March 15, 2025 • 24 mins
Louise Beaton returns to discuss her new book "Halls for All," co-authored with David Clark, chronicling the 500-year evolution of village halls from exclusive reading rooms to vital community hubs.
• Village halls evolved from reading rooms and mechanics institutes that often excluded women until after WWI
• Women's Institutes became a driving force for more inclusive community spaces after the First World War
• Sir Henry Roo played a pivotal role in the 1920s, working with government to repurpose army huts as memorial halls
• COVID created challenges for some halls as organizations disbanded, but opportunities for others through community cafes and pop-up pubs
• Three key lessons for the future: continued need for ACRE advisory services, importance of long-term capital funding, and better regulatory frameworks
• Village halls collectively contribute approximately £178 million annually to the rural economy
• The book features remarkable stories of determination, including halls that fought government for rebuilding during WWII
• HRH Princess Royal contributed the foreword, recognising volunteers who often go unacknowledged
The book "Halls for All" is published on March 15th, available from all good bookshops (£16.99) or directly from Amberley Publishers (£15.29 plus postage). Some ACRE Network members will be selling copies at county events during National Village Halls Week.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, my name is Mark Smith and welcome to the
Village Halls podcast sponsoredby Allied Westminster, the UK's
largest specialist provider ofVillage Hall insurance and the
home of Village Guard.
Today I'm delighted to welcomeback Louise Beaton to the
podcast.
Louise was our very first guestand it's a pleasure to have her
here again as she launches herand David Clark's new book Halls
(00:24):
for All, published by Amberley.
Louise has dedicated her lifeto supporting and preserving the
legacy of village halls, with adeep understanding of their
evolution and importance.
Her passion extends beyondtheir practical use, delving
into the rich history thatshaped these vital community
hubs.
Welcome to the podcast onceagain, louise.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Thank you very much, Mark.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Excellent, so I've had a chance to read your book.
So what I'd like to hear firstis what inspired you to write
Halls for All, and why is nowthe right time to publish it.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
That's a very good question.
So the book was inspired by thefact that it was the centenary
100 years since the birth of theACRE network in 2020.
And people will remember thatthere was a certain disaster
happened that year in the formof the COVID pandemic, and
suddenly our ideas for having anational conference went by the
(01:17):
wayside and we turned to whatelse we could do, and David
Clark and I together had beenthinking about the fact that the
time was ripe to write a bookabout the story of Village Halls
.
So David set about doing theresearch behind the scenes while
I was involved with trying tohelp Village Halls deal with the
(01:38):
Covid pandemic, and the resultfive years later is the book.
And the result five years lateris the book.
And what sort of drove us towrite it was the fact that we
(02:07):
felt there was a story hereabout the commitment that
volunteers have made over theAcre Network as it is now, and
the county village hall advisorsthroughout that time that has
enabled the volunteers to buildtheir village halls and to
manage them, and which is stillongoing today.
So that's what drove it.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Excellent.
So I suppose it was quiteuseful that it was during COVID,
because I assume you had muchmore time, like the rest of us,
to do these little projects thatyou can do inside.
Was that one of the factorsthat came?
Because it must be quite a taskto write a book.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
David spent hours researching.
He studied 3000 copies ofarticles from the Times, many
other resources as well my sideof the book.
I was really just doingbackground reading at that time
because I was so focused on thepandemic, but my turn to
(02:56):
actually get writing andresearching really came from
2022 onwards, when you know, thepandemic and the aftermath was
out of the way and we tried.
In fact, one of the firstthings I had to do was to write
about the pandemic and what itmeant for village halls and how
(03:16):
they survived, in order to getthat out of my head, so that I
could then go back in time anddo what I'd originally set out
to do and look at the past and,with David, draw lessons from
the past that we could takeforward to the future.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Well, that's interesting.
I was going to ask you aboutthat.
I suppose an odd link, Isuppose, into the question.
But I always had a passion forbread making and part of that
process was understanding.
I researched for ages aboutwheat and where it came from,
because I always think that it'simportant to learn about where
it's been so you can adjust forthe future.
And I suppose when I wasreading the book that's I
(03:56):
suppose that's kind of what itis you can't, you don't know
where you're going unless youknow where you've been.
So the book's actually quitevital in that respect.
So I suppose my passion wasbread.
So your passion was obviouslythe village halls and
communities.
So what is it that sparked yourpassion for the history of, or
(04:17):
village halls?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
My passion for the history I suppose comes from the
fact that over many yearsworking with halls I've had to
look at an awful lot ofgoverning documents, some of
which are really quitehistorical.
I saw one once which had thesignature of Winston Churchill,
clement Attlee and various otherfigures, because it was
(04:42):
formerly Ministry of Defenceproperty which had been conveyed
to the village from thegovernment, the Crown Estate,
immediately after the SecondWorld War.
