HALL HISTORY

History of Linton Village Hall 1870 – 2008

Charity No. 520967

Linton Village Hall started its life as Linton School.  The Reverend Edward Palin (great grandfather of Michael Palin the well-known film & television performer) established it as a Churchschool in the centre of the village. It was opened in 1872 to accommodate 90 primary aged pupils and it thrived for many years.

However, in January 1957, when there were only 25 children in the school, the school was threatened with closure under a new Education Act.

With the closure of the school in 1958, it was agreed that the old building would make a very good Village Hall in place of the old wooden Parish Hall.  The Ministry of Education agreed to sell the building for £300 and a Village Hall Management Committee was formed in August 1959 to deal with the enormous task of raising the money to purchase the building and to make repairs and improvements.

In the early 90’s the need to meet new Health & Hygiene and Fire & Safety regulations was a priority in order to renew the annual licenses and a programme of extensive refurbishment and very active fundraising was embarked upon by the Village Hall Management Committee and in 1994 a new kitchen extension was completed.

Additional, more extensive, refurbishment was needed to the Main Hall and Committee Room, which required vast sums of money to be raised to meet the cost of major improvement work.  The Village Hall Management committee decided that in order to raise these large sums fundraising outside of the community was needed and a grant application was made to The National Lotteries Charity Board (The Lottery).  This was successful and with the additional help of The Eveson Charitable Trust, The Herefordshire Council, Linton Parish Council and Friends of Linton Village Hall, sufficient funding was secured to start a major refurbishment project in October 1999.   The project was completed on time and within budget in April 2000.  Following the 1997 Government Licensing Regulations Linton Village Hall was awarded its Premises License in 2008.

Linton Village Hall Management Committee’s objective is to ensure that the Hall generates sufficient income to cover its day-to-day running costs and also to seek ways of attracting additional funding for regular maintenance and redecoration, so that the Hall is attractive to users and remains well maintained. Guided by The Charity Commission, it is aware of its responsibilities as the Administering Trustees and the requirement to safeguard the assets of this Charity for the benefit of its Users and the Community.