The Village Halls Podcast
A podcast for anyone involved in the running of Britain's 10,000 village, church and community and anyone interested in the vital community services they provide.
The Village Halls Podcast
The Legacy of Village Halls with Louise Beaton: Halls for All
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.
Hello, my name is Mark Smith and welcome to the Village Halls podcast sponsored by Allied Westminster, the UK's largest specialist provider of Village Hall insurance and the home of Village Guard. Today I'm delighted to welcome back Louise Beaton to the podcast. Louise was our very first guest and it's a pleasure to have her here again as she launches her and David Clark's new book Halls for All, published by Amberley. Louise has dedicated her life to supporting and preserving the legacy of village halls, with a deep understanding of their evolution and importance. Her passion extends beyond their practical use, delving into the rich history that shaped these vital community hubs. Welcome to the podcast once again, louise.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, Mark.
Speaker 1:Excellent, so I've had a chance to read your book. So what I'd like to hear first is what inspired you to write Halls for All, and why is now the right time to publish it.
Speaker 2:That's a very good question.
Speaker 2:So the book was inspired by the fact that it was the centenary 100 years since the birth of the ACRE network in 2020.
Speaker 2:And people will remember that there was a certain disaster happened that year in the form of the COVID pandemic, and suddenly our ideas for having a national conference went by the wayside and we turned to what else we could do, and David Clark and I together had been thinking about the fact that the time was ripe to write a book about the story of Village Halls. So David set about doing the research behind the scenes while I was involved with trying to help Village Halls deal with the Covid pandemic, and the result five years later is the book. And the result five years later is the book. And what sort of drove us to write it was the fact that we felt there was a story here about the commitment that volunteers have made over the Acre Network as it is now, and the county village hall advisors throughout that time that has enabled the volunteers to build their village halls and to manage them, and which is still ongoing today. So that's what drove it.
Speaker 1:Excellent. So I suppose it was quite useful that it was during COVID, because I assume you had much more time, like the rest of us, to do these little projects that you can do inside. Was that one of the factors that came? Because it must be quite a task to write a book.
Speaker 2:David spent hours researching. He studied 3000 copies of articles from the Times, many other resources as well my side of the book. I was really just doing background reading at that time because I was so focused on the pandemic, but my turn to actually get writing and researching really came from 2022 onwards, when you know, the pandemic and the aftermath was out of the way and we tried. In fact, one of the first things I had to do was to write about the pandemic and what it meant for village halls and how they survived, in order to get that out of my head, so that I could then go back in time and do what I'd originally set out to do and look at the past and, with David, draw lessons from the past that we could take forward to the future.
Speaker 1:Well, that's interesting. I was going to ask you about that. I suppose an odd link, I suppose, into the question. But I always had a passion for bread making and part of that process was understanding. I researched for ages about wheat and where it came from, because I always think that it's important to learn about where it's been so you can adjust for the future. And I suppose when I was reading the book that's I suppose that's kind of what it is you can't, you don't know where you're going unless you know where you've been. So the book's actually quite vital in that respect. So I suppose my passion was bread. So your passion was obviously the village halls and communities. So what is it that sparked your passion for the history of, or village halls?
Speaker 2:My passion for the history I suppose comes from the fact that over many years working with halls I've had to look at an awful lot of governing documents, some of which are really quite historical.
Speaker 2:I saw one once which had the signature of Winston Churchill, clement Attlee and various other figures, because it was formerly Ministry of Defence property which had been conveyed to the village from the government, the Crown Estate, immediately after the Second World War.
