Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    Z977
  • Title
    Beeston Recreation Room
  • Date free text
    1903 - 1994
  • Production date
    From: 1903 To: 1994
  • Admin/biog history
    The precise date Beeston Recreation Room opened is unknown: it is mentioned in Kelly's Directory of 1890, but not in the volume for 1885. The building was originally a Calvinist Chapel but by 1889 it had been purchased by Miss Hariott Anna Maria Stanhope Barnett of Beeston Grange and equipped as a recreation room (Bedfordshire Mercury, 30 November 1889 p.8 col.5). No records exist for these early years. Miss Barnett died on 20 May 1898 (probate calendar) and under the terms of her will the Room was to be sold. In August 1903 a committee of local people purchased the Room for 42 (see Z 977/1/1 and Z 977/2/1). For the next ninety years the Room was used by Beeston people for concerts and other functions, the hire fees paying for the repairs and running costs. By the late 1980s the situation had deteriorated - the hire fees no longer covered the running costs - and the decision of the local playgroup to cease hiring the hall in 1992 was seen by many on the committee as the final straw. At a committee meeting on 30 November 1993 it was decided to close the building on 31 December and sell it by tender. The final minutes, of 28 March 1994, record that a Mrs Morris of Beeston Green, bought the hall for 5,650.
  • Archival history
    Acc.7943 Records of Beeston Recreation Room, Sandy, donated by the last chairman of the committee, Roger Cope, Cos Lodge, Beeston Green, Sandy, SG19 1PF. 12 February 1998
  • Level of description
    fonds
Hierarchy browser