The Village Hall
Towards the end of World War 2, Wreningham Home Guard members formed a comrades club that planned how, as a group, they might contribute to the support of the village and its people. High on their list was a dedicated community space. Until that point, the Reading Room hut and the school had been utilised for smaller gatherings, requiring permission from the rector first. A dedicated facility was considered desirable.
A village landowner is understood to have offered some of his land for this purpose, but at a different location to the present hall. However, it is believed the great and the good of the village spent so much time debating the consequences of such a gift that the would-be benefactor withdrew his offer.
Sometime after this (understood to be in 1947), Burton Bullimore Long offered a field in Mill Lane to the village. Whether he already owned this field or whether he bought it from its previous owner (George Spratt), solely for the purposes of gifting it to the village, is unclear. By 1951, the very first Wreningham village hall was constructed and opened on this two-thirds of an acre plot.
The hall had been created from an old Nissen hut relocated from Hethel airfield; it wasn’t connected to mains electricity until the following year. Before then, for a special Christmas event, lighting was provided by power from a tractor equipped with a dynamo!
History of the land
Up to the time of the Wreningham Inclosures Act in the late 1700s, this field had been Common Land, forming part of Low Common.
The Tithe map of 1838 shows the field was part of a much larger landholding belonging to the Harrison family from Palgrave in Suffolk; it was farmed by village resident William Ottey Burton, based at Burton’s Farm in Ashwellthorpe Road.
The 1869 auction followed the death of Elizabeth Harrison, this field (as a part of auction ‘Lot 4’) was bought by Robert Day who lived at The Larches. In due course, he bequeathed these ‘Lot 4’ fields to his son, Robert Dennis Day. In turn, the fields were passed to RDD’s widow, and eventually, in 1935, to their niece, Matilda Neagus. Following Matilda’s death in 1943, the ‘Lot 4’ land, together with The Larches was bought by resident and shop-owner, George Spratt. From here, the ‘village hall’ two-thirds of an acre field, was acquired by Burton Bullimore Long. He then gifted it to the village.
Village events after World War 2, were organised by the village’s (ex Wreningham Home Guard) Comrades Club. Their events included an annual pantomime. Their very first was held in the confines of the school! Subsequently, they used the new hall.
This is the period before television had arrived in Norfolk, and locals needed to create much of their own entertainment! The new hall was the place for it.
In due course, the pantomime team evolved into a formal drama group: ‘The Ashwren Players‘ – a name resulting from the coming together of like-minded people in both Ashwellthorpe and Wreningham. Their performance needs were eventually carried forward into the design of the replacement hall when it came into being in the early 1980s.
In 1954, the wooden floor from wartime Hethel airfield’s gymnasium was installed in the hall.
The hall was quite primitive by modern standards. Old photographs show the many pairs of old bus seats – supplied by Spratts Coaches – in use as part of the hall’s regular seating. Normally, the old bus seats were arranged around the hall’s perimeter and were augmented by other seating when there was a stage production etc.
Back in the 1950’s, Jack and the Beanstalk played to audiences totalling about 450 over its three-night run. Local newspapers made reference to Dennis Long’s ‘energetic production, including much hilarious slapstick‘ and ‘the silent heroine, Clarabelle of the crooked horn and roving eye, provided much amusement‘. The scenery was by Mrs Barber which included an ‘impressive magic beanstalk contributing much to the thoroughly enjoyable entertainment‘.
Leading parts were taken by Harry Minns (Widow Twanky), Joan Ford (Jack), Edna Howlett (Jill), J Long (the giant), Bessie Minns (the Good Fairy) and Messrs Howes & Howlett as the fore and aft of a cow. Other players – including a chorus – were Harry King, Joan Martin, Pauline Long, Doreen Ireland, Kenneth Hanton, Beryl Harvey, Gillian George, Marion King and Sybil Wiseman.
The old hall was demolished in 1979 – apparently sold for £312.50! The original plan for the replacement hall was to create a totally brick structure; however, that scheme proved unaffordable. In the end, a steel portal frame design with brick infill walls was chosen. It was erected by Ernest Burrell & Sons.
The replacement hall was constructed in the same location, although a series of delays ensured it took a couple of years before the (slightly unfinished!) building was accessible to all.
This period coincided with the launch of the Wreningham Mardle newsletter. The Mardle was initially edited by Mike McGregor – the very first issue being in October / November 1981. The Village Hall Social Club was established shortly afterwards.
The new hall’s architect was Ashwellthorpe resident, Tony Cleary, whilst Wreningham resident, Dennis Nudd, headed the dedicated team which delivered the project to the village.
