THE VILLAGE HALL
Map 1 number 36 The first Village Hall was built around 1920 and was a large wooden ex-army hut. There was a moveable partition dividing the hall into two parts. One part could be used for whist drives or meetings and other part which was known as the recreation room or reading room had a billiards table given by Mr. T. Foxton. Billiards was the most popular game in the early years. From 1940 to 45 the hall was commandeered by the army and used as a N.A.A.F.I. The army moved the billiard table and wasted it and the village hall committee was subsequently recompensed for the use of the hall and damage to the billiard table. After the war the committee bought another table from Chris Wright of Nafferton. During the war the W.R.V.S. started a “Welcome Home Fund” and amongst other money raising efforts they collected “ship” halfpennies. Later they decided that any surplus money should be put into a “new village hall fund”. R. Byass was the Chairman pre 1938 and Jimmy Jackson was the Secretary. Between 1938 and 1947 Bob Sellars was the Chairman and Ted Duffill was the Secretary. Other prominent members were Jack Barr and Jack Dulson. When the Village Hall was re-opened after the war a new committee was formed which included the W.R.V.S. members as a parent body. The committee was charged with maintaining the Village Hall and raising money towards buying a new one. Members of the W.R.V.S. were Mrs. Rachel Dunn, Mrs. Sellars, Mrs. S. Wilson, Miss Charlotte Dixon, Mrs. J. Lazenby, Mrs. A. Body (George and Dragon), Miss M. Foxton, Mrs. F. Foxton and Mrs. G. Byass. Jack Lazenby was a hard Working member of the committee. He eventually became Chairman and as such was mainly responsible for the purchase by the Village Hall Committee of the field on which the old Village Hall stood and of course where the present Village Hall is standing. The field was bought from Robert Smith who used to live in Wynthorpe House. Eventually the billiard table was sold and the recreation room closed because of lack of interest. R. Thompson and B. Hatfield were the last officers. In July 1961 a new committee was formed to raise money to buy a new Village Hall. They started bingo sessions run by Mr. Whitaker which proved very profitable. The Youth Centre as the Village Hall came to be known was built in 1966 and the Youth Club started in March 1966. Mrs. Woodcliffe did a tremendous amount of work for many years for the Youth Centre and the Youth Club. After her death the Conner family continued doing a lot of work keeping the Youth Centre financially viable.
| Previous page | Next page |