"Keyworth's Village Hall"
November 2004 Meeting Report
Guest Speaker - Erl Annesley
The November meeting of the Keyworth & District Local History Society was held on 5th November 2004 in the Centenary Lounge, Keyworth. Our guest speaker for the evening, Erl Annesley, was well known to many of his audience as he used to be a local General Practitioner here in Keyworth. Indeed, he began by saying how nice it was to see so many old, familiar faces in the audience, many of whom he knew intimately, though not well!! Erl Annesley’s subject for the evening was the Village Hall, for which he was largely instrumental in getting built. Once again the meeting was extremely well attended, Erl’s reputation as a speaker no doubt having a significant part to play.
Erl began by giving us a brief personal history explaining how it was that a Belfast boy should find himself residing in Keyworth. After qualifying as a doctor in Belfast, (and regaling the audience with some lurid tales of life as a Medical Student), he came over to England in 1960 and began to practice as a G.P. in Mickleover, near Derby. His debut at Mickleover was something of a clouded affair. One of his first calls was to a lady in her late eighties who had been ill for some weeks. When Erl visited the lady in question she appeared to be fast asleep in bed with several of her relatives around her. The lady didn’t look at all well and Erl, in his blissful ignorance, commented on the fact, whereupon he was informed by one of the relatives that it was not surprising as the lady had been dead for half an hour!!
Being interested in football, (and having no decent local side to support), Erl came to watch Nottingham Forest play the famous Tottenham Hotspurs double-winning side at the City Ground, Nottingham. After the match a friend of Erl’s introduced him to the Spurs Captain, Danny Blanchflower, (a fellow Irishman). The friend’s name was Dr Bell and he had medical connections with Keyworth. Dr Bell asked Erl if he would like to come over to Keyworth to work. Erl came over to have a look at the place and over forty years later he’s still here.
Erl Annesley moved to Keyworth in 1961 when the village was much smaller than it presently is. None of the large estates had been completed at that time and the village retained much of its old character and charm. Typical of this was the tale related by Erl how he had an apple tree in his garden, which was next door to the village shop. He would exchange his apples for bags of sugar, and thus help to supplement the income of a struggling young G.P.!! Erl’s early days in Keyworth were exceptionally busy. The population of the village had begun to expand rapidly, as indeed did his number of patients. However, the medical facilities available in the village did not grow at the same pace. Thus Erl found his patient list increase from 4,500 to nearly 10,000 people. Such was the age structure in the village then, with many young families moving in to the estates, that it was not uncommon for Erl to be delivering four babies a week. This was at a time when home deliveries were still commonplace. This could, and did, lead to difficulties in organizing ones social life. Hence, on one occasion Erl was all decked out in his best bib and tucker ready for a dinner dance when his attendance at a delivery was urgently required. Not having time to change Erl went in his best dress suit and the mother-to-be was somewhat surprised at the manner of his dress. She assured him that such a formal approach to her new infant’s debut into the world was not really necessary, though appreciated!! After the delivery Erl went on to attend his dinner/dance.
Whilst the population of Keyworth was burgeoning the facilities available in the village were still very meagre. One thing in particular, which the village lacked and was felt to be an essential amenity, was a Village Hall. To address this need Erl managed to acquire an old football pavilion, this was renovated as well as could be and turned into a youth club. However, it fell far short of what was really wanted. The only local body that could provide the necessary impetus to initiate moves for a new and suitable building were the Parish Council. Their initial attitude was fairly luke-warm. So it was that Erl managed to get himself elected to the Parish Council and try to change opinions from the “inside”. A public meeting was called in the old school building on Selby Lane and the idea was floated to try and ascertain if there was indeed sufficient interest in the proposal to justify going ahead with the scheme.
One initial obstacle was the planned site for the new building. It was felt that the most suitable location for the Hall would be on the playing fields near the village centre. However, there was a problem there inasmuch as the Parish Church held a Covenant on the Nottingham Road half of the field. The Church could, effectively, stipulate what the land could or could not be used for. Fortunately the Church was very fair-minded about the plans and gave the necessary permission for the scheme to go ahead. Rough details were outlined and a proposal for a pre-fabricated structure to be erected at a proposed cost of £12,000 was given the green light. The next problem was that of funding and this particular problem fell into the lap of the Parish Council. Their initial solution to the funding problem was to put an extra 1d, (old penny), on the rates. This was not at all popular with certain sections of the village electorate. In all three public meetings were held before the scheme was actually adopted. Even then some of the votes in favour of it had been very close. One bone of contention occurred when the question of who was eligible to vote on the scheme reared its ugly head. To vote you needed to be on the Electoral Roll as at 20th March 1965. A good many of the newcomers in the village were not yet on the Roll and in consequence were not eligible to vote. This lack of democracy in the issue did not go down well.
Another group of villagers who were none too keen were a group of about 500 pensioners, Keyworth’s senior citizens. They argued, perhaps not too unreasonably, that it was unfair to them to have to pay an extra 30/- per year for a facility that many of them would not use but that a large number of the younger villagers would. Erl was beginning to think that he had been handed the legendary poisoned chalice when he agreed to be the guiding light in the new village hall scheme. However, the final ballot on the scheme was organized. Ballot papers were issued and the vote took place on one Saturday afternoon. The results were disappointing to say the least. Only 10% of the electorate bothered to vote and the result was far from conclusive. The final score was 144 in favour of the scheme with 122 against it.
The buck was passed back to the Parish Council and they decided to go ahead with the proposed plans. By now three years and three public meetings had come and gone since the scheme was first suggested. Also the proposed costs were increasing too. The planned costs had now increased from £12,000 to £16,000. Permission had only been granted for the lower figure. Where to find the extra £4,000? This was another problem that Erl would rather not have had. It was decided that the only realistic option was to go cap in hand back to the County Council and beg for more. Talk in the Nottingham newspapers of the day was all about “A Village Rift” in Keyworth. The scheme had certainly been a source of much argument, debate and friction. However, by February 1967 all that was history when the necessary funding was approved and the business of putting the contract out to tender was begun. Ordinarily, according to Council rules the tender had to go to the lowest bidder. A problem arose when the preferred bidder and local business Middleton’s Builders presented the second lowest bid. Their bid was on £64/-/- higher than the lowest tender and the Parish Council agreed to bend the rules in order that the work might go to a local concern.
Work began almost immediately and by June 1968 the village had its new hall. There was a grand opening and a number of special events planned to mark the auspicious occasion. Four local ladies had plans to make a Bayeux type tapestry showing scenes from village life that was to adorn the hall. Unfortunately the scheme proved to be a little over ambitious and a series on montages of village life were completed instead. They can still to be seen in the hall. When the hall did open there were more than enough bookings to justify its construction and the building has become an important asset for the social life of the community. Indeed, it was not to be too many years before an extension was constructed in the form of the Centenary Lounge, where, History Society members will be well aware is where we hold our monthly meetings. All in all it was a very beneficial day when Erl decided to settle in Keyworth, the village owes him a great debt of gratitude for his services as a doctor and also, no less, for the driving force which he provided in ensuring that Keyworth acquired a Village Hall that was so sorely needed.
It being Bonfire Night the whole of Erl’s presentation was interspersed with booms, bangs, flashes and screams as firework after firework went off in the village. The show put on by Erl was more than a match for the show outside and the audience were highly entertained by Erl’s very distinctive delivery, (though how many of his many anecdotes were true and how many merely a touch of the Blarney only Erl knows). Well-done Dr Annesley for an excellent night’s entertainment!!