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The Hall has a long history and is used today as a popular meeting place for a number of village clubs and organisations. The building, which has 2 meeting rooms and kitchen facilities in addition to the main hall, is available for hire for private functions.
We now have a fairly good idea of its life from when it was built as a poorhouse in the seventeenth century to its current form as our village hall and meeting rooms. We don’t really know when it was built with any accuracy. It is alleged to have been built on the foundations of a Benedictine monastery, quite possibly using the original stone work. However, like much information from that far back, allegations are probably the best we’re going to get.
In the early part of the nineteenth century the building became a workhouse and was considerably enlarged by the addition of a south wing, a remnant of which survives today as the meeting room, bar and first floor flat. Use as a workhouse ceased around 1920. The building changed considerably being converted into four flats, a school canteen and public meeting rooms.
Most of the south wing was condemned as unsafe around 1950, the tenants moved out and the canteen transferred to a hut near the school. It was decided to renovate and convert the original poorhouse into our village hall. At the same time, most of the south wing was demolished and the Vine Room reduced to its current size (it used to go across the entrance to the car park – which, of course, wasn’t a car park then, as it used to be the yard and gardens for the workhouse). The village hall opened in 1955 complete with a new entrance - this is how it appears today apart from being widened during the seventies.