Chinnor Village Hall
Built in 1939 and is part of village life
Chinnor Village Hall was part of the creation of village halls during the interwar years and their concept was formed by a number of issues.
The land in which the halls stand were bequeathed to the village by Norman Benton for the benefit of the local residents and area. A copy of Norman Benton's Last Will and Testament can be viewed by permission of the Chinnor Village Hall Committee. Email: cvh2003@hotmail.com
One was to provide an alternative to the controlled and sponsored social life in relation to the Reading Room and the allotment movement by the local clergy and gentry in keeping with the reforming zeal of the Victorian era and the desire to keep residents out of the local pubs and to provide them with improving occupation and activities.
1939 - 1945 Chinnor Village Hall during war time
From the moment its foundation stone was laid by Mrs Benton on the15th July 1939 and its formal opening by Mrs Benton on 25th November, the CVH has played a proud and invaluable service to the village. Ideas for raising money for the hall included: buy a brick and initial it and a ring of pennies all around the site.
During the first year November 1939 to December,1940 it hosted 26 dances 5 concerts, 2 religious plays, some children’s parties and with Women’s Institute sales of work, all providing a welcome respite and relief from the war.
The Women’s Institute (WI) raised £25 from its Christmas Shop and hosted a party for the evacuee children from London.
In 1941 the hall was leased to the Oxford Education Committee to house the evacuee children as there was not enough space in St. Andrew’s school to accommodate them as well as the village children.
The hall also hosted the headquarters of the local Red Cross unit, ARP first aid post, and was also used by the special constables and the Home Guard.
In 1942 the hall was still being used as a school with 70 children attending classes. The hall was upgraded as a first aid post for the ARP and still held the weekly meetings of the Red Cross detachment and was used by ARP etc for lecturers and practical training. In addition to all this war activity, weekly film shows were held until July when the scarcity of petrol brought this to a halt. However, six entertainments and seventeen dances were held.
1943
The hall continued to support all branches of Civil Defence and in March it was commandeered for a week for army manoeuvres by the military authorities. In addition, because of the impossibility of implementing black out regulations at the church, Sunday evening church services were held during November, December and January.
By 1944 the hall had become the social centre of the village. The Red X continued to meet free of charge. It continued with film shows as well as Ministry of Information films and ARP information films for the public. It continued to host parties and dances and had established a very popular badminton club.
The hall’s timely establishment in 1939 proved an outstanding initiative by the village and the value of the financial investment was well demonstrated.
Pandemic 2020
Lockdown of the Chinnor Village Hall Coronavirus 2020
Having listened to the Prime Ministers statement to the Nation on Monday 23rd March advising that the country was in Lockdown until further notice my feelings were of “what do we do about Chinnor Village Hall” It’s a public building, and an extremely busy one. I was shocked and overwhelmed that with no Chairman to guide us, as Vice Chairman I would need to step up to the challenge and just pray the remaining Committee would not only support me but work as a team as we worked through the necessary steps to ensure our village hall was in a safe and secure manner as we and the rest of the country worked our way through the weeks of lockdown.
I had to get my thoughts together and a glass of wine helped, as I soon realised that this was no “shut the door” keep the key task. This had to be done in a methodical way to ensure we were following all the available information and guidelines relating to village halls. There would be impact on our insurance cover, fire, lift and alarm inspections, as well as notifying the Charity Commission, who I had never spoken to before and felt rather in awe of them. Plus we had announced our AGM open to the public, now this could not go ahead. We were hoping as we were “rudderless” to vote a new Chairman in at the AGM who would not only support us but pick up the reins of closing down the hall. Our annual accounts also need approving and sent off to the Charity Commission.
This was only the tip of the iceberg. Thank goodness for technology. Out came the laptop and a checklist created as to everything we needed to do in order of priority. The number one was to immediately gather together the rest of the committee so as to allocate tasks to complete our lockdown. As we could not meet physically we met on-line via “Whatsapp” and planned our schedule.
We needed to contact our regular hirers, ad hoc bookers and our own suppliers regarding the position. All of our classes were suspended with immediate effect, and ad hoc bookings postponed until later in the year, hopefully.
In order to cut down on our outgoings, as we no longer had an income, all our own suppliers were notified, and their services suspended until further notice.
The hall was then thoroughly inspected, boilers shut down and the building made secure. The car park barrier was put back in place to ward off unwarranted use. We followed all the useful guidelines sent out for village halls particularly regarding our insurance provider, Police, our fire inspection provider, Parish Council and of course our neighbours. Our time was well used and by the week-end breathed a sigh of relief that we had accomplished a large task in such a short time.
We then realised we needed a “lockdown plan” going forward. All very well locking up but checks would need to be made on a regular basis, we did not want to find we had a leak and the building flooded or anything else come to that. Meeting on-line we decided that the building needed to be checked weekly by our Health & Safety administrator and any problems immediately reported so that appropriate and safe action could take place.
Our committee enjoyed our on-line meetings and we moved our regular face to face monthly meetings to “Whatsapp”. Unfortunately our usual minute taker could not enter into the fun, remarked he was a dinosaur. As Vice Chairman the notes were taken by me and then knocked into shape and sent on to him for distribution along with other documents prior to our next on-line meeting.
The weeks rolled on, Easter came and went, as did VE Day, half term and on into the summer. June, rumours running round regarding releasing more measures of the lockdown including some for village halls. On looking through all our regulars so many of them are exercise classes and gyms and indoor sporting classes still not permitted. Time to touch base with our regulars and get a view on how they think they would be able to run their sessions. Several had already been in touch with their appropriate “Governing Body” for advice, others sent their own ideas to us.
A “coming out of lockdown” plan was put together, plus, three on-way systems which would be in place for Chinnor Village Hall, so as to safe guard those returning. All would need to sign and agree to our new policy / procedure. We would prepare the hall for reopening including fitting hand sanitizers in appropriate places.
Are we ready? Hopefully, who knows, but we will do everything possible to safe guard our village hall so that we can move into the future having lived through a pandemic
Zena Baker – Vice Chairman Chinnor Village Hall June 2020
