About
In 2020 the village hall underwent a huge refurbishment, with a new roof and fabulous fully fitted kitchen, so that the hall was ready to be hired out to locals and people further afield for their events.
Our hall was once a Victorian School, that was part of Molesworth’s history and village life for a long time. Over the years it has been used for different events. It has recently had a makeover, all done by Molesworth residents. With a well-equipped kitchen for catering for social gatherings, family events and club meetings, along with wheelchair access, our hall really is “A Hall For All”
The refurbishment
A complete team effort to bring our hall into the present day.
The history
Our pretty hall building started life as a National School in 1866, as part of the countrywide effort to raise the standard of children’s education. Back then Molesworth was flourishing in terms of villager numbers, if not wealth. There were about 57 homes and 256 inhabitants – and more than 70 of those were children, with lads barely 9 years old working as plough boys for the many farmers in the village, and some very young girls busy as lace makers.
A corner of the rectory garden was fenced off, the building was constructed, and a full-time schoolmistress was employed, who was housed in the village. The first one – a Miss Woodward, only 21 – had come all the way from foreign parts (well, up the Great North Road in Stamford, at least). In 1873 she had to teach 77 children – probably in two separate classes at each end of the hall, each with their own fireplace. The building would have been well filled and no doubt noisy. Children as young as 3 came to the school then, to let the parents work, and they were allowed to leave at 10 although if they wished they could stay on to 13. As a Church of England school, the Rector of Molesworth oversaw school governance.
The population in Molesworth gradually declined as rural workers left for life, excitement and jobs in towns and the school roll call shrank as well, but despite this the village was making very good use of the school building. In the 1920s and 1930s there were regular dances with live bands, WI meetings, whist drives and a lot of home-grown entertainment. And the school had a good reputation as well, earning itself an “excellent” during the Diocesan inspection in 1931.
But the days of the small village school were coming to an end, and in 1943 Molesworth school closed, with the remaining younger pupils having to walk across the fields to Bythorn school, and the bigger ones now at Huntingdon Grammar School. That left the building still available for events, but over the years the fabric went into disrepair. By the 1970s it was no longer considered useable, with holes in the roof and inadequate outside loos.
Thanks to village efforts, headed by Mike and Jean Bent of Spring Hill Farm and others, funds were raised to repair and revive the hall in the 1980s. The village was allowed to rent the premises from the Church of England for a small annual fee, on condition that all maintenance should be funded by Molesworth. Loos were updated and an extension built to house them. The roof and floor were repaired. And since then, Molesworth has run the hall as a village asset. A big renovations was done twenty years ago, thanks to Pete and Sue Ledger’s hard work, when the kitchen and loos were modernised. Now the time has come for another update. A beautiful donated kitchen has helped to comply with the latest legislation. Molesworth Village Hall is looking forward, its latest reincarnation as a modern building suited to whatever entertainment we can imagine. Watch this space….