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Ash next Ridley - Parish Information

W.I. History of Ash and Ridley from Earliest Records to 1957 - Page 39

Parish Hall

   The Parish Hall is a memorial to the Reverend C.J. Lambard, a former Rector of Ash who died in 1909, and in whose family the gift of the living has remained for well over 200 years. This Rector was greatly beloved. He was known as the "sporting parson" who carried a gun and rode to hounds, and who was a father to his Parishioners. His sisters were likewise benevolent, and would distribute cans of hot soup to the needy in cold weather. When the two sisters and their brother went out walking, village lads would bow and village lasses curtsey to them.
   To this well loved rector it was decided to erect a memorial. A committee was formed including the Reverend Harold Barclay Hennell, Rector of Ridley and afterwards of Ash also, and Mr George Day then Chairman of the Parish Council. A fund was started to which the villagers and friends responded with enthusiasm and it was it was only a matter of time before the Village Hall came into being, and the choice which as a memorial won universal approbation.
   It was opened by Miss Lambard, the late Rector’s sister on February 8th 1910.


Soon after opening

   Over the door of the Hall is the following inscription:-
      "to the Glory of God, and the memory
       of the Reverend Jas. Lambard, Rector
       of this Parish from 1904-1909, this hall
       is dedicated for the use of Church and
       Christ in this Parish"


After the erection of the War Memorial

   The cloakroom was added about twenty years later as a memorial to Mr Aveling (see "Pettings Court"), who had been a great benefactor to the Village and had died in the Village Hall while presiding over a meeting of the Nursing Association.
   For a time good use was made of the hall as a centre of entertainment and recreation. In the autumn of 1919 Mr Harold F. Day formed a committee to start a football club, this developed into a Young Men's Club, meeting five nights a week and catering for whist drives, concerts, billiards, chess, draughts, darts etc.
   As time went on enthusiasm waned. Organisations came into being, flourished for a period and then faded and died. Management Committees found it difficult to raise sufficient money for the overheads and to keep the hall in good repair.
   In 1938 Mr G.E. Leavey, then living in South Ash Manor, had the hall re-decorated, installed electricity and gave a table-tennis table, also stage and window curtains. At the same time a billiards table was installed and paid for out of funds.
   A new Management Committee was formed with Mr H.B. Nicholls as Chairman, Mr F. Goodwin as Honorary Treasurer and Mr W. Simmons as Honorary Secretary. Other members of the Committee were Mrs D.C. Meager and Mrs W. Simmons.

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