So to handle a document likethat, you know you think oh, wow
.
And there are so many sort ofstories out there in Vill which
David and I were quite keen thatin writing the book we should
(05:06):
provide enough information thatwould inspire village hall
committees and local historicalsocieties to become interested
in the history of their own halland pull together the
information and publish them.
One of the sad things wasseeing that actually village
halls nowadays, their marketingon their websites tends to be
devoted solely to hiring thehall, whereas actually it would
(05:30):
be really good to see more hallshave a history of where it came
from on their website so thatpeople moving into the village
who don't know actually learnsomething and come to appreciate
that.
You know people have workedreally hard to provide this all
in the past and actually weshould treasure it and do our
(05:51):
bit to support it yeah, well, Ijust did a podcast with bernard
hallmaster about websites andyou know I he did mention the,
the history.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
But yeah, that is a factor that would be would be
good because, like, whenever youmove to somewhere or even to
visit somewhere, it'sinteresting to know the history.
But I I didn't really realizeuntil I read the start, well,
the start of your book.
There obviously it's been thecentenary, but going back, you
know, 500 years, I didn'trealize that.
That reading rooms, um, andthat just kind of evolves into
(06:22):
what it is now.
I think it's so amazing thatyou've actually went back that
far.
Kudos to David for doing that.
That's a lot of work, that's alot of years of information.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Well, it's not just David there, because there's
been research carried outspecifically into reading rooms
and mechanics institutes, sothat's where the background
reading came in delving intothose and, in fact, reading
rooms.
This is where we were learningas we went along.
I certainly I knew of readingrooms.
(06:52):
What I didn't know was just howmany there were.
They were in every county, somemore than others, but hundreds
in some counties, and most ofthem have just faded away.
Just a relatively smallproportion have become village
halls.
Now have actually been turnedinto village halls.
(07:13):
Some of them literallydisappeared.
Maybe the landowners, theirsons and daughters or whoever
inherited the, just sold themoff because they were part of an
estate.
Some of them just fell intodisuse because people couldn't
afford to keep them going.
But the thing that reallystruck me was the fact that,
(07:35):
with both the mechanicsinstitutes and the reading rooms
, most of very few of them infact, were available to women.
So most of them were onlyavailable to a third of the
population, men, and that wasreally working men, and, uh,
they were really designed tokeep men out of the pub with an
(07:57):
alternative, um, uh, that's whythey were called reading rooms.
They were supplied withnewspapers, journals, books etc.
And often the books that couldbe put in were quite carefully
controlled by the church as well.
All right, great.
And they would often have aseparate room.
The reading room would be thequiet room for reading and then
there would be a separate roomwhere games such as darts or
(08:19):
bagatelle or cards could beplayed, but no alcohol.
Some of them, um, the ones thatwere more successful and tended
to become village halls werethose where they were just big
enough to have the occasionalconcert which helped raise funds
to keep it going, maybe otheractivities, and just a few of
them admitted women.
(08:41):
And can I just take theopportunity that first podcast
four years ago that I did withum, with you, uh, three village
halls replied, responded to that, and one of them with their own
histories and one of them wasAlan from Bubbin Hall Reading
Room in Warwickshire and thatwas one, a very unusual reading
(09:07):
room which actually admittedwomen from the word go.
And in that story of theirhistory you can see the
difficulty they had keeping thebuilding going.
They kept trying to raise thefunds to improve it, to maintain
it, huge investments of timeand effort to do that, at one
(09:29):
time nearly closed down by thethe doctor, because the sewage
system was so inadequate and thedoctor's surgery was using it,
and eventually it was only withhuge leadership and
determination and theavailability of public grants
that they were able to rebuildit.
And that was quite late on, Ithink in the 1980s, from memory.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Right, so they were really pioneers letting women in
.
It's so odd to think about thatjust now, but to let women in
because I I mean that was one ofthe things that struck me was I
forget that that was part ofour history that did this?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
the change really came about after the first world
war, which um with thedevelopment of wis and the
blossoming of wis.
They had nowhere to meet.
If they couldn't meet in thereading room or the local
institute, where did they meet?
The school room was in useduring the day and women were
available in the afternoon.
So they were a driving force.
(10:27):
Um, so, as were other things,and I think what one of the
things I certainly learned thatdavid clark brought out very
well, was the huge determinationand leadership exercised by one
man, sir Henry Roo, in the1920s, who was really the
(10:48):
founder of what is now the AcreNational Village Hall Service.
He spoke in 1920 at a nationalconference on reconstruction
about the need for village hallsto provide not just for WIs but
also for returning servicemenwho had got used to having
(11:09):
entertainment provided when theywere in the forces but were
also traumatised by war, andthat coupled with the desire to
provide memorials.
