Are you aware of the Prestwood Archive?
If you want to know more about the history of Prestwood visit The Prestwood Archive website for a fascinating look at times gone by. It is well worth the visit.
In addition, below is the talk given by Mrs. Valerie Corteen, one of the Prestwood Village Hall Trustees, at the PVA Annual General Meeting of the Prestwood Village Association on 3rd May 2018.
Prestwood Village Hall 90th Anniversary
I wonder how many people here this evening know how this hall came to be here? In 1924 the ladies of Prestwood formed the Prestwood Women’s Institute. They met once a month in the Church Hall. It became apparent to them they really needed somewhere to hold their meetings in the village. A group of ladies decided to form a Village Hall Committee. Now, first of all where could it be? One of the ladies, Mrs. Stevens, her husband Cornelius, had quite a lot of land in the area and he said he would donate some land, the piece on which this hall now stands. The committee were delighted, but after the next meeting, and it’s in the WI records, Mrs. Stevens asked her husband if he could give a little more land as in the future we may need a car park – how forward looking were the WI ladies in 1924!
Reading through the minutes, and we have everyone up to this date, it is recorded they knocked on every door in Prestwood asking for cash or help. They held Jumble Sales at which they raised in one go 10 shillings and sixpence, coffee mornings and whist drives.
Once planning permission was given it was all go. Fortunately one member on the committee was Mrs. Howard whose husband owned the brick fields in Honor End Lane and he donated a large number of bricks. People also bought bricks and once a lady pointed out to me that the left hand corner was hers! The corner foundation stone laid by the Countess of Macclesfield on 7th June 1928 saw the birth of this Village Hall. The Women’s Institute gave the building to Trustees and a Management Committee on 18th October 1928.
In 1927 the “Fairy Godmothers of the Village Hall”, that is the WI, gifted an Army hut at the rear of the Hall to be used as a club for boys and a village library. 1930 saw the back of gas lamps, we were on electric lighting! In 1938 it was written in the minutes that the Hall was free of any debts.
The Hall played a large part in the war. The local school used it, the ARP and voluntary services and it was opened on Sunday afternoons for visiting parents of the evacuee children. It was a first aid post and the headquarters of the Home Guard. Many young couples met at the dances and later married. I can remember when I came to Prestwood we took the babies to be weighed and get our orange juice in the Hall again organised by the WI, and the library was still in the Village Hall Hut. In 1956 an extension was proposed but turned down because of cost and was finally built and completed in 1967. Over the years there have been proposals to sell part of the land for various buildings but they were all turned down.
It was proposed in 1998 that a clock be installed in a new tower above the front entrance to celebrate the millennium and this was erected in 2000. These days the Hall is well used by many organisations in the village including the Gardening Society, the Theatre Club, Painting Classes, the Forgetmenot Club, Karate, Pilates, Ballet classes etc. not forgetting the 2 WIs.
Today the Hall is still run by 7 Trustees, two of whom have to be WI members, and the Management Committee who do a wonderful job running this building, and the WI still meet here on the first Wednesday of the month at 2.15 as they did 90 years ago.
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