Speaker 2:So to handle a document like that, you know you think oh, wow. And there are so many sort of stories out there in Vill which David and I were quite keen that in writing the book we should provide enough information that would inspire village hall committees and local historical societies to become interested in the history of their own hall and pull together the information and publish them. One of the sad things was seeing that actually village halls nowadays, their marketing on their websites tends to be devoted solely to hiring the hall, whereas actually it would be really good to see more halls have a history of where it came from on their website so that people moving into the village who don't know actually learn something and come to appreciate that. You know people have worked really hard to provide this all in the past and actually we should treasure it and do our bit to support it yeah, well, I just did a podcast with bernard hallmaster about websites and you know I he did mention the, the history.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that is a factor that would be would be good because, like, whenever you move to somewhere or even to visit somewhere, it's interesting to know the history. But I I didn't really realize until I read the start, well, the start of your book. There obviously it's been the centenary, but going back, you know, 500 years, I didn't realize that. That reading rooms, um, and that just kind of evolves into what it is now. I think it's so amazing that you've actually went back that far. Kudos to David for doing that. That's a lot of work, that's a lot of years of information.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not just David there, because there's been research carried out specifically into reading rooms and mechanics institutes, so that's where the background reading came in delving into those and, in fact, reading rooms. This is where we were learning as we went along. I certainly I knew of reading rooms. What I didn't know was just how many there were. They were in every county, some more than others, but hundreds in some counties, and most of them have just faded away. Just a relatively small proportion have become village halls. Now have actually been turned into village halls.
Speaker 2:Some of them literally disappeared. Maybe the landowners, their sons and daughters or whoever inherited the, just sold them off because they were part of an estate. Some of them just fell into disuse because people couldn't afford to keep them going. But the thing that really struck me was the fact that, with both the mechanics institutes and the reading rooms, most of very few of them in fact, were available to women. So most of them were only available to a third of the population, men, and that was really working men, and, uh, they were really designed to keep men out of the pub with an alternative, um, uh, that's why they were called reading rooms. They were supplied with newspapers, journals, books etc. And often the books that could be put in were quite carefully controlled by the church as well. All right, great. And they would often have a separate room. The reading room would be the quiet room for reading and then there would be a separate room where games such as darts or bagatelle or cards could be played, but no alcohol.
Speaker 2:Some of them, um, the ones that were more successful and tended to become village halls were those where they were just big enough to have the occasional concert which helped raise funds to keep it going, maybe other activities, and just a few of them admitted women.
Speaker 2:And can I just take the opportunity that first podcast four years ago that I did with um, with you, uh, three village halls replied, responded to that, and one of them with their own histories and one of them was Alan from Bubbin Hall Reading Room in Warwickshire and that was one, a very unusual reading room which actually admitted women from the word go. And in that story of their history you can see the difficulty they had keeping the building going. They kept trying to raise the funds to improve it, to maintain it, huge investments of time and effort to do that, at one time nearly closed down by the the doctor, because the sewage system was so inadequate and the doctor's surgery was using it, and eventually it was only with huge leadership and determination and the availability of public grants that they were able to rebuild it. And that was quite late on, I think in the 1980s, from memory.
Speaker 1:Right, so they were really pioneers letting women in. It's so odd to think about that just now, but to let women in because I I mean that was one of the things that struck me was I forget that that was part of our history that did this?
Speaker 2:the change really came about after the first world war, which um with the development of wis and the blossoming of wis. They had nowhere to meet. If they couldn't meet in the reading room or the local institute, where did they meet? The school room was in use during the day and women were available in the afternoon. So they were a driving force.
Speaker 2:Um, so, as were other things, and I think what one of the things I certainly learned that david clark brought out very well, was the huge determination and leadership exercised by one man, sir Henry Roo, in the 1920s, who was really the founder of what is now the Acre National Village Hall Service. He spoke in 1920 at a national conference on reconstruction about the need for village halls to provide not just for WIs but also for returning servicemen who had got used to having entertainment provided when they were in the forces but were also traumatised by war, and that coupled with the desire to provide memorials. So, of course, many of the early halls then were memorial halls and they were made possible by Sir Henry Roo and others working with the government to get the release of old army and RAF huts so that they could be transported, often on the back of horse and cart to villages to serve as village halls.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. That, yeah, interesting. It wasn't until I spoke to Johnny on the previous podcast host that I actually lived opposite a memorial hall, but I didn't think of it as anything to do with a village hall. It was just a hall that was there, and I played in a brass band as well when I was younger, so there was always concerts there. I just had no idea how important it actually is and it was a humongous. It was only a village of 2000 people, but it was a humongous hall and I just remember concerts being held there, even if I wasn't playing different, you know, amateur operatics. It's incredible what they've all done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so since the last time you were on the podcast, obviously you were in the middle of the 2021, so the middle of the pandemic. So back then I suppose the thought would be what is the future of village halls? So now that we've passed that point and hopefully we never return to that point do you think the pandemic has pushed village halls, of course, or do you think it's changed direction for the better, or was it just continuing on as it left off in 2020?