Building a new hall was always going to be a costly exercise. The target cost of the new hall was £38,000 (at 1980 prices). It was designed to seat 200 people and double up as a sports and events venue.
Grants were received, totalling £26,250 plus various donations. The latter included money from a 60-mile sponsored walk, a stall at Earlham Park fete and an event involving barbecuing a whole pig.
The final £4,000 was raised via a loan bond money scheme, where villagers bought bonds, which included regular prizes. Operating over several years, the bond scheme was eventually extended when extra hall space and facilities were required in the early 1990s.
The new hall opened in mid-1982. The same year, Wreningham Village Hall registered as a charity. In 1983, a legal leasing document was signed between Wreningham Parish Council (as the legal owners of the hall) and a set of trustees (members of the community) acting on behalf of the village hall committee. This document set out the terms and obligations of the lease, which continues to the present day.
There were no fireworks at the initial opening – indeed, it was a gradual affair as elements of the hall were individually completed and the community became acquainted with the new facilities. A feature to come into early operation was the badminton court. The stage floor was constructed from the wooden floor of the old hall. This wood, itself, had been repurposed from the Hethel Airfield gymnasium floor and provides a local link going back to the 1940s.
The 1983 creation of the social club enabled the hall to apply for a licence to serve alcoholic drinks. A provisional licence was granted in February 1984 and a full licence followed in March 1985. In celebration of the latter event, Norfolk personality Keith Skipper officially opened the bar.
There was once a popular village youth club, whilst the first regular Country and Western dances got underway in 1987 introduced by the then chair, Brian Nixon. There were even twice-monthly ballroom dancing nights until, after about ten years, both events faded away.
The National Lottery
Over the years, the village hall has been lucky enough to receive various Heritage Lottery grants.
In October 2006, the National Lottery awarded the hall £9,512. This, together with other funding from South Norfolk District Council, provided the main hall with new sound and lighting equipment, stage curtains, wiring and other improvements which greatly benefited the building’s acoustics. The latter resulted in new ceiling tiles in the main hall and the distinctive, maroon-coloured baffle boards fixed around the internal walls.
In 2024, the hall received a further National Lottery grant – this time of £15,000 – to update the hall’s kitchen. This replaced the much older kitchen equipment which had seen better days. The new kitchen has seen considerable use since its installation.
The Function Room Addition
By the end of the 1980s, more space was required to provide a function room with dedicated toilets, an enlarged bar, and a furniture/equipment store.
Funding for this extension was greatly assisted by a bequest from resident Miss Margaret Preston, who had died in 1991. The completed structure was opened in July 1993, and the new function room was named the ‘Margaret Preston Room‘ in her memory.
In recent times, the bar – which can serve both the main hall and the Margaret Preston Room – has been rebranded as the Witch & Wren Community Bar.
The 50th Anniversary
2001 saw the 50th anniversary of the original hall’s first opening. To provide a backdrop for the 2001 celebration, the hall was decorated with bunting and flags whilst people were encouraged to dress in 1950s costumes for a dance to Jonathan Wyatt’s Big Band sound, on the Saturday night. On the Sunday, the hall hosted an indoor street party with tables down the middle offering traditional 1950s-style food. Games were organised around the perimeter at 1950s prices, using old-penny coins!
More Recent Times
Shortly after the turn of the century, the insides of the main hall walls were plastered; this was an improvement to the original painted blockwork finish. Air conditioning (which also provides winter heating) added to comfort levels in both the main hall and the function room.
The Margaret Preston Room was given a design refresh in 2018. Out went the orange swirly carpet and the unloved pool table. In came: contemporary decorations, a hard-wearing floor and double-glazed bi-fold doors. The latter resulted in much better access to the patio, greatly enlarging the usable good-weather space.
At about the same time, a multi-access-point / hall-wide Wi-Fi system was installed. This was made possible by a £1,500 grant from South Norfolk District Council. As a result of the greatly improved communications, the bar’s till and stock pricing was able to go electronic, and card payment soon became the norm.
It’s all a very long way from a 1950s tractor and dynamo providing the first hall’s electricity!
Both the original ‘Nissen-hut’ hall and its modern replacement have always been at the heart of the village community. Whilst the current hall is occasionally used by the school, it is regularly hired out for events both to villagers and outside organisations. In these expensive times, all this helps the hall to pay its keep.
More about Wreningham Village Hall, today, can be found here.
Wreningham Mardle – the Village Hall’s regular newsletter
Anyone wanting to follow the history of Wreningham’s social events through the eyes of the Wreningham Mardle newsletter (and the Village Hall), since its first issue in mid-1981 to the present day, should look here.