Things I Have Found in Village Halls

Things I Have Found in Village Halls - A Book Exchange Shelf

My photograph of the Book Exchange Shelf at a Derbyshire Community Hall is somewhat obscured by a folded trestle table, which I was not about to move to get the perfect shot. I know trestle tables, they bite. Those fold out legs are the cause of many a finger blister.

But you get the idea. Anyone is free to take a book from the shelf and do what they want with it. And you can leave your unwanted ones too. Ideal if you’ve just finished a novel that you weren’t that fussed about while you waited for the interminable length of time that it takes Brownies to finish.

What a great scheme – everywhere should have one. A free book encourages you to broaden your horizons. Where you might not pay £1 or £2 for a book from a charity shop in case you don’t like it, a free shelf encourages you to give it a try and possibly open a whole new world. Maybe you never thought you’d like Catherine Cookson – but then you pick up a free copy of one of her books and love it – and bingo you’ve got years of happy reading ahead of you.

If you look closely on these shelves, “War and Peace” is there. Maybe you might be able to get through it after all…you don’t know until you try.

My books aren't quite free (unless you do Kindle Unlimited) but they are as cheap as they come - click here

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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...

Dixon of Fingers Green

In what could be the script from a gentle BBC comedy of the 60s or 70s, the village policeman triumphed at the horticultural show in a small Kent village. The local bobby walked away from the Village Hall with 11 out of 14 prizes. A cub reporter from the local rag dared to ask the green fingered P.C. if he talked to his blooms, to which the answer came: "No." He was encouraged to elaborate: "Talking to them, singing to them, music, that's all a lot of tripe. There's no substitute for hard work. You have to treat them like children, water them and care for them." I suppose he's right. There are similarities. Both flowers and children are prone to infestations of little creatures. And they never quite turn out how you expect, but sometimes you're lucky. Have a look at my novella for more vintage gardening fun

Bogarde's Beginnings

Village halls played a part in the early careers of many actors – some of them becoming world renowned. Who knows just how many household names first got a taste for the luvvie life at the local amateur dramatic society. Dirk Bogarde was certainly one of them, because he wrote about his experiences at Newick Village Hall, near Lewes. Dirk’s mother made the acquaintance of a Mrs Cox, whose husband was said to own the village hall. Dirk became good friends with the Coxs’ daughter and the family took to him, allowing him to indulge his teenage ambition of becoming a playwright. He wrote, and starred in “The Man on the Bench”, supported by Nerine Cox. It was performed around the time that Nazi Germany had marched into Austria – but a sparse audience with a lot on their minds nevertheless received it well. Mr Cox offered Dirk his first leading role shortly afterwards with the Newick Amateur Drama Society – Raleigh in R.C. Sherriff’s “Journey’s End”. “It was a tremendous ...

Woods Ware China at the Serving Hatch

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