The
Village Hall is the centre of many aspects of life in the Roaches
area.
Events
Whist Drive- every other Tuesday
7-45pm
Bingo - every other Tuesday
8pm
Dances 1-2 per month on Friday or Saturday - 8pm
WI second Thursday each month
7-30pm
Also antique fairs and Church functions.
The room is available for rent for Parties, Weddings receptions etc. Contact
Mrs I Goodwin 01538 300278
HISTORY - from a pamphlet wrtten by Mrs W Hine
The Village Hall started in 1908 as the "Public Room". A group
of people were dissatisfied with the dances at the schoolroom because
they were not allowed to dance after midnight. Money for the building
was raised by shares and subscriptions. It was built of tongue and grove
boarding with a corrugated iron roof.
The land was leased for 21 years from Mr John Clulow of Broad Lea farm
at a rent of £1 per year.
There was only an outside loo, lighting was by oil lights and heating
was provided by bringing in paraffin heaters from homes! It was quite
primative but the dancing went on til 2am and after!
When the lease expired in 1929 the shareholders decided to sell up and the Room was bought by a prospective Conservative candidate for the Leek area, Mr Edward Hulton, who donated it to the leek branch of the Primrose League. The Primrose League was an organisation founded in 1883 in memory of Benjamin Disraeli the Tory prime Minister who died in 1881. Click the link for more on the Primrose League. From 1929 to 1953 the Hall was called the Primrose League Room.
During World War 2 the room was deem an Emergency venue and 24 mattresses were stored in a bedroom at New Grange farm. They were never used in anger. Sugar was allowed to the WI for jam making from surplus fruit from gardens and blackberry picking. This was made in the hall and then taken to New Grange farm awaiting a government examiner inspection before it could be sold to shopkeeper's as part of their ration allowance! The resourceful WI even set up a canning operation to can peaches and apples for the locals.
By 1950 the Primrose league had declined in favour of the Conservative associations and in 1953 the Leek branch was disbanded and the room was offered for sale for £50. Mrs GM Nicholson bought the room and donated it to the village of Meerbrook. It now became Meerbrook Village Hall.
Electricity had been installed in 1939 when a supply had finally been laid into the village. In 1955 the Potteries Water board bought land around Meerbrook in preparation for increasing the size of the resevoir. This included the land the Hall stood on. A ground rent of £5 pa was paid.
In 1975 a piped water supply was laid on to Meerbrook and the village well became redundant. Water was at last piped into the village hall rather than shipped in by churns.
The land on which the hall stood was bought from Severn Trent 1983 for £10.
The hall was and is very popular so the decision was made to extend it in 1988.