Wilsden Village Society History

Village Hall Committee 7

The Prince of Wales had spoken recently about the importance of cooperation between official and voluntary bodies, particularly in relation to youth work. In retrospect it was probably over optimistic to write to explain how the Wilsden hall complex embodied these ideals, and invite HRH to open the hall. The invitation was sent at a very early stage and the society was happy to accept any date and time convenient to the Prince. However the response was that His Royal Highness’s commitments with the Royal Navy made it impossible. So sights were set a little lower. The society now planned for an opening on June 26th 1976 and invited the Lord Mayor of Bradford. Almost at once word came from the school that this was the date of their already arranged Rose Day. WVS was willing to change to June 19th to avoid the clash, but the Lord Mayor’s diary was full. This actually led to a very happy solution. Wilsden’s own Councillor, Mrs. Emily Hall, had been the last Chairman of Bingley UDC and was now Assistant Lord Mayor of Bradford. She had also succeeded Mrs Downs as President of Wilsden Village Society and thus personified the unique link between the village and the local authority that had come about during the development of the hall.

So on Saturday June 19th Haworth Band entertained a large crowd outside the hall and at 3pm Mrs Hall, accompanied by the Assistant Lady Mayoress, her niece Miss Pat Marsden, unveiled a plaque and turned the key in the presence of Bradford’s Chief Executive Gordon Moore, WVS chairman Ted Howarth, former president Mrs. Downs and hall committee chairman Dr Verner Wheelock. In her opening speech Mrs Hall said that villagers should feel proud of and grateful to members of the society who had worked hard to get the hall built for their benefit. She had special words of praise for Verner Wheelock, saying that there had been ups and downs and frustrations, but more people ought to adopt Dr Wheelock’s philosophy that if you believe in something strongly enough, then it can be achieved. Ted Howarth presented Mrs Hall, Mrs Downs and Dr Wheelock with commemorative plates out of a limited edition of 100 the society commissioned from Pot Luck of Mytholmroyd. Committee members had been able to reserve a plate in advance, and the rest and a plentiful supply of matching mugs, white with a green line drawing of the new hall, were on sale in the hall. One part of the complex was already in active use. On Friday evening youth club members had begun a 24 hour table tennis marathon in the youth area of the building. This was a sponsored event in aid of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal. In the main hall there were displays showing the activities of the various committees of the village society and by many local organisations. Those taking part were the WI, senior citizens, badminton club, cricket club, brownies, guides, cubs and scouts, art group, play group, toddlers group, drama group, keep fit, Bluebird School of Dancing, St. Matthew’s Church, St. Monica’s Church, the United Reformed Church, Wilsden Methodist Church and Harecoft Methodist Church. Bradford Libraries had a display advertising their services throughout the district and explaining the new facility for Wilsden. The exhibition was efficiently coordinated by Leslie Catling and Ronnie Overend.

From Monday to Friday of the first week, the hall and exhibition were open from 2pm to 4pm and 6.30pm to 8.30pm. A Grand Opening Dance took place on Saturday June 26th. This was a great success. Tickets at £1.50 included supper and a profit of £80 was made. However the social committee agreed that 250 people were too many and there would be fewer tickets available for the Gala Dance, now to be held in the village hall.

Any lingering doubts about the need for a hall were quickly dispelled. The village society itself took the obvious decision to hold its committee meetings there. They sent flowers to Mrs Downs and a letter of grateful thanks for the use of her room, which had been such an asset for the first five years. By September it was already necessary to tell committees they needed to book rooms well in advance and some of their meetings even had to be held in Royd House. The acting management committee set a scale of charges and decided that for dances it should be £4 per hour for Wilsdeners and £6 for others. Girls’ gymnastics, gardening club and a ballroom dancing class soon started and four teachers came forward to run a junior youth club on Thursdays from 4pm to 5pm. The village society made them a grant of £20 to start them off.

With these splendid new facilities up and running, particularly with the youth club in its excellent premises, the village society saw no further need of the Mechanics Institute. The general committee minutes of August 1976 state that the Institute is to go up for sale. This must have already been explored, for an advertisement for the property appeared in the Telegraph and Argus in April 1975.

WVS now defined new roles for its village hall committee. It was to represent the interests of the society in relation to the hall and nominate members for the management committee. It would continue to raise funds for specific ends as needed and would cooperate with existing village organisations and encourage the formation of new groups.

In November a drama group, needlework group and boys’ gymnastics started and the management committee advertised for a warden. Jeff Moor was appointed and started work in April 1977. He was responsible for day to day running of the hall and worked with great enthusiasm and initiative, helping to develop the many and varied uses of the building.

He produced a brochure advertising the availability of the hall with its different areas and facilities for private lettings as well as for new groups. He listed 16 regular users each week in addition to six uniformed organisations. 1st and 2nd Guides, 1st and 2nd Brownies, 1st Cubs and 1st Scouts made good use of their downstairs room every weekday evening and it was occupied in the daytime by a playgroup and a mothers’ and toddlers’ club.

Some of the new groups needed help with start-up costs. This was in line with the village society’s intention, but there was some discussion about the propriety of subsidising any group that was planning to run on a commercial basis. It was felt that such people should be prepared to put in some effort themselves and it was on this basis that, early in 1977, the village society agreed to make some pound for pound grants for equipment. Gymnastics got £100 plus a loan of a further £100 and the toddlers group got £25. Equipment was to revert to the hall management if the groups ceased to exist. £10 went to the gardening club to help with establishing allotments. Later the society lent them £100 to set up a water supply. The following year the youth club was given £400 to buy a minibus and a newly formed skateboard club got £20 for wood and ramps.

The hall committee was already exploring the possibility of taking over the running of Royd House to relieve pressure of bookings. It was in poor condition, heating was inadequate and bookings had to be made through council offices in Shipley. By 1979 the Council Recreation Committee was prepared to discuss the situation. The village hall management committee took over running the house but Bradford did little in the way of maintenance and it eventually became unsafe for use. In 1990 the village society agreed that it should be sold and the proceeds used to benefit the village in keeping with the terms of the original gift in 1919. The society and the village hall management committee explored the idea of using the proceeds to build a sports hall but this was no longer seen as feasible by the time the house was eventually sold in 1999. Bradford Council proposed using the money to pay for the maintenace of the remaining grounds, but maintenance of Wilsden Park had long been part of the Council’s parks department remit and the society raised strong objections to a gift made specifically to the village being used to offset Council costs. The money was placed in a charitable trust, eventually managed by Wilsden Parish Council, the income to be used for the village. Local groups can bid for grants for projects deemed to be of benefit to the community.