The village of Stainton, west of Penrith, is celebrating the building of a new Village Hall which is opening as a Community Services Hub with a launch event on Friday 22nd March and with a series of celebration events over the weekend of the 23rd/24th.
Stainton school children have been invited at 1.30pm on Friday afternoon to formally open the Hall as a Community Services Hub. Many local residents and others who have been involved with the rebuild and the fundraising are being invited to the event.
On the Saturday and Sunday, the Hall will be open during the day so local residents and others hoping to use the building can explore the venue, learn about what will be on offer in the Hall, and give feedback on their ideas for the future. On Saturday night, local people will be dancing the night away with the band Soul Junction who are performing in the Hall.
As well as celebrating the new Hall, the community will be remembering the old Hall and its history over the past 100 years. From information from the old accounts book, the original Hall was a wooden hut bought from Carlisle’s Fusehill Hospital in 1919. It is understood that Fusehill Hospital was used as a place for recuperation for WW1 soldiers and the building was used as a recreation hut in the hospital grounds.
The structure was taken down by John Richardson and Son and transported down to Stainton and put on site as the ‘Stainton Institute’ in 1920. The village pond was on the site prior to the Institute being built, and when the old hall was demolished last year, the old sluice gate structure was found beneath it.
Over the decades the Hall has been an important element of life in Stainton, with many dances, parties, classes, and beer festivals enjoyed in the venue. The building was extended, improved and re-roofed over the decades, but it was realised several years ago that a new building was needed to fit modern needs and uses.
So the Village Hall Committee, working with local businesses and residents, started fundraising about 15 years ago. Funding was obtained from the National Lottery Community Fund, the Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust, Eden District Council, Dacre Parish Council, the Lakes Free Range Egg Company, the Hadfield Trust, the Garfield Weston Foundation and Cumbria County Council, as well as a large amount raised by the efforts of local businesses and volunteers. There will even be a new clock mounted on the front of the hall kindly provided by the Cumbria Clock Company.
The new Hall has been built by Thomas Armstrong (Construction) Ltd, following the demolition of the old Hall in April last year. It is hoped that it will continue to be at the heart of village life for the next 100 years, allowing people to socialise, exercise and have fun together as well as bringing important services into the village.
