The Hall was built by the Bisley Women’s Institute in the 1920s. Extensively refurbished in 2001, it was donated to the Village by the Bisley Women’s Institute in 2003 and is now run by a local charity as a Village Hall.  The name “Bisley WI Village Hall” was chosen to mark the WI’s special contribution in maintaining and operating the Hall for nearly 80 years.

The Hall is an attractive wooden building, set back from the main road among trees, within easy reach of the heart of the Village.  It can accommodate gatherings of up to 80 people and is a popular local venue for wedding celebrations during the summer months.  Fully centrally heated, it also makes a cosy venue for parties and functions even in the depths of the winter.  For booking enquiries contact Mrs Nick Rogers (Booking Secretary) on 01452 770268 or Mrs Anne Thorp (Secretary / Contact) on 01452 770708 (£7 per hour for Bisley residents, £10 for non-residents).

The charity which runs the Hall is made up of 16 trustees, of whom 11 are appointed by local community groups and 5 elected by the villagers at a public meeting each year.  These trustees are responsible for the maintenance and administration of the Hall, repairing and upgrading it as necessary, as well as for insuring it and paying the regular utility bills.  The Hall charity is a non-profit making organisation, deriving its income from letting the building and from regular fundraising events organised by the trustees.  The annual income from hiring the Hall is sufficient to cover the day-to-day running costs, but does not cover the longer-term costs of periodic maintenance and refurbishment necessary to keep the fabric of the building and its fittings in good condition.  Grants and/or donations towards these costs are therefore particularly welcome

HISTORY OF BISLEY W.I. VILLAGE HALL

by Enid Brown

Bisley W.I. held its first meeting in October 1922, and very soon recognised the need for a hall.  They started a building fund – members began ‘trading with sixpences’; with their initial capital of sixpence the ladies bought materials to make something to sell, e.g. cakes, sweets, needlework.  The money from the sale of these items bought more materials.  We read in an old minute book of £4.0.6 being handed in from work sold in London.  Mrs Salmon confessed many years later that she put her sixpence on a horse – and it won.

By January 1924, plans were being made for a Grand Garden Fete at Lypiatt Park, the home of Judge Woodcock, whose wife and daughter were enthusiastic members of the the W.I.  The date was fixed – Whit Tuesday, 10th June – and it was agreed to engage a Military Band for the occasion.  The Institute agreed to spend £5 on materials ‘to be worked up for the Fete and Sale of Work’.  Miss Woodcock requested empty tins and boxes, which she would cover, for sweets, and a Stalls Committee was formed to receive all goods made for the Fete.  It must have been quite an event; suggested prices of entrance were, 2-4p.m. 1/6, 4-7p.m. 1/-, and 7-9.30p.m. (approx.) 6d, and it succeeded in raising £130.18.0, the equivalent of several thousand pounds today.

Two potential building sites were considered – a piece of land in the village ‘with building materials’ offered by Mr. Randall for £50 and a parcel of land just over half an acre offered by Mr. Skinner for £37.10.0.  The latter was purchased and taken over at Michaelmas.  The W.I. Committee was authorised to write to builders for tenders.  No time was wasted; in November Mr. Gardiner’s estimate was accepted for a hall 42’ x 25’, wood on concrete foundations, to include three doors, two lavatories, porch and stove – the price £250!

With due ceremony the W.I. President, Mrs Burrell, who lived at Paulmead, ‘cut the first sod’.  In February 1925, Mr. Coles of Jaynes Court laid the foundation stone and gave the Institute £25 for the building fund; a celebratory tea and social in the schoolroom followed.

Already ideas were germinating for an additional room, 12’ x 13’.  Mr. Gardiner quoted £65 for this and enquiries were made about a bank loan, because already £150 had been paid to the builder and only £52 remained in the building fund.  Money raising continued in all kinds of ways – whist drives, a collecting box at W.I. meetings, concerts, drama performances, sale of home-made sweets, two ladies organized a tennis tournament and there was even a matinee performance at the Palace Theatre in Stroud by friends of Miss Woodcock.

By May 1925, the hall was built and there was a Grand Opening Ceremony.  The W.I. Jazz Band preceded Mrs. Woodock to the site, where she gave a short address from the porch and declared the hall open by unlocking the door.  A Sale of Work followed with ‘excellent teas at moderate charges in the open at dainty tables’ (the W.I. has photographs of the event).

So the W.I. took possession of their hall after 18 months of vigorous fund raising – quite an achievement.  But more money was needed an on Whit Monday a Fancy Dress Dance was held, with prizes for the best costumes, which must have cost no more than one shilling.

There were dancing classes too, to raise money for a piano, which was eventually bought from Dale Forty for £55.  Members paid for ‘extra refreshments’ at meetings – the money to go to the building fund.  Miss Bowman, who had already held an exhibition of needlework, old and new, at The Studio, gave embroidery lessons.  The embroidery class undertook to make curtains for the hall, and the needlework panel depicting the Bisley Boy and the picture of Lypiatt Park are reminders of their skill.

Many gifts by members are recorded – an urn, jugs, lamps, a dozen chairs, a large clock, a stove for the kitchen.  Mr. Gardiner’s estimate of £10.7.6. for a stage was accepted and 12 dozen chairs were purchased at 51/- per dozen.  Unfortunately a midsummer epidemic of scarlet fever in the village caused most activities to be suspended, but in September the Institute called a special meeting to discuss the making of an 8’ drive to the hall; members were asked to bring cinders from their fires to help make up the drive and ‘Mr. Coles might be willing to buy a load of loam and cart us his cinders in the empty cart’.  It was proposed that unemployed men in the village should be given the job of making the drive.  Estimates were sought for fencing and gates, and mention is made of cutting down and selling every alternate tree to pay for these.

In April 1926, the final payment was made to Mr. Gardiner for the completed building.

Already other people in the village were making use of the hall.  There was a Choral Society conducted by Mr. Banyard, and it was agreed that the hall should be let for badminton.  The minutes of this period do not give much detail, but it is clear that problems were beginning to arise and a Special Meeting was called, at which the county Chairman of the W.I. was present ‘to help us out of difficulties through which disputes had arisen concerning the letting of the room’.  It is firmly recorded that ‘if anyone hiring the hall abuses the use of it, it will not be let to them again’.  The county Chairman advised that a ‘suggestion box is better than verbal complaints and strongly urged’ …. not to listen to any tittle tattle or ‘they say’ – only to go on what one sees for oneself… ‘they say’ is responsible for more mischief than the devil himself’. 

 Enid Brown