The History of Sompting Village Hall

The History of Sompting Village Hall Registered Charity No 305423 West Street, Sompting, West Sussex, BN15 0BE www.somptingvillagehall.org 3.9.11 Sompting Village Hall was built by Henry Peter Crofts, JP, DL, of Sompting Abbots, in 1889 as reading and recreation rooms for the community . Indeed it was originally and for many years known simply as the Reading Room. John Crofts, a London attorney, had purchased the manor of Sompting Abbots in 1748, and the estate was extended in 1836 when the Reverend P G Crofts had purchased the manor of Sompting Peverel. Henry had inherited much of the estate of his brother John on the latter’s death without issue. In those days, Sompting was for practical purposes divided into east and west; the Reading Room was at the edge of the eastern part, and what is now Sompting Recreation Ground was then White Styles Farm. The building work was “… carried out in a most praiseworthy manner by Mr C C Cook, builder, of Worthing.” With walls of knapped flint and Bath stone, the 44 ft long, 22 ft wide building hosted some inveterate drunks from a run-down area, and instead provided a comfortable place, out of the weather, heated by a handsome tortoise stove and brilliantly lit by four large oil lamps, where poorer people could go to socialize or improve their education and chances in life without having the temptation and expense of alcohol. A press report of the opening in November 1889 remarked that “… the temptations of drink – the curse of rural as well as urban life – will be altogether absent”. But at the opening ceremony, Henry was keen to move on to toast the new building in a celebratory drink. In the deferential custom and reporting style of a bygone age, the local press recorded that “… the villagers assembled … (were of) respectful demeanour and … clean and respectable appearance, in marked contrast to some audiences of the working classes in towns.” The ceremony closed with “… three lusty cheers and …. with much enthusiasm ‘He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.’ ” Henry nominated six inhabitants of the Parish to preserve good order and maintain proper rules. Clockwise from top left: Henry Peter Crofts, 16.12.1818 – 24.6.1890; the inscripted plaque at the entrance to the original Reading Room but now hidden by the ceiling of the porch; the Hall, from West Street, in 1957* and 2007 (*Note the roof repairs – possibly following the 1941 bomb damage referred to below) Henry Crofts, squire of the village, a former High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex and President of Worthing Infirmary, died in 1890 at 71, his death being “ … (while) suffering from an affection of the foot, occasioned to some extent by the application of an onward remedy for the treatment of corns, which resulted in blood poisoning.” Henry's widow Ellen Merriall, nee Dodson, lived on until 1916 when she died at 100, having in 1893 added a boys' room in the north-east corner of the grounds - peacefully away from the main building. In the early 1890s, entertainment featured heavily in press reports of goings on at”The Reading Room”, especially in the winter months. The Worthing Gazette reported, on 19 November 1890, “A most successful concert ... the proceeds …being devoted to the Sunday School Fund.” The Church Choir Fund would also benefit. There was a series of fortnightly “Smoking Concerts” at one of which, blissfully unaffected by the changes in attitudes to smoking and equality which would take place over the ensuing century, there was “…a vote of thanks … to Mr H Pullen-Burry for again supplying tobacco, the gift being extended to those who were on the sick list” but, according to one report, only to the men. (Indeed The Reading Room was initially for the use of men only. Mike Tristram (see later below) reports that this was as much to get the men out of the pubs as it was to do with educating or entertaining them. Eventually the local womenfolk revolted on the issue, so that today usage of the Hall - and pubs - by gender is probably about even. ) God Save the Queen was traditionally sung on completion. Mr Pullen-Burry was a local nurseryman, and at one time Sompting’s biggest employer. An inspection in November 1912 for the purpose of Land Tax Valuation recorded a combined market value for the land and building of £400, after inexplicably amending at several strokes of a pen an original valuation of £720. The valuation report, with a number of downward adjustments The Women’s Institute movement, which had originated in Canada, caught hold in Britain during World War I, as patriotic local women set up branches in towns and villages. One such branch was Sompting, which