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Goldhanger Lost

contents

Wesleyan Chapel

British Legion Hall

Parish Room

Petrol Station & Garage

Pit Cottages

 

The Wesleyan Chapel

The building is set back between No’s 7 & 9 Head Street, but ceased to be a Methodist Chapel in 1967.

an early photograph

a painting by John Wilkin

The plaque over the entrance declares that the Chapel was built in October 1839. However, the Chapel records of 1829 refer to a Goldhanger Methodist Chapel with 100 places of worship and later refer to 60 places. Some of the Goldhanger Friendly Society founders were preachers at the Chapel and meetings were held there. Friendly Society Rules of 1876 refer to meetings held "At a certain meeting place or Wesleyan Chapel".

The Chapel was finally closed in 1967 and in 1970 it was sold for £100 to the owners of the adjacent property. At the time, planning permission was sought to demolish the Chapel and replace it with a commercial building, but this was refused. The building was unused for many years, but has been fully restored and remains part of the adjacent private residence. In 1993 Maura Benham wrote a 12-page booklet on the history of the chapel from where these notes originate. More details ,images and the full text of Maura’s booklet is at…

The Story of the Chapel in Goldhanger

 

The British Legion Hall

The British Legion Hall or Hut was located half way down in Fish Street from the late 1940s until 1967. Funds raised in the village for residents serving in World War Two were used to purchase the hall after the troops returned at the end of the conflict. The purchase was supported by a Mr Lane and Mr. Jack Cohen of Goldhanger Fruit Farms, Tolleshunt Major, later of TESCO fame. The land which was previously an orchard was donated by local farmer, Mr Sweetland, and it was handed over to the Royal British Legion to operate and maintain it. Deeds show that it was transferred to the Royal British Legion in 1951 from a B Miller, baker, of Fish St.

In the ten years immediately after the war, the Goldhanger branch of the Legion had many enthusiastic supporters. Monthly Catholic services also took place in the hall and it was used by the sailing club and the youth club. However, later it was used less and less, as at that time there was also the village hall, parish rooms, and two pubs. So the British Legion sold it together with the land in 1967 to builders Wells & Ridgwell of Hazeleigh. The modular construction of the building meant it could easily taken apart and moved to Purleigh where it became the Purleigh cricket club pavilion, where it remains. Here is part of a magazine article published in the early 1970s that refers to purchasing the Goldhanger Hut and has two photos of it when it had just been moved.

This photographs from the 1950s shows the interior of the hut with the Royal British Legion branch flags displayed with a photograph of the Queen…

The flags remained in the village for many years after the hut was moved and were hung in St Peter’s Church, but have long since been passed on to Royal British Legion HQ.

 

The Parish Room

      

                 The Parish Room                            The Parsonage with Parish Room to the right      .

A single “Parish Room” was built in 1906 by the Rector the Revd. Frederick Gardner, and was located in the grounds of The Parsonage, between No’s 8 & 10 Head Street.

The Revd Gardner bought The Limes (No 10) from the Revd. Leigh’s estate in 1906 when 20 of his properties in Goldhanger were put up for sale. He then re-named it as The Parsonage, accomodated his Curates there and built the Parish Room next door on the land he had just acquired. It was originally provided as a reading room for residents. At first it was known as the “Church Room” and then late as the “Parish Hall”.

One reason for its demolition in 1980 was that it began to lean over slightly, with together with its timbered gable and leaded windows, gave it a not unattractive appearance of a much older building. The reason for the lean was that it was built on the site of a previous “smithy” which had a saw-pit within it. Here are two early maps that show the Smithy and the Parish Room...

  

1900s map                                                         1923 map

It became known as the “Parish Rooms” after volunteers built a second small room at the rear to to accommodate a full size snooker table which was given to the village by a local benefactor. After the extension was completed, it was determined that a rear fire exit was required by law, so a door was added but no access was available and it always opened straight onto a brick wall.

Of the many functions the Parish Rooms was used for, these are remembered:  Mothers Union, Women’s Institute, Goldhanger Players, village dances, fire warden centre during WW-2, and the Youth Club.

In 1937 the Parish Rooms were outmoded by the building of the new and much larger Village Hall further along Head St. and the Parish Rooms were then just used as a Youth Club.  Sadly the two photos above are the only ones in the archive that show the building, partly because most of its life it was hidden behind trees. However a post card scene of the two pumps in The Square in winter shows part of the Parish Room immediate behind the nearest pump.

The demolition of the Parish Rooms also resulted in the loss of a significant section of red brick wall. These were and still are a significant feature of the village and included an attractive curved entrance way led into the building.

 

Petrol Station & Garage

The petrol station occupied two locations in the centre of the village. Originally it was in The Square adjacent to Charles Mann’s shop. This photo taken in the early 1900s shows Charles Mann and his family outside the shop in The Square with two small metal signs advertising “Shell Motor Spirit Sold Here”…

     

A few years after this picture was taken two manual pumps were installed in the wall on the corner, shown here in the 1930s and as they are in 2020…

     

Probably in the 1930s a new filling station and serving garage was built around the corner in Church Street, opposite the Church…

     

The corrugated iron hut used as the workshop showed all the signs of being a redundant first world war building typical of those from the Osea Island naval base. The filling station finally closed in 2009.

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