So, of course, many of theearly halls then were memorial
halls and they were madepossible by Sir Henry Roo and
others working with thegovernment to get the release of
(11:30):
old army and RAF huts so thatthey could be transported, often
on the back of horse and cartto villages to serve as village
halls.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
That's interesting.
That, yeah, interesting.
It wasn't until I spoke toJohnny on the previous podcast
host that I actually livedopposite a memorial hall, but I
didn't think of it as anythingto do with a village hall.
It was just a hall that wasthere, and I played in a brass
band as well when I was younger,so there was always concerts
there.
I just had no idea howimportant it actually is and it
(11:59):
was a humongous.
It was only a village of 2000people, but it was a humongous
hall and I just rememberconcerts being held there, even
if I wasn't playing different,you know, amateur operatics.
It's incredible what they'veall done.
Yeah, so since the last time youwere on the podcast, obviously
you were in the middle of the2021, so the middle of the
pandemic.
(12:19):
So back then I suppose thethought would be what is the
future of village halls?
So now that we've passed thatpoint and hopefully we never
return to that point do youthink the pandemic has pushed
village halls, of course, or doyou think it's changed direction
for the better, or was it justcontinuing on as it left off in
(12:39):
2020?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
It's created a number of changes.
So what we have seen is somevillage halls struggle to
survive and struggle to reopenbecause local organizations
closed and never reopened.
For example, some wi's closedbecause they've become quite
(13:03):
small and their membership quiteelderly and people literally
died during COVID for all kindsof causes not just COVID but
consequently they couldn'treopen.
So numbers of halls struggled.
On the other hand, other hallsbenefited and have come out
(13:23):
stronger with new activities.
For example, we've seen theblossoming of community cafes,
which are wonderful places whereanybody can go and find
companionship, warmth, cup ofcoffee, you know people to talk
to and friends basically.
So we've seen that blossomthings like pop-up pubs as well,
(13:47):
and I think some people whohave come to realise that
actually their hall is soimportant, like you, they've
come to appreciate itsimportance and therefore they've
stepped forward to volunteer astrustees.
And the book has been publishedto coincide with Village Halls
Week which ICA has run each year.
(14:08):
And the theme of Village HallsWeek this year is celebrating,
encouraging and supportingvolunteers, and what we do
really want to do is toencourage more people to step
forward.
But looking also to the future,I think there are, personally,
there are three things that comefor me out of the book, three
(14:30):
key lessons.
We do draw lessons, challengesand opportunities in the final
chapter.
The first is that the ACREservices around the country are
needed now just as ever.
They were, and COVID clearlydemonstrated the importance of
that.
But for volunteers, people arebusy these days.
(14:50):
Actually, they need somewherethat they can go to for ready
advice, and what the countyadvisors do is provide a portal
to the advice and the experiencethat's available throughout the
whole country from othervillage halls and other advisors
.
So that's really important.
That continues and we very muchhope that local authorities and
(15:14):
government will recognize theimportance of that and continue
to provide funding.
Secondly, there's the importanceof capital funding, and I've
just mentioned the bub and thedifficulty they had and the fact
they could only rebuild becauseof the availability of
government grants and theavailability of capital.
(15:36):
A long term capital fundingscheme for village halls is
essential.
Queen's Platinum Jubilee Fund,which was provided by DEFRA over
the last few years, closed andwith the general election, the
funding that had been promisedfor the next few years fell by
the wayside and we're stillwaiting and hoping and praying
(15:59):
that the government will comeforward with new funding to
replace that, because we do needthat long term funding and
actually the amount is lessimportant almost than it being
long-term, because it takesyears for villagers to raise the
funds, provide improvementworks and there's so much good
(16:22):
that can be done throughimprovement work in terms of
improving the health andwell-being of people in the
countryside, of addressingclimate change through making
halls more energy efficient andproviding alternative renewable
technologies, and also providingeconomic benefit, because we
know that village hallscontribute about £178 million a
(16:45):
year collectively to the ruraleconomy, so actually that
investment really pays dividends.
The third thing, um third lessonI would draw is actually the
need for the right kind offiscal and regulatory framework
within which our volunteer-ledvillage halls can operate,
because we have problems such asthe 20% VAT that halls still
(17:09):
pay on improvement work, whichis just a drain on effort and
any kind of funding that'savailable.
There's also the fact that somevillage halls the larger ones
pay 20% VAT on their energysupplies, which is a nonsense,
that they're treated likebusinesses, when actually
smaller halls pay 5% VAT becausethey're treated as domestic
(17:33):
supplies.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
So why is that?
What's the cut-off forEurobusiness?