was set up at the then Reading Room on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918. Sompting Village branch celebrated its 90th anniversary at the Hall in 2008, having held every meeting there and now being our oldest user group by some margin. Indeed at one point the Hall was offered to the WI, but the gift could not be accepted owing to the onerous maintenance and running responsibilities involved. The house between the boys' room and the road is where Mrs Heather used to keep untethered goats. These were something of a liability due to their habit of head- butting passers-by. Mrs Heather’s great grandson Martin writes: “I have read with interest your potted history of Sompting Village Hall (formerly Reading Room). I especially found the reference to Mrs Heather and her goats of interest as I am a great grandson of this apparently infamous lady! ”She was called Kate Heather (nee Pellett). She and husband Henry (Harry), along with their family including my granddad Bill, lived in a cottage adjoining the general store in West Street from at least 1915 until the early 1930s, when they moved to 2 Millfield Cottages, Busticle Lane. This cottage adjoining the store was known as Ide's Cottage. My aunt, who was born there in 1928, tells me that it was home to two families, the other having access at the rear. She also said that her father (my grandfather, Bill) and his brothers attended the Scout group which then met in a building at the back (presumably the 'boys' room'). “Ide's Cottage was demolished soon after my forebears moved out, but I see from a contemporary image on 'Google Maps' that the old grocery store house has been extended westwards to cover at least a part of the site of Ide's Cottage. A postcard image taken about 1920/21 shows the store and Ide's Cottage with some of my family outside. A cropped version which excludes the infamous Mrs Kate Heather (who was stood in the doorway) appears in Mr Philip Fry's Second Edition of old photographs of Lancing and Sompting. He dates the image as 1925, but I think this is out by at least 4 years. He also says the family moved in the late 1920s. Again, I would dispute this; Kelly's Directories suggest a move to Millfield Cottages between 1932 and 1934, and a cousin of my father's was born there in 1930. ”Back to Kate Heather: She was reputed to be a very small lady, with some saying about 4 feet 9 inches! A photograph of her from the 1950s beside one of her grand- daughters at age 10-11 shows her to be of similar height, so 4ft 9ins may be fairly accurate. After a brief spell in a cottage at Lychpole Farm, my granddad Bill Heather lived almost opposite Ide's Cottage and the Village Hall at 3, Orchard Cottages. He worked initially for Mr Charles Phillips (coincidentally my mother's grandfather) at Upton and Titch Hill Farms, but for a long time worked for the Wadman brothers of Yewtree Farm.” Mrs Heather’s house was later a village store, run by a Mrs Boxall, with big steps at the front. It is reputed to have been small inside, with room for only 2 or 3 people at a time, but stocked most things people wanted. It is now a vicarage. For some years Sompting Primary School, nearby in Loose Lane and since June 2011 the Harriet Johnson Centre (though, it having been for many years Sompting Community Centre, most still refer to it as such), held concerts and some classes at the Hall. The picture below shows a class assembled outside the Hall by a Miss Owen, who travelled around different schools teaching cookery. Illustrating the changes to fashions in children’s names over the years, the pupils include Florrie Homewood, Marjorie Kennard, Nancy Hollis, Winnie Bashford, Rosy Chatfield, Gladys Nye, Violet Beacher (in the sailor suit, and see later below) and Daisy Evans. A cookery class from Sompting C of E School, outside the Hall, c1930 Ed Stringer was a local lad, from one of four unrelated Stringer families. Still living in Sompting, he recalls the teachers from the school being, in addition to Miss Finnemore and all using the Hall from time to time, Miss Dean, Miss Powell, Mr Heath (Head) and Mrs Bruton (part-time). He remembers country dancing sessions and variety performances. Also present at the dance sessions was Dulcie Ball, who was to become Ed’s wife. The variety evenings were run by a Captain Billy Brewster of the Salvation Army, who ran a photographic studio in South Farm Road, Worthing. Sompting lay within the notorious “Bomb Alley” of World War II, between the south coast and London, where German bombers would unload unused weapons on the area to do what damage they could and avoid carrying them back to their bases.

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