Speaker 2:It's created a number of changes. So what we have seen is some village halls struggle to survive and struggle to reopen because local organizations closed and never reopened. For example, some wi's closed because they've become quite small and their membership quite elderly and people literally died during COVID for all kinds of causes not just COVID but consequently they couldn't reopen. So numbers of halls struggled. On the other hand, other halls benefited and have come out stronger with new activities. For example, we've seen the blossoming of community cafes, which are wonderful places where anybody can go and find companionship, warmth, cup of coffee, you know people to talk to and friends basically. So we've seen that blossom things like pop-up pubs as well, and I think some people who have come to realise that actually their hall is so important, like you, they've come to appreciate its importance and therefore they've stepped forward to volunteer as trustees.
Speaker 2:And the book has been published to coincide with Village Halls Week which ICA has run each year. And the theme of Village Halls Week this year is celebrating, encouraging and supporting volunteers, and what we do really want to do is to encourage more people to step forward. But looking also to the future, I think there are, personally, there are three things that come for me out of the book, three key lessons. We do draw lessons, challenges and opportunities in the final chapter. The first is that the ACRE services around the country are needed now just as ever. They were, and COVID clearly demonstrated the importance of that. But for volunteers, people are busy these days. Actually, they need somewhere that they can go to for ready advice, and what the county advisors do is provide a portal to the advice and the experience that's available throughout the whole country from other village halls and other advisors. So that's really important. That continues and we very much hope that local authorities and government will recognize the importance of that and continue to provide funding.
Speaker 2:Secondly, there's the importance of capital funding, and I've just mentioned the bub and the difficulty they had and the fact they could only rebuild because of the availability of government grants and the availability of capital.
Speaker 2:A long term capital funding scheme for village halls is essential.
Speaker 2:Queen's Platinum Jubilee Fund, which was provided by DEFRA over the last few years, closed and with the general election, the funding that had been promised for the next few years fell by the wayside and we're still waiting and hoping and praying that the government will come forward with new funding to replace that, because we do need that long term funding and actually the amount is less important almost than it being long-term, because it takes years for villagers to raise the funds, provide improvement works and there's so much good that can be done through improvement work in terms of improving the health and well-being of people in the countryside, of addressing climate change through making halls more energy efficient and providing alternative renewable technologies, and also providing economic benefit, because we know that village halls contribute about £178 million a year collectively to the rural economy, so actually that investment really pays dividends.
Speaker 2:The third thing, um third lesson I would draw is actually the need for the right kind of fiscal and regulatory framework within which our volunteer-led village halls can operate, because we have problems such as the 20% VAT that halls still pay on improvement work, which is just a drain on effort and any kind of funding that's available. There's also the fact that some village halls the larger ones pay 20% VAT on their energy supplies, which is a nonsense, that they're treated like businesses, when actually smaller halls pay 5% VAT because they're treated as domestic supplies.
Speaker 1:So why is that? What's the cut-off for Eurobusiness? Why is that?
Speaker 2:There's a particular limit on the amount of energy that you draw from any one source which sets the difference, and that's a nonsense. That you draw from any one source which sets the difference, and that's a nonsense. It all depends on the size of the building, how used it is, and if you happen to have a very old hall that's maybe got a very big main hall, you're going to be using more energy potentially than a smaller hall.
