Just whose hall is it anyway?

FEELINGS are running high in some quarters over the future, or lack of it, of the church hall. In the dim dark days of the fifties and sixties it was used quite a lot by the WI.There were dances (and the occasional sort out with the Newmarket boys) afte

FEELINGS are running high in some quarters over the future, or lack of it, of the church hall.

In the dim dark days of the fifties and sixties it was used quite a lot by the WI.There were dances (and the occasional "sort out" with the Newmarket boys) after the carnival, innumerable jumble sales and, of course, the youth club run by the Lanes. The giant teapots in the kitchen never seemed to get cold.

Gradually what used to be a focus for social events in the community became tatty and run-down. If you thought of the church hall you thought of dust.

We all know that the Church of England has tremendous assets and is an incredibly wealthy organisation, but that doesn't hold true for St Andrew's Church. As with a lot of organisations, funds tend to go to the centre and stay there.

If St Andrew's needs to spend some money St Andrews has to raise it.

Consequently, there is not enough in the pot to renovate the church hall and they are in the process of selling the site for housing.

According to Mike Rouse's book of old postcards the land and hall were bought out of a fund subscribed to by the public.

Some think this means the public now owns the hall and land, but as they were donating to a specific fund to build a church hall it would seem right that the church owns it.

Having said all that, it would be a shame to lose it altogether. The building is beyond reasonable hope, so it would pay to knock it down and start again.

If the new hall were put at the rear of the site there would be several car-parking spaces in front of it.

All that is needed is a fund, possibly subscribed to by the public, to buy the land and build a hall. Hang on . . .