The Ideal Village Hall

Branch Libraries, Billiards and Ablutions

In 1930 the National Council of Social Service published a handbook for “Village Halls and Social Centres in the Countryside.” This set out lots of good advice on working out what your village needs from a hall and how to set about obtaining it.

Section 4 gives a series of recommendations on the facilities needed for each size of village. Those communities with a population of under 300 for example only need a clubhouse – one room with a partition, a lavatory and a kitchen. Those villages with a population of 750-1500 need a large village hall with the following accommodation:

· Main hall with fixed stage

· 2 committee/dressing rooms

· Club room/branch library

· Club room for young people

· Canteen

· 2 cloakrooms and lavatories with entrance lobby

· Kitchen

· Store

· Cinema projection room

· Clinic with separate lavatory

· Craft room or workshop

· Parish council office

· Communal wash-house or laundry and baths

An interesting list – some of it obsolete, some enduring and some of it we need a widespread return to – such as a club room for young people.

The next section goes on to give more detail about some of the rooms that you might need to include in your village hall. Of course, these rooms that we no longer see hold the most interest.

Cinema projection room:

This stresses the need for inflammability and a high ceiling – back in the days when your films came in cans and not on a usb there was an element of fire risk. Asbestos was probably used and it was recommended that the main entrance to this room was not from the main hall.

Billiard room:

Do you know anyone who plays billiards? I don’t. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a billiard table. But it seems that this was a common recreation for village folk back in the 1930s and 40s. Tolleshunt D’Arcy had a billiard table – Margery Allingham’s ‘The Oaken Heart’ refers to gas masks being stacked on it at the beginning of World War Two. The popularity of snooker must have taken over after this period. Anyway, if you want a billiard room it needs to be 25 x 18 feet in size with a separate entrance, preferably set out as a L shaped wing to the main hall.

When you’ve finished with your orgy of ball potting and cinema watching, don’t forget to call in to the wash house...

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The Curious Case of the Whitminster Village Hall Thief

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Woods Ware China at the Serving Hatch - The Book!

I have now put together a book to accompany this blog, featuring all the best bits and much more besides, about the development and use of village halls over the past century. It costs £1.29 for a Kindle download and £3.99 for a printed version. Here's the blurb: "Enter any village hall and look at the noticeboard. The range of activities taking place these days is enough to keep anyone entertained. Cinema evenings, keep fit classes, scouts, Women’s Institute, St John’s Ambulance, lunch clubs, support groups - all keeping the physical and spiritual on the straight and narrow. Where would we be without the village hall? What a marvellous innovation, and one that seems to grow in importance as we realise that we have lost sight of community somewhat, and need to nurse it back to life. You might, if you were in a particularly philosophical mood while hanging around the vestibule, wonder where and how it all began." English village halls have been a fixture of our lands...

The Story of a Harvest Tea, 1945

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Woods Ware China at the Serving Hatch

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