MUNGRISDALE
VILLAGEMUNGRISDALE
VILLAGE
INSTITUTE
Mr.
E. O. BOLTON OPENS SALE OF WORK
Village
institutes are rising with such increasing rapidity in all villages that it is a
very poor hamlet which cannot boast of something of the kind.
The latest addition to the lengthy list of favored localities is
Mungrisdale, that delightful mountain village which nestles in a fold of the
fells under the shoulder of Saddleback and looks out across the level stretches
of Troutbeck Moor.
Jack
did not grow his beanstalk more rapidly than Mungrisdale grew its village hall.
The need for such an asset to the communal amenities had long been felt,
but the credit of moving so rapidly in the matter belongs to the ladies of
Mungrisdale, who had been at work for a long time gathering in the needful from
dance and concert; and most of the
purchase price of the new hall was got together by the members of the local
Women’s Institute, which has been lying fallow for some time,
after holding its social and other gatherings in an ordinary cottage.
They
decided to purchase a large bungalow from the Carrock Mining Company, which had
been used as an office. This very
substantial hut is 60 feet long, and
the main hall is 50 feet long and 20 feet wide,
leaving the remaining 10 feet room as a supper or reading room.
The cost of the hut was £82, and the cost of removal and re-erection
amounted to another £50. A further
£25 was spent on a new wooden floor and in putting in stonework for the
foundations, but all the carting and
digging has been done free by the surrounding farmers and residents.
With a view to furnishing the hall and providing a piano, the committee
could do with another £100, and at the opening ceremony on Thursday they
obtained £82.10s 6d. The hall is a
very attractive-looking building standing by the roadside in the village, and
looking very smart in its green paint with white window frames.
The Institute Committee is
fortunate in having a man like Mr Frank Taylor as its chairman,
and Mrs Banks as its secretary, and
Mrs Bleasdale and Mr. P. Walker as treasurers.
It is only about six or eight weeks since the project was started,
and now the building is in use and will prove of great value to the
district.
A
sale
of work to raise the extra money required was held on Thursday, and although the
afternoon was one long downpour, the rain was insufficient to prevent a big
crowd from filling the new hall. A
series of stalls and other goods of a useful and ornamental kind, were in charge
of the following ladies; Mesdames
Holiday, Watson, Banks, Bleasdale, Dingle, Peet, Walker, and Mandale, and the
Misses Wilson, Holliday, and Bott and Nurse Liddell.
Bran tubs were presided over by the Misses Bott and Watson
and Messrs. Dingle and Mandale. Mrs
harding had a guessing cake, and some dolls, given by Mrs Walker, were in charge
of Misses Bertha Dingle and Hilda Bleasdale.
A pea-guessing competition was in charge of Margaret Jackson.
A very substantial tea was presided over by Mesdames Taylor, Mandale,
Savage, Ostle, Nanson, Elliott, Jackson and Wilson.
The
sale was opened in his usual kindly and genial manner by Mr E. O. Bolton,
Leeming-on-Ullswater, who was accompanied by Capt. Broadhurst and supported on
the platform by the Rev. W. H. Cormack, the Vicar.
Mr. Frank Taylor was in the chair.
The Chairman said he had pleasure in welcoming Mr. Bolton and Capt. Broadhurst to that gathering. The credit for providing them with that room must be given to the ladies, who had been very industrious in raising the necessary funds. The men had helped them to spend the money, and he was sorry to say they had succeeded in spending it all. They had invited them all to the sale in order to help them provide more.
Mr.
Bolton said he was very pleased to be with them, and was especially delighted to
be of what little use he could to such an energetic people.
They had been trying in Watermillock - a much bigger parish - to get
something of the kind but they were still talking about it.
He thought the ladies of Mungrisdale had done wonderfully, and the result
was entirely satisfactory, for no village could wish for a better hall.
Every
parish ought to have a room for recreation and as a centre for social
activities. Such rooms helped to
brighten village life and served to keep people on the land,
where they were needed, instead
of sending them into the towns, where
they were of little use. The towns
were already over-populated and the more they kept people interested in rural
pursuit’s the better it was for the virility of the nation.
Young people liked enjoyment in the form of concerts and whist drives and
there was no reason why they should not all come together in play as well as
work. They also wanted more houses
so that every Jack could have his Jill and thus settle down in domestic
felicity.
After
all the turmoil of the election it was delightful once more to get back to the
quiet places and the friendly faces where Peace dwelt so serenely.
He hoped there would be no more elections for five years, otherwise the
insurance companies would be raising their rates if they were to be subjected to
so much excitement. He had pleasure
in declaring the sale open and in wishing it success.
The
day’s proceedings closed with a dance, for which Mr Jas Wilson, Mosedale, was
the M.C. and for which Wilkinson’s String Band supplied the music.
Mid
Cumberland & North Westmorland Herald
Saturday, 1st November, 1924