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
There's a particular limit on the amount of energy
that you draw from any onesource which sets the difference
, and that's a nonsense.
That you draw from any onesource which sets the difference
, and that's a nonsense.
It all depends on the size ofthe building, how used it is,
and if you happen to have a veryold hall that's maybe got a
(18:00):
very big main hall, you're goingto be using more energy
potentially than a smaller hall.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Well, that's how they work.
Yeah, I think someone's justwritten a bit of paper that
they've not actually thoughtabout how it works.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yes, and we do need the voice of the Aiken Network
to be raising this.
In fact, the previousgovernment did reduce the VAT on
energy-efficient materialsuntil 2027.
So of course we hope that thisgovernment will continue that
moving forward to the future.
That would be good, but thereare other pieces of regulation
(18:35):
that ACA has had to work on.
We've been very pleased thatboth governments have agreed to
work with us to avoid theterrorism protection of premises
this is Martin's law to preventthat legislation from impacting
on the smaller village halls.
At one time we thought that theaverage village hall was going
(18:58):
to get caught by thatlegislation, but they've
increased the capacity limits,so we hope the majority of halls
will not be affected.
Obviously, it's a serious matter, but it's about the impact on
volunteers and hopefullymaintaining village halls as
(19:18):
viable, financially sustainableenterprises for rural
communities.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
There's a lot of research that you and David have
both done for the book and forVillage Halls in general.
Do you have any favouritestories that appeared in the
book?
One that popped to my mind wasthe Rolls-Royce man who had the
bucket collecting funds on thebeach.
I thought you know these littlesnippets are kind of what makes
(19:48):
it.
Is there any of your favourites?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Thank you.
I have to say that this has beena fabulous community effort
really, because I mentionedBubba Hall, but it was Wello
from Nottinghamshire and BartonBendish in Norfolk that also
came forward with their storiesand through the Acre Network,
many other halls came forwardwith theirs and the, I think, my
(20:12):
.
It's really hard to choose, butthe one I would plump for for
its sheer tenacity has to be theBrook Hall at Ottershaw in
Surrey which during the SecondWorld War was burnt down and it
turned out to be the fault ofsomebody in the fire service and
they spent four years fightingthe government to get their
(20:34):
village hall rebuilt and theywon during the war and having
had to fight for village hallsmyself for so many years, um,
you know I really appreciatedthat story and I hope other
village halls, when things gowrong for them, will do the same
.
Speak up, tell their mps ifthey're having to pay bat on
(20:58):
their improvement work and theythink it's wrong and they can't
afford it and it's getting inthe way.
If you don't say so, we'll getnowhere.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
So I think that's really important, that halls
basically make their views nowoh, so since your book started
over 500 years ago, it's theyhave done that that same way
they've.
They've spoke out, they've likewe need this way, we did that
way, and if everyone needs it,they can all fight together for
the same cause.
It's not, you're not.
I suppose you're not on yourown.
Exactly, if you've got someoneelse has a problem, you, sorry,
(21:29):
you might have the same problemas somebody else, because if you
join together, you can find asolution for the better.
Exactly, yeah, yeah, incredible, well, uh, thank you very much,
uh for your your time, louise.
It's been really fascinatingand I'm so glad that after I
heard listening to the firstpodcast when I first started
doing this, I'm glad we got youback on, because it was during
(21:53):
COVID and you say you're writinga book, so now that's come to
fruition, so it's great.
It's being what's the word?
It's not going live, it goes to.
It's being published.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's being published on the 15th of March March, and
it's available either from AllGood Bookshops or from Amberley
are the publishers, so if you goonto the Amberley website you
can order it there.
It's £16.99 in bookshops,£15.29 from Amberley, plus
postage.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
It works, every penny .
Speaker 2 (22:25):
And some of the Acre Network members will be selling
copies at their county eventsduring National Village Halls
Week.
That's great.
If I could just say one otherthing Please do yes, we were
really pleased that Her RoyalHighness the Princess Royal very
graciously contributed theforeword to this book and she
(22:45):
pays tribute to all thevolunteers who run our village
halls and she recognises thatthey're often taken rather for
granted.
And I would just appeal toeverybody parish councillors, to
anybody living in a village whoyou know maybe isn't at the
moment part of their villagehall committee please do be
(23:07):
prepared to step forward, helpout where you can and perhaps
become a trustee.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Definitely, and our previous podcast will help you
understand exactly what thetrustee does, what their role is
because that was a mystery tome as well and what we will do.
We'll put a link to your bookon the podcast website.
We'll put them direct toAmberley.
Thank you very much for joiningus, louise.
It's been a real pleasurespeaking to you.
Thank you, mark.
