adult club room should be provided. A familiar stacked sight before moulded plastic was introduced. When these came in, my fellow Brownies and I would see how many chairs we could sit on top of without feeling sick. Card tables, trestle tables and one or two strong solid tables will be needed and plenty of cupboard room with stout shelving should be provided for cookery and cooking utensils, properties, books, games etc. Many well...

An Essex Village Hall, 1938 Margery Allingham’s   ‘The Oaken Heart – The story of an English Village at War’ is a narrative demonstrating how an ordinary Essex village faced World War Two. Allingham lived in Tolleshunt D’Arcy and in 1941, her US publishers (Doubleday) commissioned this book as a means of explaining to Americans why Britain was in need of their support. It is a straightforward, unsentimental account of the descent into war and how the inhabitants of a typically English village reacted to the events as they became aware of them. As such, it is a fascinating read and it opens up thoughts and opinions that I never knew or considered that people had at that time. But it also gives a cracking description of the village hall. In September 1938, air raid and gas precautions were being demonstrated to the inhabitants of the village. The local hall was the natural place to hold talks and demonstrations. Here’s an extract: “The hall, which is only a glorified army h...

A Tinkle Back in Time A convenience that could have done with the attentions of Dan Dan The toilets that I visited in one particular parish hall in Staffordshire resulted in my  taking a tinkle down memory lane. It was the avocado hue that was the major giveaway that this littlest room had last been renovated sometime during the 1980s. The boards separating each of the three cubicles was that kind of mucky green that yelled 1985. Within each cubicle, white porcelain topped with a shiny black seat and lid. Once I had yanked the chrome handle (not pressed the button, as one is usually required to do these days), I went to wash my hands at the little row of sinks. The splashback tiles were decorated with that kind of harvest festival design that splattered every ye olde country style kitchen when I was a girl. Except the flowers were definitely avocado in shade, not the usual branflake. Finally, I exited using a brass knob tacked onto a plywood covered door. These handles ...

Classified Ads, The Times, October 1937 Your new radio makes that old piano an encumbrance. You cannot sell it: it would be an act of charity to give it an impecunious village hall. Rev Threlfall, The Vicarage, Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire. An impecunious village hall...what had it been spending all its money on??? Instagram: @Woodswarechinaservinghatch Twitter: @agathadascoyne Joyce to the World - click here

The drive to build village halls in the 1920s and 30s tested the resolve and initiative of rural communities. There were a wide range of schemes to collect the necessary resources. Most notable in Derbyshire was the assistance given by the Manners family (the family name of the Dukes of Rutland) to their local village of Rowsley. Haddon Hall, the family’s local retreat, had recently been renovated and the Manners lot organised an open day for everyone to come and have a nosy around. The associated charges went towards the Rowsley Village Hall Fund. Apparently the open day was extremely well attended by people from far and wide, including the US. In other places, legacies were left by rich benefactors; and in more generally well-off places, they had a whip-round.   In less prosperous places, a wooden hut might have been shoved up in a corner somewhere. More detailed information is available on the process of building a hall in an unnamed location near Salisbury Plain i...

Classified Advertisement – The Times – January 1933 Will anyone having no use for upright overstrung piano in good condition, give or sell for small sum to village hall? It would be greatly appreciated by the villagers.                                                                              Mrs Montefiore Henley on Thames I just KNOW that Mrs M will dominate said piano and inflict concertos by the dozen to poor injured soldiers when the war comes. Click here to download my Joyce Grenfell inspired stories

Tea-Potty I once found a cupboard crammed full of giant metal teapots. I checked inside some of them to see which one looked the cleanest. But I knew that the brown staining would only add to the flavour. Who washes a teapot? The extra little handle above the spout is a great help. Instagram: @woodswarechinaservinghatch

Mrs O’Brien “It’s the committees what’s the worst” Said Mrs O’Brien Wringing out her thick bleached dishcloth As if it were a neck. “They don’t wash up after themselves They think they’re much too good Too busy to even empty The teabags from the pot.” “The boy scout and girl guide leaders Clean the hall right thorough. Them who do the pensioners’ meals Wash the dishes bright clean. But them ruddy council meetings, It’s like a bomb’s gone off! They think that just ‘cos they pay me They can up and walk away! As if I hadn’t got enough to do - Washing the tea towels, the parquet and loo.”                    Sarah Miller Walters Click here to find my short story downloads More poems on Instagram: @adventureswithword More village hall stuff on Instagram: @woodswarechinaservinghatch

In May 1939, The Times newspaper reported on events at a small village in Berkshire. The rector’s wife had decided to mount an exhibition at the village hall, displaying articles representing local talent, skill, history and originality. In order to curate this event, she went around the 500 or so villagers, seeking their items of local interest. Apparently, the villagers’ first reaction was negligible. Perhaps they gave a bemused shrug, or perhaps they vehemently denied all knowledge of items of interest residing within their cottages.   But the rector’s wife was evidently a tenacious lady. The Times informs us that she “Went into the subject more deeply with them” (muscled her way into their cupboards?) Whatever her methods, some discoveries were finally made. What a relief. One of the villagers, a Mrs B, obligingly turned out her drawers for the rector’s wife. There, they made the discovery of a small blackened spoon. Mrs B agreed to clean up her family silver and donate...

The drive to build village halls in rural areas in the 1930s soon turned out to have been a very good idea indeed. When World War Two was declared, gathering places such as these were vital. When there was a need for gas mask distribution, evacuee billeting and civil defence recruitment they were a natural built venue for it all to happen in. This plaque at the Cornmarket Hall in Kettering pays tribute to the WVS and their wartime activities, showing the continued use that these places were put to. Both civilians and members of the armed forces might find succour in the village hall. In December 1939, The Times newspaper reported a happy use for the village hall. Thousands of evacuee children, living away from home in more rural districts, were treated to Christmas parties. The report reads: “There have probably never before been such parties as there were held last weekend. Village halls, country houses, school rooms and private houses…were full of children…Hertfordshi...