2021 – The Centenary of the birth of the National Village Halls Service.
“Haven’t there always been village halls?” you might ask, but the estimated 11,000 village halls and similar community buildings in rural England are largely the product of the 20th Century.
Every single one has its own story to tell about the community it serves, its history, the interests and livelihoods of the people who live and have lived there, but it is safe to say that without the National Village Halls Service, most would not exist.
In 2025 ‘Halls for All: A History of Village Halls’ was published, the first book to explore the history of village and community halls, written for ACRE by Louise Beaton and David Clark. (Link https://www.amberley-books.com/halls-for-all.html) The story in brief is below. The authors are keen to encourage research by hall trustees or local history groups into their own hall histories, and the reference list is available here.
The oldest village hall building claims to be St Margaret’s Village Hall at Alderwasley in the Peak District, a thirteenth century chapel. Hunsdon Village Hall, Hertfordshire, was a 15th Century house, then a School, then the Village Hall. The oldest in continuous public use is probably the Guildhall at Hadleigh, Suffolk, which in 1438 was a newly constructed markethouse with almshouse below.
A lasting legacy of the First World War
The main impetus to village hall building came after the First World War with a national drive to develop social and educational provision in rural areas, led by the newly created National Council of Social Service (NCSS now NCVO, from which ACRE was formed in 1987). The building or improvement of a village hall was quickly seen to be the most effective way of bringing all interests in a village together and a Village Halls Department was set up, providing model charity governing documents which are still – in modern form – available from ACRE today. The loan scheme created in 1924 by the Development Commission is still administered by ACRE for Defra today. Swelled by the desire to provide a lasting memorial to those young men who gave their lives and the availability of former army and RAF huts more halls were built between 1919 and 1929 than in any subsequent ten year period. Approximately 10% are War Memorials.
In the The Victory Hall at Balcombe, West Sussex possibly represents the first of a new generation of purpose – built village halls. Built by Lady Denman, the first President of the National Federation of WIs and closely connected with NCSS, murals by Neville Lytton depict war and peace, a Social Club was provided for ex-servicemen and the large kitchen served as the WI meeting room.
Halls Of Little Fame
This article by David Hayns, former Village Halls Adviser. Cheshire Rural Community Council, then Development Officer for Chester City Council’s Development and Leisure Services, appeared in Local History Magazine 55, May/June 1996. It eloquently captures the importance of including the history of a village hall in any village history.
This was written last October during a holiday in Northumberland. During our stay Jill and I went to a village hall just outside Rothbury, for a performance of “Bondagers” presented by the Alnwick based NTC Touring Theatre Company. The play, which told the story of the women who used to be “bound” to their employers to work on the farms, was excellent.
The village hall, with its fuse box that resolutely refused to support the theatre company’s lighting rig, demonstrated the limited resources available to so many of these voluntary run establishments.
Looking across the estuary from the cottage where we were staying, I could see the village hall in Alnmouth (village new but once a medieval borough). The Hindmarsh Hall, as it is known, started life as one of the many granaries serving this former ancient port. Later it may have become a corn exchange. Then it was used as a temporary Anglican chapel before the present parish church was erected in the 1870s. Now it provides a focus for the social life of Alnmouth.
On our journey up from Cheshire we drove through the Yorkshire Dales, where many of the village halls are former reading rooms or literary institutes. The hall in Malpas, where we live, was built by public subscription in 1887, to make Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. So I could go on. The pedigree of the thousands of village halls throughout the country are extremely varied. They range from former village schools and non-conformist chapels through wartime army huts and Nissen shelters, to purpose-built halls with every modern convenience. Some have been provided by philanthropic landowners, others through voluntary fundraising, while many have been erected with blood, sweat and tears by the villagers who use them.
I have long had a soft spot for village halls. Somehow they seem to encapsulate the essence of rural life. Why is it, then, that so many published local histories either ignore them completely or give them only a passing mention: “ By the green stands the Village Hall, erected in xxxx by one of the principal landowners to provide a meeting place for the village” – full stop! Surely the history of any village hall is a mirror to to the history of its local community? Just think of the range and variety of events and organisations for which it has provided a venue. Political meetings, huntballs, barn dances, discos, bazaars, rummage sales, planning consultations, horticultural shows, auction sales, Women’s Institutes, schools for wartime evacuees, adult education classes, concerts, plays, parties, luncheon clubs, playgroups, youth clubs, badminton, carpet bowls, table tennis and, of course, local history groups – etc. etc. etc. A complete list of everything that has happened in village halls would fill this page and many more.