Many thanks to our headlinesponsor and specialist village
(23:36):
hall insurance provider, alliedWestminster, the home of Village
Guard, for making this podcastpossible, and to online booking
system provider, hallmaster, whoalso sponsor our podcast and
can be found at hallmastercouk.
You've been listening to theVillage Halls podcast, a unique
listening community forBritain's village community and
(23:57):
church halls and anyoneinterested in the vital
community services they provide.
We'll be back again soon withanother episode.
For more information, pleasevisit thevillagehallspodcastcom,
where you'll also find links toour social media pages.
Thanks again for listening inand until the next time.
Goodbye for now.
Hello, my name is Mark Smith and welcome to the
Village Halls podcast sponsoredby Allied Westminster, the UK's
largest specialist provider ofVillage Hall insurance and the
home of Village Guard.
Today I'm delighted to welcomeback Louise Beaton to the
podcast.
Louise was our very first guestand it's a pleasure to have her
here again as she launches herand David Clark's new book Halls
(00:24):
for All, published by Amberley.
Louise has dedicated her lifeto supporting and preserving the
legacy of village halls, with adeep understanding of their
evolution and importance.
Her passion extends beyondtheir practical use, delving
into the rich history thatshaped these vital community
hubs.
Welcome to the podcast onceagain, louise.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Thank you very much, Mark.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Excellent, so I've had a chance to read your book.
So what I'd like to hear firstis what inspired you to write
Halls for All, and why is nowthe right time to publish it.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
That's a very good question.
So the book was inspired by thefact that it was the centenary
100 years since the birth of theACRE network in 2020.
And people will remember thatthere was a certain disaster
happened that year in the formof the COVID pandemic, and
suddenly our ideas for having anational conference went by the
(01:17):
wayside and we turned to whatelse we could do, and David
Clark and I together had beenthinking about the fact that the
time was ripe to write a bookabout the story of Village Halls
.
So David set about doing theresearch behind the scenes while
I was involved with trying tohelp Village Halls deal with the
(01:38):
Covid pandemic, and the resultfive years later is the book.
And the result five years lateris the book.
And what sort of drove us towrite it was the fact that we
(02:07):
felt there was a story hereabout the commitment that
volunteers have made over theAcre Network as it is now, and
the county village hall advisorsthroughout that time that has
enabled the volunteers to buildtheir village halls and to
manage them, and which is stillongoing today.
So that's what drove it.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Excellent.
So I suppose it was quiteuseful that it was during COVID,
because I assume you had muchmore time, like the rest of us,
to do these little projects thatyou can do inside.
Was that one of the factorsthat came?
Because it must be quite a taskto write a book.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
David spent hours researching.
He studied 3000 copies ofarticles from the Times, many
other resources as well my sideof the book.
I was really just doingbackground reading at that time
because I was so focused on thepandemic, but my turn to
(02:56):
actually get writing andresearching really came from
2022 onwards, when you know, thepandemic and the aftermath was
out of the way and we tried.
In fact, one of the firstthings I had to do was to write
about the pandemic and what itmeant for village halls and how
(03:16):
they survived, in order to getthat out of my head, so that I
could then go back in time anddo what I'd originally set out
to do and look at the past and,with David, draw lessons from
the past that we could takeforward to the future.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Well, that's interesting.
I was going to ask you aboutthat.
I suppose an odd link, Isuppose, into the question.
But I always had a passion forbread making and part of that
process was understanding.
I researched for ages aboutwheat and where it came from,
because I always think that it'simportant to learn about where
it's been so you can adjust forthe future.
And I suppose when I wasreading the book that's I
(03:56):
suppose that's kind of what itis you can't, you don't know
where you're going unless youknow where you've been.
So the book's actually quitevital in that respect.
So I suppose my passion wasbread.
So your passion was obviouslythe village halls and
communities.
So what is it that sparked yourpassion for the history of, or
(04:17):
village halls?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
My passion for the history I suppose comes from the
fact that over many yearsworking with halls I've had to
look at an awful lot ofgoverning documents, some of
which are really quitehistorical.
I saw one once which had thesignature of Winston Churchill,
clement Attlee and various otherfigures, because it was
(04:42):
formerly Ministry of Defenceproperty which had been conveyed
to the village from thegovernment, the Crown Estate,
immediately after the SecondWorld War.
So to handle a document likethat, you know you think oh, wow
.
And there are so many sort ofstories out there in Vill which
David and I were quite keen thatin writing the book we should
(05:06):
provide enough information thatwould inspire village hall
committees and local historicalsocieties to become interested
in the history of their own halland pull together the
information and publish them.
One of the sad things wasseeing that actually village
halls nowadays, their marketingon their websites tends to be
devoted solely to hiring thehall, whereas actually it would
(05:30):
be really good to see more hallshave a history of where it came
from on their website so thatpeople moving into the village
who don't know actually learnsomething and come to appreciate
that.
