Memorial Hall

MEMORIAL HALL PLATINUM JUBILEE 1952 - 2022

The Hall was not the first such structure on the site - it had been preceded by a more fragile building the acquisition of which was described by the late Ralph Robinson in these words . . .

"One day after the war,I picked up the "Yorkshire Post" and read, "Canadian Camp Huts for sale; would suit village institutes , etc". We didn't have a hall then, so I rang Sir Cecil (Aykroyd) and called a meeting. Asked where I'd put it, I suggested the Feast Field, owned by John Smith the brewers. Sir Cecil agreed to look into it and we also had an offer of free transport to the site. I asked Ernest Atkinson to go with me to the camp, which lay five miles from Hereford. On arrival we consulted the auctioneer, who could give no idea of price, but said that "builders were coming down for timber alone-it being like gold-wrapped at the time". We looked around and "saw a good one, with two ends to it just what we wanted". It had been a recreation hut and we knew that we couldn't let it go, even if it cost twice the £250, which we had agreed would be our limit. Well, the sale took place under an oak tree and the price started at £250! I just kept on waving the catalogue and at £390 I got it"!

Back at Hampsthwaite I saw Charley Haxby and Alan Powers, who agreed to help to transport the hut from Leybridge. At the camp we took the tiles off first, then dismantled it in sections, marking each one. "It was a right job". A week later we set off for home. By then Sir Cecil had purchased the Feast Field (the present Memorial Hall site) from John Smith's, so the hut was dumped in the field in heaps. Eventually it was erected by the villagers."

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In 1963 the timber hall was brick cladded and other improvements carried out as these photos show:

Dedication and Memorial Service

The Building of a new hall

On the 10th January 1966 disaster struck when fire destroyed the hall in the space of less than one hour! During the previous week the Hall Committee had decided to make an appeal for public funds to meet the cost of dealing with an outbreak of dry rot in the timbers of the hall. It was anticipated that the cost would amount to as much as £3000 but, confident that the necessary monies would be forthcoming, work had already begun in the removing of affected timbers and new fittings purchased. The fire broke out in the late evening of Monday the 10th January and, although quickly extinguished by the Fire Brigade, continued to smoulder the following day by which time the roof had collapsed leaving only a few charred walls standing.

The conflagration was reported in the local newspaper under the headline "Heart-breaking blow for village as memorial hall goes up in flames" describing how the hall had been gutted in 45 minutes. It was said that the glow of the fire had been seen down a 12-mile length of Nidderdale. The renovation works had been expected to last two months and the loss of the hall left the Hampsthwaite Players with no venue for rehearsals for the Nidderdale drama festival which was about to take place. The newly acquired replacement fittings and electrical equipment acquired for the hall stage were also destroyed in the fire.

Under their chairman, Mr Ernest Atkinson, the Hall Committee announced that, despite this setback to their plans, "We will rebuild!".

Within the year work was in hand to rebuild with funds raised from the insurance payments, government grants and the result of a public appeal described in this leaflet.

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The new Hall opened in November 1967 and its continued success thereafter was recorded in a newspaper article marking, in 1987, its 20th anniversary and reporting how the present purpose-built community centre had been built from £11,400 insurance monies, grant aid and subscriptions.

A copy of the programme for the formal stone-laying ceremony in 1967 has survived and is shown here.

To mark the 100 year anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War in 2014, Hampsthwaite Village Society commisioned work to refurbish the In Memoriam panel found inside the Memorial Hall foyer, and to add to it a biographical cameo for each of those who fell during the two world wars.

The photograph shows the panel at the time of its unveiling and
rededication ceremony held on the 6th March 2014 at the Village  Society's A.G.M. Those responsible for the project are shown, from left to right, as follows:

• Paul Parker - researched the biographical information
• Geoff Howard - undertook the design and production of the illustrated biographies
• Revd. Canon Kenneth H. Cook - rededicated the completed panel
• Stuart Jennings - Chairman of the Village Society, initiator of the panel refurbishment and project manager
• John Exley - advised on the design and extension of the original wooden panel.