Interesting Fact 1

Celebrating a Century as a Parish Hall
Community Ownership 1920

Following World War 1 there was national consensus that those who served and died should be remembered. On a national level the government decided in principle on a national memorial in London which it would pay for. The government made it clear, however, that it would not pay for local war memorials and that these should be the responsibility of local communities. As a result of the informal discussions which ad-hoc groups had been having throughout the country, there was an equally informal blueprint about how to create a local war memorial. This blueprint “emerged” from the public without any government involvement or direction. It was so obviously such a practical and sensible plan that it was followed virtually everywhere, with some differences to take account of local circumstances. The plan had a few basic components:

• In each locality a local war memorial committee should be formed from members of the public. The forum for electing these committees would be a public meeting called for that specific purpose.
• It was the responsibility of these committees to raise the funds necessary to build the war memorials
• It was also their responsibility to decide on the nature of the war memorial preferably after public consultation, and to commission its building
• Each memorial would have a list of the local men who had died when serving with the colours no matter what form the memorial took. This list would be collected by the volunteers on the committee and made available for checking by the public who could thus try to ensure that no one was omitted.
• The committee should draw up a plan for the future maintenance of the memorial.

In East Worlington the War Memorial Committee were elected at a well-attended public meeting and consisted of Mrs G Smyth, Miss Hammond, Miss Murch, Messrs. Adams, Chapple, Cox, Hodgson, Hosegood, Shapland, H. Smyth, Stucley, Troake, and F Webber, with Mr Edmonds as Honorary Secretary and Mr Lake as Honorary Treasurer

It was through this Committee that the building was purchased by the community and transferred to the ownership of the Parish Council in 1920. This is recorded in a press cutting from the Parochial Magazine for the Deanery of Chulmleigh in May 1919

Heritage Project Community Launch

It was great to see so many of our small (in number) community attend the Heritage Project Launch on Friday 15th September 2017. It was an opportunity to thank the community for all their support, celebrate the completion of the Heritage Project 2014 /2017 and engage and inform them in the new Heritage Project 2017 /2019. The project is called Conservation and Celebration: A Century Serving Our Community as a Parish Hall. The project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Here are some photographs of the launch event which was held in our Parish Hall. Great community event with good community atmosphere. The photographs show members of our community learning about the project and discussing our heritage.

Community Certificate of Achievement

It was an honour to present our community with a Certificate of Achievement for their contribution to the success of the Heritage Project 2014 to 2017. They offered support by:

• having ambition
• providing moral support and encouragement
• contributing skills and time
• attending fund-raising events
• organising fund-raising events
• providing governance and management of the project
• engaging in research and sharing learning
• running workshops and heritage activities 

Trustee Meeting

Trustee scheduled meeting. Progress report on HLF project.

Heritage Project Monthly Question for September

Conservation and Celebration:

A Century Serving Our Community as a Parish Hall Project

Every month there will be a question linked to this project. To engage in the project send your response to worlingtonparishhall@gmail.com

September's Question: What were your earliest memories of attending an event at the Parish Hall? When? What was the event? What do you remember about the event? What do you remember about the Hall?  

Heritage Project 2017 - 2019 is Launched

Our Project: Conservation and Celebration: A Century Serving our Community as a Parish Hall
Our Heritage Lottery Project runs between September 2017 and 29 March 2019.

The main purposes of the project are to:

• Conserve the area of East Worlington Parish Hall that is currently used as a kitchen.
• Improve the existing kitchen so it conforms to current catering standards.
• Create a Good Governance Guidance pack for new Trustees and promote volunteering, supporting the development of knowledge and skills.
• Research and create a record of documents, photographs and accounts of how the Hall has been used and evolved over the last 100 years.
• Share learning through documents, exhibitions, websites and social media.
• Develop a timeline to share learning on Worlington Heritage website.
• Create a Parish Hall heritage photographic on-line gallery.
• With a kitchen theme research and document a range of traditional recipes and menus through the decades.
• Hold events that enable the sampling of different recipes and menus.
• Celebrate 100 years serving the community as a Parish Hall.
• Tell the story of the project and share knowledge through a Project Blog and Social Media.

 

Project Receives Publicity

Press releases to local newspapers about the success of the grat applications to Heritage Lottery and Devon Community Foundation Batsworthy Moor Wind Farm Community Fund, resulted in press coverage by Crediton Courier and Mid Devon Gazette. Copies of the articles are shown below.