Hall History

A Potted History of Walcote Memorial Hall

For many years a small memorial hall has served village life. This hall is located on the busy A4304 that passes through the village. Built in 1922 on land donated by the Morris family, the hall commemorates the sacrifice of the men from the village who died in the wars. The land and the hall was owned by a separate charitable trust, whose charter under which the land was granted restricts the usage of the hall. Its location next to the busy A4304, with no parking facilities, combined with its size and configuration, which is very restrictive, has further limited letting opportunities. Consequently, over the years due to lack of potential for expansion or improvement with limited letting potential and now having inadequate facilities for the requirements of today’s society, so began a spiral of ever decreasing use and ever rising costs.

In 1857 local residents donated land in the centre of the village for the building of a village school.

Over the next 100 years generations of children in the parish received their education and the school was the centre of community life. In 1985 the school was closed, and with the property now in the hands of the Diocese of Leicester, lay empty and derelict for 10 years.

In 1996 a project was born out of a once in a lifetime opportunity identified by the Misterton with Walcote Parish Council.

In 1995 the opportunity unexpectedly arose for the community to purchase the site for £50,000. With the aid of £40,000 donation from Harborough District Council and £10,000 from Misterton with Walcote Parish Council the local community enthusiastically grasped the moment.

Adjacent to the school site itself was 0.8 acres of land owned by Leicestershire County Council that had been used as the playing field for the school. This was also purchased, for the nominal sum of £100, to provide a truly unique setting for our new community centre.

In 1997, with the land held in trust by the Misterton with Walcote Community Trust (Registered Charity 1063620) for the purposes of building and managing a new community centre, it was time to organize ourselves, determine exactly what facilities we wanted and would benefit from, create a business plan and set about raising the necessary funds.

During the next 4 years open meetings were held giving all members of the community the opportunity to determine how the project should progress. A committee was created to act as the initial fund-raising body for the project (Walcote Old School Project). Local events raised the ‘fighting funds’ necessary to demolish and clear the old school building which had deteriorated to such a state that it was deemed a danger by the Council and liability insurance could no longer be obtained at a viable cost.

Professional architects were engaged to design the building and draw-up the plans and estimated costs. The plans express our vision of multi-purpose environmentally friendly building, with enlarged recycling facilities, a wetland/bog area and landscaping to encourage wildlife and become an attractive focus point for our community. With the dawning of the new millennium and over £20,000 having been raised by the community, these plans were complete. With the continued support of the community, and investment from both private and public bodies our new community centre will now become a reality.