Froyle Village Hall
Froyle Village Hall
The current Village Hall , built in 1983, is the third building on this site (or thereabouts). The pictures below record the three halls - follow the link Story to read George Robins record of the building of the 1950s version.
Froyle Village Hall 1941 On Thursday, April 13th 1922 Ada Mary Massey Burningham signed a conveyance transferring a parcel of land to Froyle Parish Council that would become the Recreation Ground for the village and soon a village hall was built. The ‘hut’ as it was affectionately known even did its bit for the war effort during the second world war. The Froyle Village Scrapbook records;
“The W.I. Ladies did their bit by making jam - between 800 and 900 pounds of jam were made during the season by members of the Froyle Fruit Preservation centre at The Hut.”
Froyle Village Hall 1956 By the 1950s the old ‘hut’ was in need of replacement so a new hall was built after much fund raising in the village. In the process the site was moved nearer the road to provide easier access to the building. Many village organisations made use of it, the British Legion, the Sunday School, the Youth Club, the local drama group, the “Froylics”, to name but a few. When the Gardening Club was formed in May 1969 from the Village Fête flower show committee the hall became the venue for Flower Shows and regular meetings of the club, and, of course, at times of national celebration it became the focal point for the community.
Village Hall 1983 By the late 1970s, despite careful maintenance, the building had outlived its design life and something had to be done. In the early 1980s the current hall was designed and built - a much more substantial building with a design life well into the new millennium - and it opened in the Summer of 1984.
The new hall was greatly welcomed by the villagers of Froyle and quickly took on a even greater importance as, within the space of five years, the village lost its Vicarage, Village School and only two remaining shops.
Village Hall extension By 1992 the need for more storage space became apparent and so an extension was added to provide a proper store room.
(Later on, after 2000, even more storage was provided by two standard containers situated in the car park at the front of the Hall)
Village Hall 2006 Following the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 it became necessary to provide Disabled Toilets and proper access to the building. After a long and complicated process to obtain funding for this, a new entrance was designed to provide room for a Disabled Toilet. Construction of this began in late 2005 and the new facilities were formally opened in October 2006.