You know people have workedreally hard to provide this all
in the past and actually weshould treasure it and do our
(05:51):
bit to support it yeah, well, Ijust did a podcast with bernard
hallmaster about websites andyou know I he did mention the,
the history.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
But yeah, that is a factor that would be would be
good because, like, whenever youmove to somewhere or even to
visit somewhere, it'sinteresting to know the history.
But I I didn't really realizeuntil I read the start, well,
the start of your book.
There obviously it's been thecentenary, but going back, you
know, 500 years, I didn'trealize that.
That reading rooms, um, andthat just kind of evolves into
(06:22):
what it is now.
I think it's so amazing thatyou've actually went back that
far.
Kudos to David for doing that.
That's a lot of work, that's alot of years of information.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Well, it's not just David there, because there's
been research carried outspecifically into reading rooms
and mechanics institutes, sothat's where the background
reading came in delving intothose and, in fact, reading
rooms.
This is where we were learningas we went along.
I certainly I knew of readingrooms.
(06:52):
What I didn't know was just howmany there were.
They were in every county, somemore than others, but hundreds
in some counties, and most ofthem have just faded away.
Just a relatively smallproportion have become village
halls.
Now have actually been turnedinto village halls.
(07:13):
Some of them literallydisappeared.
Maybe the landowners, theirsons and daughters or whoever
inherited the, just sold themoff because they were part of an
estate.
Some of them just fell intodisuse because people couldn't
afford to keep them going.
But the thing that reallystruck me was the fact that,
(07:35):
with both the mechanicsinstitutes and the reading rooms
, most of very few of them infact, were available to women.
So most of them were onlyavailable to a third of the
population, men, and that wasreally working men, and, uh,
they were really designed tokeep men out of the pub with an
(07:57):
alternative, um, uh, that's whythey were called reading rooms.
They were supplied withnewspapers, journals, books etc.
And often the books that couldbe put in were quite carefully
controlled by the church as well.
All right, great.
And they would often have aseparate room.
The reading room would be thequiet room for reading and then
there would be a separate roomwhere games such as darts or
(08:19):
bagatelle or cards could beplayed, but no alcohol.
Some of them, um, the ones thatwere more successful and tended
to become village halls werethose where they were just big
enough to have the occasionalconcert which helped raise funds
to keep it going, maybe otheractivities, and just a few of
them admitted women.
(08:41):
And can I just take theopportunity that first podcast
four years ago that I did withum, with you, uh, three village
halls replied, responded to that, and one of them with their own
histories and one of them wasAlan from Bubbin Hall Reading
Room in Warwickshire and thatwas one, a very unusual reading
(09:07):
room which actually admittedwomen from the word go.
And in that story of theirhistory you can see the
difficulty they had keeping thebuilding going.
They kept trying to raise thefunds to improve it, to maintain
it, huge investments of timeand effort to do that, at one
(09:29):
time nearly closed down by thethe doctor, because the sewage
system was so inadequate and thedoctor's surgery was using it,
and eventually it was only withhuge leadership and
determination and theavailability of public grants
that they were able to rebuildit.
And that was quite late on, Ithink in the 1980s, from memory.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Right, so they were really pioneers letting women in
.
It's so odd to think about thatjust now, but to let women in
because I I mean that was one ofthe things that struck me was I
forget that that was part ofour history that did this?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
the change really came about after the first world
war, which um with thedevelopment of wis and the
blossoming of wis.
They had nowhere to meet.
If they couldn't meet in thereading room or the local
institute, where did they meet?
The school room was in useduring the day and women were
available in the afternoon.
So they were a driving force.
(10:27):
Um, so, as were other things,and I think what one of the
things I certainly learned thatdavid clark brought out very
well, was the huge determinationand leadership exercised by one
man, sir Henry Roo, in the1920s, who was really the
(10:48):
founder of what is now the AcreNational Village Hall Service.
He spoke in 1920 at a nationalconference on reconstruction
about the need for village hallsto provide not just for WIs but
also for returning servicemenwho had got used to having
(11:09):
entertainment provided when theywere in the forces but were
also traumatised by war, andthat coupled with the desire to
provide memorials.
So, of course, many of theearly halls then were memorial
halls and they were madepossible by Sir Henry Roo and
others working with thegovernment to get the release of
(11:30):
old army and RAF huts so thatthey could be transported, often
on the back of horse and cartto villages to serve as village
halls.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
That's interesting.
That, yeah, interesting.
It wasn't until I spoke toJohnny on the previous podcast
host that I actually livedopposite a memorial hall, but I
didn't think of it as anythingto do with a village hall.
