Woods Ware China at the Serving Hatch

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 ...

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

In June 1951, B. Seebohm Rowntree and G. R. Lavers brought out a book called "English Life and Leisure". Subtitled a social study, it was the result of several years of research. It arose from Rowntree's assertion that British people had inadequate means of recreation. He wanted to carry out a survey as the starting point for improvement. The section on Village Halls and Women's Institutes reads as follows: There can be no doubt about the value of a village hall to a village, for in most villages a community spirit still endures even though cheap public transport and the attractions of town life may have weakened it. A village hall is needed for social activities, such as whist drives, dances, housing the travelling cinema, for games and perhaps for amateur dramatics; it is needed for meetings of the many committees in a village, such as those of the cricket club, darts club, thrift club, pig club, and perhaps that responsible for the playing field, if a properly ...

Village Hall room hire payments have often been a contentious issue, and rows have been recorded throughout the 20th Century. In February 1923, one such row erupted at Liphook Village Hall and the West Sussex Gazette recorded the subsequent Petersfield Petty Sessions trial.  Mr W, a hairdresser by trade and also Secretary of Liphook Village Hall, was in the dock. He was accused of assaulting a Mr P, who ran a variety company. It all began when Mr W charged Mr P 16s 6d for use of the hall, when Mr P thought that he should have been charged 12s 6d. Quite a difference. Mr P marched on the Village Hall Committee in "an excited and offensive manner" and complained bitterly about the way he had been treated. Mr W defended himself by saying that Mr P had neglected to pay anything at all on a previous occasion.  Personal insults were exchanged, and then Mr W finally fulfilled a promise to land Mr P one on the jaw. The Village Hall Chairman defended his Secretary's action by s...

This article is copied from The Illustrated Police News, 14 February 1935: Judge Thanked "Thank you very much, sir, I've got off very light." Remarked John Moore, 76, when sentenced by Mr Justice Hawke at Gloucester Assizes to six months imprisonment on charges of breaking into Whitminster Village Hall and stealing articles valued at 4 shillings and 6 pence. There was a term of 344 days remaining of a previous sentence, and Moore was told that he would have to serve that time.  P.S. (Police Sergeant) Howkins revealed that since 1904 Moore had been continually in and out of prison. Since that time he had been sentenced seven times to penal servitude, involving in all 23 years.  In addition, he was in 1927 sentenced to four years imprisonment and had served further sentences most of them in respect of house breaking. Moore's last sentence was three year's penal servitude.  Moore handed in a statement to the judge, beginning "I most respectfully wish t...

In 1965 – the Golden Jubilee of the Women's Institute movement – the Federation of WIs organised a village scrapbook competition. The aim was to collate a picture of British village life at this point in time. Over 2,600 villages responded with pictures, descriptions, poems and commentary from several members of the community. Paul Jennings collated the results into a book called “The Living Village”, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1968. I have a Country Book Club edition and it certainly has made for fascinating reading. It is a snapshot of a time when the last of the old rural traditions were just hanging on by a thread. Of course there are several mentions of village halls. One section talks about memorial halls and here is a quote from the scrapbook collated for the village of Bramcote, a village on the A52 just west of Nottingham. I haven’t visited it, but now I fear it is merely a suburb of the city rather than a rural village. “ The Memorial Halls which wer...

I recently read an excellent book called “Square Haunting” by Francesca Wade. If you’re interested in London between the wars and women who flaunted society rules to live the life that they wanted, this is the book for you. The book focusses on five different women, all of whom lived in Mecklenburgh Square at some point. The most famous of those residents was Virginia Woolf, and it covers both her time in the square and in the village of Rodmell, where she was to take her own life in 1941. The book reveals that when she was living in Rodmell, Virginia was a frequent visitor to her local village hall. This was because, quite surprisingly, she became a member of the Women’s Institute. It would be easy to imagine that she would see herself as being above such things, and perhaps occasionally she did get frustrated. “ We’re acting village plays; written by the gardener’s wife, and the chauffeur’s wife; and acted by other villagers.” Wade makes reference to Virginia’s diary en...