Speaker 1:Well, that's how they work. Yeah, I think someone's just written a bit of paper that they've not actually thought about how it works.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we do need the voice of the Aiken Network to be raising this. In fact, the previous government did reduce the VAT on energy-efficient materials until 2027. So of course we hope that this government will continue that moving forward to the future. That would be good, but there are other pieces of regulation that ACA has had to work on. We've been very pleased that both governments have agreed to work with us to avoid the terrorism protection of premises this is Martin's law to prevent that legislation from impacting on the smaller village halls. At one time we thought that the average village hall was going to get caught by that legislation, but they've increased the capacity limits, so we hope the majority of halls will not be affected.
Speaker 2:Obviously, it's a serious matter, but it's about the impact on volunteers and hopefully maintaining village halls as viable, financially sustainable enterprises for rural communities.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of research that you and David have both done for the book and for Village Halls in general. Do you have any favourite stories that appeared in the book? One that popped to my mind was the Rolls-Royce man who had the bucket collecting funds on the beach. I thought you know these little snippets are kind of what makes it. Is there any of your favourites?
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 2:I have to say that this has been a fabulous community effort really, because I mentioned Bubba Hall, but it was Wello from Nottinghamshire and Barton Bendish in Norfolk that also came forward with their stories and through the Acre Network, many other halls came forward with theirs and the, I think, my. It's really hard to choose, but the one I would plump for for its sheer tenacity has to be the Brook Hall at Ottershaw in Surrey which during the Second World War was burnt down and it turned out to be the fault of somebody in the fire service and they spent four years fighting the government to get their village hall rebuilt and they won during the war and having had to fight for village halls myself for so many years, um, you know I really appreciated that story and I hope other village halls, when things go wrong for them, will do the same. Speak up, tell their mps if they're having to pay bat on their improvement work and they think it's wrong and they can't afford it and it's getting in the way. If you don't say so, we'll get nowhere.
Speaker 1:So I think that's really important, that halls basically make their views now oh, so since your book started over 500 years ago, it's they have done that that same way they've. They've spoke out, they've like we 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 your own. Exactly, if you've got someone else has a problem, you, sorry, you might have the same problem as somebody else, because if you join together, you can find a solution for the better. Exactly, yeah, yeah, incredible, well, uh, thank you very much, uh for your your time, louise. It's been really fascinating and I'm so glad that after I heard listening to the first podcast when I first started doing this, I'm glad we got you back on, because it was during COVID and you say you're writing a 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:It's being published on the 15th of March March, and it's available either from All Good Bookshops or from Amberley are the publishers, so if you go onto the Amberley website you can order it there. It's £16.99 in bookshops, £15.29 from Amberley, plus postage.
Speaker 1:It works, every penny.
Speaker 2:And some of the Acre Network members will be selling copies at their county events during National Village Halls Week. That's great.
Speaker 2:If I could just say one other thing Please do yes, we were really pleased that Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal very graciously contributed the foreword to this book and she pays tribute to all the volunteers who run our village halls and she recognises that they're often taken rather for granted. And I would just appeal to everybody parish councillors, to anybody living in a village who you know maybe isn't at the moment part of their village hall committee please do be prepared to step forward, help out where you can and perhaps become a trustee.
Speaker 1:Definitely, and our previous podcast will help you understand exactly what the trustee does, what their role is because that was a mystery to me as well and what we will do. We'll put a link to your book on the podcast website. We'll put them direct to Amberley. Thank you very much for joining us, louise. It's been a real pleasure speaking to you. Thank you, mark. Many thanks to our headline sponsor and specialist village hall insurance provider, allied Westminster, the home of Village Guard, for making this podcast possible, and to online booking system provider, hallmaster, who also sponsor our podcast and can be found at hallmastercouk. You've been listening to the Village Halls podcast, a unique listening community for Britain's village community and church halls and anyone interested in the vital community services they provide. We'll be back again soon with another episode. For more information, please visit thevillagehallspodcastcom, where you'll also find links to our social media pages. Thanks again for listening in and until the next time. Goodbye for now.