It was just a hall that wasthere, and I played in a brass
band as well when I was younger,so there was always concerts
there.
I just had no idea howimportant it actually is and it
(11:59):
was a humongous.
It was only a village of 2000people, but it was a humongous
hall and I just rememberconcerts being held there, even
if I wasn't playing different,you know, amateur operatics.
It's incredible what they'veall done.
Yeah, so since the last time youwere on the podcast, obviously
you were in the middle of the2021, so the middle of the
pandemic.
(12:19):
So back then I suppose thethought would be what is the
future of village halls?
So now that we've passed thatpoint and hopefully we never
return to that point do youthink the pandemic has pushed
village halls, of course, or doyou think it's changed direction
for the better, or was it justcontinuing on as it left off in
(12:39):
2020?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
It's created a number of changes.
So what we have seen is somevillage halls struggle to
survive and struggle to reopenbecause local organizations
closed and never reopened.
For example, some wi's closedbecause they've become quite
(13:03):
small and their membership quiteelderly and people literally
died during COVID for all kindsof causes not just COVID but
consequently they couldn'treopen.
So numbers of halls struggled.
On the other hand, other hallsbenefited and have come out
(13:23):
stronger with new activities.
For example, we've seen theblossoming of community cafes,
which are wonderful places whereanybody can go and find
companionship, warmth, cup ofcoffee, you know people to talk
to and friends basically.
So we've seen that blossomthings like pop-up pubs as well,
(13:47):
and I think some people whohave come to realise that
actually their hall is soimportant, like you, they've
come to appreciate itsimportance and therefore they've
stepped forward to volunteer astrustees.
And the book has been publishedto coincide with Village Halls
Week which ICA has run each year.
(14:08):
And the theme of Village HallsWeek this year is celebrating,
encouraging and supportingvolunteers, and what we do
really want to do is toencourage more people to step
forward.
But looking also to the future,I think there are, personally,
there are three things that comefor me out of the book, three
(14:30):
key lessons.
We do draw lessons, challengesand opportunities in the final
chapter.
The first is that the ACREservices around the country are
needed now just as ever.
They were, and COVID clearlydemonstrated the importance of
that.
But for volunteers, people arebusy these days.
(14:50):
Actually, they need somewherethat they can go to for ready
advice, and what the countyadvisors do is provide a portal
to the advice and the experiencethat's available throughout the
whole country from othervillage halls and other advisors
.
So that's really important.
That continues and we very muchhope that local authorities and
(15:14):
government will recognize theimportance of that and continue
to provide funding.
Secondly, there's the importanceof capital funding, and I've
just mentioned the bub and thedifficulty they had and the fact
they could only rebuild becauseof the availability of
government grants and theavailability of capital.
(15:36):
A long term capital fundingscheme for village halls is
essential.
Queen's Platinum Jubilee Fund,which was provided by DEFRA over
the last few years, closed andwith the general election, the
funding that had been promisedfor the next few years fell by
the wayside and we're stillwaiting and hoping and praying
(15:59):
that the government will comeforward with new funding to
replace that, because we do needthat long term funding and
actually the amount is lessimportant almost than it being
long-term, because it takesyears for villagers to raise the
funds, provide improvementworks and there's so much good
(16:22):
that can be done throughimprovement work in terms of
improving the health andwell-being of people in the
countryside, of addressingclimate change through making
halls more energy efficient andproviding alternative renewable
technologies, and also providingeconomic benefit, because we
know that village hallscontribute about £178 million a
(16:45):
year collectively to the ruraleconomy, so actually that
investment really pays dividends.
The third thing, um third lessonI would draw is actually the
need for the right kind offiscal and regulatory framework
within which our volunteer-ledvillage halls can operate,
because we have problems such asthe 20% VAT that halls still
(17:09):
pay on improvement work, whichis just a drain on effort and
any kind of funding that'savailable.
There's also the fact that somevillage halls the larger ones
pay 20% VAT on their energysupplies, which is a nonsense,
that they're treated likebusinesses, when actually
smaller halls pay 5% VAT becausethey're treated as domestic
(17:33):
supplies.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
So why is that?
What's the cut-off forEurobusiness?
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
There's a particular limit on the amount of energy
that you draw from any onesource which sets the difference
, and that's a nonsense.
That you draw from any onesource which sets the difference
, and that's a nonsense.
It all depends on the size ofthe building, how used it is,
and if you happen to have a veryold hall that's maybe got a
(18:00):
very big main hall, you're goingto be using more energy
potentially than a smaller hall.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Well, that's how they work.
Yeah, I think someone's justwritten a bit of paper that
they've not actually thoughtabout how it works.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yes, and we do need the voice of the Aiken Network
to be raising this.