Nor must we forget their close cousins, the community centres. Normally run by voluntary community associations, community centres are found most commonly in urban areas but rural centres are not uncommon. While many village halls have a history stretching back into Victorian times, the movement for community centres received its impetus as a result of post-war reconstruction, chronicled so well in articles in in Local History Magazine 50. They came into being through a desire by national and local government to provide low-cost meeting places, and to foster the development of voluntary community groups. Many industrial cities, such as Nottingham, where this magazine is published, have a well established network of community centres, provided by the local authority and managed by voluntary community associations. For historical reasons other towns and cities such as Chester, where I work, have fewer centres. As with village halls, community centres are venues for a wide range of activities. Many are purpose-built, others are housed in temporary or converted buildings. In the case of urban community centres, because of the nature of urban communities and the wider availability of alternative meeting places, their histories do not always reflect so comprehensively the histories of the communities they serve. However, they have been an important element of urban life since 1945.
By their very nature, village halls and community centres are charities. They are distinguished from other public meeting places by the fact that they are owned by their communities at large, not by any one organisation (such as a Scout group, Women’s Institute or Royal British Legion) and managed by democratically elected voluntary committees. Their archives – such as management committee minutes, newsletters, annual reports and press cutting books – are a valuable quarry for local historians. So, if you are researching the history of an area with a village hall or community centre, do seek out such archives as exist and use them to help present the full story of that area. You might even persuade the members of the management committee to deposit their archives in the local record office, if they have not done so already.
Few of these “halls of little fame” are architectural gems. Nevertheless what went on in them in the past may be of far greater local significance than anything that went on in the Hall of the local Squire – or even in the church, chapel, school or pub!
Editors note: This touched a chord. Robert has served on the Management Committee of Lenton Community Centre, Nottingham for many years.
The development of village halls – opportunities and challenges from 1921 to Covid 19 in 2020
In the 1930s the Carnegie UK Trust pioneered grants to provide and improve village halls. During the Second World War blackout enabled use for civil defence training, jam making and entertainment. Following the war building materials were in short supply but in 1955 the Ministry of Education launched a national grant aid programme, administered by NCVO until in 1981 the newly elected Government passed responsibility to local authorities, together with £3.1 million in the Rate Support Grant.
A patchwork of local authority, lottery, landfill, charity and Defra grant schemes have since come and gone and come again, a challenging task to win sufficient grants but the local community fundraising which has underpinned the building of village halls throughout the last 100 years continues to this day, helped by the ability of parish and town councils to grant and borrow funds.
England’s Rural Village and Community Halls are survivors!
Not just surviving but thriving, read about the role Village Halls are playing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Use has changed dramatically and with it has come new challenges: Meeting modern accessibility, health and safety standards, the demand for broadband, employment legislation, safeguarding and a myriad other requirements. The half dozen publications issued in the early 1980s are now supplemented by 42 Information Sheets, and keeping them updated a challenge for the much reduced ACRE Advisory Service.
Commonly expected to be used as emergency centres in times of crisis (snow, flood, fire) the devastating impact of Covid 19 has been closure, except for essential services. Loss of companionship has affected many people living alone, particularly the elderly, and fear of further spread may mean it is a long time before use of halls returns to normal. The Government’s Leisure, Hospitality and Retail Grant scheme has provided a welcome cushion against mounting losses for eligible halls.
Village and Community Halls today
The impact of village and community halls
Each provides a home for a variety of community activities – perhaps 110,000 different community groups, services and businesses, serving some 9 million people.
About Village Halls: from the Windrose Rural Media Trust
This video is a brief clip from “About Village Halls”, a Windrose Rural Media Trust production from 1986 which looked at the creation and running of village halls in Wiltshire and Dorset and at what they mean to their communities. Windrose, under its original name of Trilith, was founded in 1984 as part of the then Community Council for Wiltshire. Thirty-six years on, as an independent charity, it continues its work of using the media to benefit rural life.
Find out more about rural community spaces at Village Halls Week.
Village Halls Week ran for the first time in 2018. The campaign is an annual and national celebration of rural community spaces and the people whose time and dedication keep them going. Organised by the ACRE Network, the campaign runs in March and sees a huge variety of events happening across England.