10. Village Hall Committee
Village Hall Committee 1
According to the survey in the first year of the village society, the most needed amenity was some sort of community centre. Second was a youth club. The youth club was formed very early in part of the Mechanics Institute and would continue to need premises, whether there or in some other building.
Marcus Catling chaired the meeting of all the society’s committees on Sept 30th 1971. A meeting of various existing clubs and organisations in the village had been held, to assess likely support and potential users. Of the 20 groups invited, 8 had attended and 4 sent apologies. Rather discouragingly, all had emphasised their own difficulties in fund raising although they offered passive support for the idea of a village hall. Members at the WVS meeting thought that the existence of facilities would in itself generate usage, perhaps of groups that had never formed for want of a suitable meeting place.
Existing facilities in Wilsden were examined:
Royd House
Royd House offered a reading room, a committee room and kitchen facilities. It would need to be considerably extended to make a village hall. It was well positioned, as close to a central area as there was for this long, narrow village. However it was owned and managed by Bingley UDC, which was likely to complicate getting grants which could be available to voluntary bodies.
Wilsden First School
The facilities were already over stretched for non-school activities.
Mechanics Institute
An architect’s survey suggested at least £6000 would be needed just to waterproof the walls and roof, with further major work to comply with modern regulations. To provide adequate parking, it might be necessary to purchase and demolish other property. In favour of the building were its historical interest and village memories of its fairly recent social use. Gerald Tyler was investigating the trustee situation and it was possible that ownership could pass to new trustees appointed from the society.
A new hall
With a capacity of 240 for dancing or 160 seated, the predicted cost would be £20,000.
There was a lot of discussion about the kind of use envisaged, running costs and who should run it and a feeling that they did not have enough information to decide on such a big commitment.
The group appointed to carry out a feasibility study reported back to the general committee in November and to a meeting of all committees in December. The general committee voted 11 to 3 in favour of their recommendations and would make £300 available for a publicity campaign, to be repaid as soon as possible out of funds raised. The December meeting supported the proposal that a village hall should be built on a site in Firth Lane. Dr Wheelock had already obtained agreement in principle from Bingley Council that this land would be allocated for a community centre. After consultation with Yorkshire Rural Communities Council, the recommended accommodation was to be;
- hall with space for 350 dancing,
- committee/multi purpose room
- kitchen
- storage
- cloakroom facilities
- there might be built in facilities for a bar but the hall should not be licensed.
There was the possibility that a purpose built youth club would be built in the village. It was suggested that this could share the same site and may be combined in one building.