In fact, the previousgovernment did reduce the VAT on
energy-efficient materialsuntil 2027.
So of course we hope that thisgovernment will continue that
moving forward to the future.
That would be good, but thereare other pieces of regulation
(18:35):
that ACA has had to work on.
We've been very pleased thatboth governments have agreed to
work with us to avoid theterrorism protection of premises
this is Martin's law to preventthat legislation from impacting
on the smaller village halls.
At one time we thought that theaverage village hall was going
(18:58):
to get caught by thatlegislation, but they've
increased the capacity limits,so we hope the majority of halls
will not be affected.
Obviously, it's a serious matter, but it's about the impact on
volunteers and hopefullymaintaining village halls as
(19:18):
viable, financially sustainableenterprises for rural
communities.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
There's a lot of research that you and David have
both done for the book and forVillage Halls in general.
Do you have any favouritestories that appeared in the
book?
One that popped to my mind wasthe Rolls-Royce man who had the
bucket collecting funds on thebeach.
I thought you know these littlesnippets are kind of what makes
(19:48):
it.
Is there any of your favourites?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Thank you.
I have to say that this has beena fabulous community effort
really, because I mentionedBubba Hall, but it was Wello
from Nottinghamshire and BartonBendish in Norfolk that also
came forward with their storiesand through the Acre Network,
many other halls came forwardwith theirs and the, I think, my
(20:12):
.
It's really hard to choose, butthe one I would plump for for
its sheer tenacity has to be theBrook Hall at Ottershaw in
Surrey which during the SecondWorld War was burnt down and it
turned out to be the fault ofsomebody in the fire service and
they spent four years fightingthe government to get their
(20:34):
village hall rebuilt and theywon during the war and having
had to fight for village hallsmyself for so many years, um,
you know I really appreciatedthat story and I hope other
village halls, when things gowrong for them, will do the same
.
Speak up, tell their mps ifthey're having to pay bat on
(20:58):
their improvement work and theythink it's wrong and they can't
afford it and it's getting inthe way.
If you don't say so, we'll getnowhere.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
So I think that's really important, that halls
basically make their views nowoh, so since your book started
over 500 years ago, it's theyhave done that that same way
they've.
They've spoke out, they've likewe need this way, we did that
way, and if everyone needs it,they can all fight together for
the same cause.
It's not, you're not.
I suppose you're not on yourown.
Exactly, if you've got someoneelse has a problem, you, sorry,
(21:29):
you might have the same problemas somebody else, because if you
join together, you can find asolution for the better.
Exactly, yeah, yeah, incredible, well, uh, thank you very much,
uh for your your time, louise.
It's been really fascinatingand I'm so glad that after I
heard listening to the firstpodcast when I first started
doing this, I'm glad we got youback on, because it was during
(21:53):
COVID and you say you're writinga book, so now that's come to
fruition, so it's great.
It's being what's the word?
It's not going live, it goes to.
It's being published.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's being published on the 15th of March March, and
it's available either from AllGood Bookshops or from Amberley
are the publishers, so if you goonto the Amberley website you
can order it there.
It's £16.99 in bookshops,£15.29 from Amberley, plus
postage.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
It works, every penny .
Speaker 2 (22:25):
And some of the Acre Network members will be selling
copies at their county eventsduring National Village Halls
Week.
That's great.
If I could just say one otherthing Please do yes, we were
really pleased that Her RoyalHighness the Princess Royal very
graciously contributed theforeword to this book and she
(22:45):
pays tribute to all thevolunteers who run our village
halls and she recognises thatthey're often taken rather for
granted.
And I would just appeal toeverybody parish councillors, to
anybody living in a village whoyou know maybe isn't at the
moment part of their villagehall committee please do be
(23:07):
prepared to step forward, helpout where you can and perhaps
become a trustee.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Definitely, and our previous podcast will help you
understand exactly what thetrustee does, what their role is
because that was a mystery tome as well and what we will do.
We'll put a link to your bookon the podcast website.
We'll put them direct toAmberley.
Thank you very much for joiningus, louise.
It's been a real pleasurespeaking to you.
Thank you, mark.
Many thanks to our headlinesponsor and specialist village
(23:36):
hall insurance provider, alliedWestminster, the home of Village
Guard, for making this podcastpossible, and to online booking
system provider, hallmaster, whoalso sponsor our podcast and
can be found at hallmastercouk.
You've been listening to theVillage Halls podcast, a unique
listening community forBritain's village community and
(23:57):
church halls and anyoneinterested in the vital
community services they provide.
We'll be back again soon withanother episode.
For more information, pleasevisit thevillagehallspodcastcom,
where you'll also find links toour social media pages.
Thanks again for listening inand until the next time.
Goodbye for now.
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