THIS weekend, Brancepeth Village Hall celebrates its centenary with an open day where visitors will be able to see the concrete blocks in the walls that members of the Women’s Institute paddled by hand.

The WI was formed in this country in 1915 to keep rural communities, and food production, alive during the First World War – the first meeting was on September 16 in Llanfairpwll, the north Wales village with the incredibly long name – and Brancepeth WI was formed in 1919.

Brancepeth is an estate village based around the Norman castle which was then owned by Lord and Lady Boyne. They provided a reading room for their estate workers, where magazines and periodicals were available as well as a billiard table, but it was in a room in an estate house, now known as the Corner House.

READ MORE: A GAME OF PATIENTS: THE STORY OF BRANCEPETH CASTLE

Dances and concerts were held in the village hall, meetings were held in the Rectory or the church, but there was a need for everybody to be brought together under one roof. The estate gave the site of an old brewery for a new hall and set up a building committee to oversee its construction, but it was the WI that drove it through.

Members of the Brancepeth WI in 1922Not only did they hold fund-raising events, but when they became exasperated at the slowness of the project, they wrote to the committee and cheekily asked if there was “any chance of getting started this century?”.

Poster advertising a fete in the grounds of Brancepeth Castle raising money for the hall 100 years agoThis galvanised the committee into action, and estate workers began construction in their own time using estate machinery.

Lord Boyne with estate workers after the First World WarThe members of the WI also rolled their sleeves up and divided themselves into six gangs of four to make the blocks for the walls, paddling the concrete into the wooden frames.

The £1,900 hall was officially opened on December 19, 1924, by Lady Boyne, who no doubt admired the efforts of all concerned.

The cast of the Brancepeth Women's Institute production of Ye Olde Village Wedding which they performed at their general meeting on May 23, 1928, in the village hallNot that subsequent generations had it easy. The Boynes had only given the old brewery site on a 50-year lease, and when that expired in 1974, the new owners of the castle threatened to close the hall. Of course, the villagers rallied round, and with the help of local councils formed a Community Association which bought the building and so ensured its use for future generations of Brancepethians.

Brancepeth village hallAll these stories, and many more, will be told on Saturday (November 16) between 10am and 4pm in the village hall where there will be displays of history and also of the many groups which use the hall today. A book celebrating the centenary will also be officially published and on sale for £5 to association members and £7 to others.

Entry is free, light refreshments will be available, and visitors and villagers alike will be welcomed.

For more info, contact Brancepeth Community Association: brancepethca@gmail.com

READ MORE: THE BRANCEPETH GARDENS THAT INSPIRED TENNYSON

Brancepeth station