Thorpe hall set for revamp?
Kim BriscoeA village hall on the outskirts of Norwich could be in line for a refurbishment or complete rebuild, it emerged today.Kim Briscoe
A village hall on the outskirts of Norwich could be in line for a refurbishment or complete rebuild, it emerged today.
Thorpe St Andrew Town Council is looking at whether its village hall in Yarmouth Road can be improved, or if it should be demolished and rebuilt.
While the outdated building is used by a variety of community groups, they agree that it needs to be brought up to a more modern standard.
The town council and users of the hall held a meeting there recently, to discuss its future.
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Now the council has commissioned a survey of the building and some costings of work which could be done.
Steven Ford, clerk to the council, said: "This is very much in the early days. The likely cost of most village halls is about half a million. Our annual budget is about �300,000 so it would be a big project."
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Roy and Joyce Fisher, who run the Thorpe Bridge Club, said they wanted to see the building's toilets and heating improved.
The bridge club, which meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month, has up to 40 members, many of whom live nearby and enjoy the convenience of being able to walk to the hall.
Mr Fisher said: "The heat loss is tremendous and the maintenance must be more than a modern building.
"We wouldn't want to see it rebuilt in Dussindale though. The hall is withing walking distance of a lot of properties and serves this part of Thorpe well."
The town council had originally thought the hall was built in 1935 by the Jarrold family as a nursing home for the wounded during the second world war.
However, it was recently contacted by a local historian who thinks it was built as a dance hall for the adjacent Roxley House, which was at that time a hotel with a large open air swimming pool.
In 1938 it became the village hall. Do you have a story for the Evening News? Contact reporter Kim Briscoe on 01603 772419 or email kim.briscoe@archant.co.uk
