HUSTHWAITE VILLAGE HALL
(Charity 1013186)

Negotiations have been taking place for a number of years for the village to have a new Hall. At the time of the Millennium the National Lottery was a most promising source of grant aid for community enterprises, but Husthwaite did not succeed in making a case at that time. Now the Lottery itself is considerably less prosperous than it used to be, and it appears to have switched its focus away from rural to more urban local enterprises. Whatever the explanation, Husthwaite has been refused the Lottery support it needed to carry through its ambitions to build a new Hall. The project is currently poised in a wait-and-see phase: wait and see if we can attract residents with the necessary business experience and acumen to take on the enormous amount of professional work required to push us into a more promising phase.

Meanwhile, the Village Hall Committee, at the same time as supervising the drive for a new hall, runs a lively programme of activities. These have a triple function: small-scale fund raising; prompting the village to develop its quite admirable community spirit; and making use of the existing village hall.

It can confidently be said that the existing hall does have many admirers. It is a Nissen hut from the 1^st World War, which over the years has been developed by local builders, giving it a slate roof and a brick shell. True, maintenance standards have recently slipped a long way, and the valley guttering to a rear extension needs immediate attention to ward off the damp which is dangerously pervading walls and, most noticeably, the floor.

The Hall has a long and distinguished history, which makes it particularly painful for the traditional members of the community to let it go. It has seen many great occasions. There used, for example, to be the annual Farmers’ Ball, and people from a wide area were attracted to dances because of the high quality of the wooden surface. Along with other rural communities the length and breadth of Britain, Husthwaite has lost much of its traditional community energy.

There is no longer, for example, a cricket or a football club, a Mothers Union or a WI. Some of these activities have been replaced, for example by the Christian Fellowship, which uses the Hall every week, and in the Jubilee Year the village surpassed itself with a most magnificent day of communal rejoicing, culminating with a street party which was driven by disappointing weather into the Hall.

R.W.