Huntingdon’s Commemoration Hall.

Alternative Use

of £6,00 Fund?

As it is now unlikely that the Commemoration Hall, for which the fund Committee has worked and hoped for nine years, will ever be built on the site purchased for the purpose in Nursery Road, it was considered in July, 1954, that the £6,500 Commemoration Hall Fund might be used to help with the cost of an assembly hall at the new Secondary Modern School to be built in St. Peter’s Road.

The ever-increasing costs of building the hall originally planned caused the Commemoration Hall Committee to put forward this scheme. When the fund was opened the Committee contemplated spending a sum of approximately £12,000. Costs have risen so much that twice that amount would be needed.

Also it has been found impossible substantially to increase the sum of £6,500 which has been raised since the Fund’s inception in 1945.

To carry on with the building of even a modified hall with reduced seating capacity would have meant a heavy mortgage. The interest payable on the required mortgage plus normal costs of heating, lighting, labour, rates and insurance would have necessitated a minimum income of about £1,100 a year to support the hall.

Considering Huntingdon’s population of 8,000 (including Godmanchester) it was felt that such an income could not possibly be made by letting the premises at ordinary fees.

Further, if the proposed Hall were reduced in seating capacity it would suffer by competition from the smaller premises already existing.

The whole object of the proposed Hall was to provide seating for 350-400 persons which was not available elsewhere in Huntingdon and which had long been needed.

Therefore, when the Committee learned of the assembly hall to be built with the new school it was decided to seek the approval of the Ministry of Education for the application of the Trust Funds to the provision of the new school assembly hall.

Negotiations with education authority

Negotiations between a subcommittee of the Commemoration Fund and the local education authority were in progress to find a way of placing the fund towards the cost of additions and improvements to the Assembly Hall of the new school.

These additions would have made the Hall, seating about 450 people, suitable for the normal civic uses - concerts, lectures, whist drives, dramatic performances and dances - for which the Commemoration Hall had originally been planned.

It is realised by all that the lack of a hall with such seating capacity in Huntingdon has long been felt.

The fact that the fund was set up as a Memorial, and also to be of lasting benefit to the town, would not have been lost to sight. As the education authority would have been responsible for the building it could not have been known as a Commemoration Hall, but, possibly, a plaque dedicated to the men and women of Huntingdon who gave their lives in the second world war, would have preserved the memorial aspect.

Difficulties of transfer

However, to transfer the resources of a Trust Fund is no easy matter. As the Commemoration Fund is registered under the Charity Commissioners, the fund capital cannot be transferred.

The representative of the legal department of the Ministry of Education has stated that the objects and history of this fund were well known to his department, but it would not be legally possible for the Ministry to permit the Committee to dispose the capital sum, since such action would have the effect of destroying the charitable trust.

The Committee considered two courses of action. The first was the handing over of income from the invested funds to the local education authority by agreement and subject to the approval of the Ministry of Education and the Charity Commissioners.

Alternatively, the Committee had under consideration the winding up of the Trust by the repayment of donations (amounting to approximately £1,800) - as distinct from earned income - coupled with the requests for the return of donations free of trust obligations, which would enable the Committee to consider alternative proposals for the utilisation of the fund.

These courses have been the subject of many recent meetings of the Commemoration Fund Committee, and at the ninth annual, and, incidentally, the 81st meeting of the Committee, it was decided that this report on the position to date should be put as clearly as possible to the people of Huntingdon.

Years of work and faith

It is nearly 10 years since, at a public meeting held in the Town Hall on July 18th 1945, it was unanimously agreed that a suitable hall for the use of the people of the Borough was long overdue: and it was decided to elect a Committee at once to raise funds to build a large hall to be known as the Commemoration Hall which was to be used for activities of all descriptions without being restricted to any one particular interest.

Since that day the work has gone forward. In this time the Committee has changed – members have had to resign, some have left the district and some have died, but always others have come forward and the work has proceeded. Records tell the tale of years of work and faith.

Endless correspondence and the questions of plans, licences and grants were dealt with. The capital raised by means of donations, a legacy, great effort by the entertainment Committee, and by many local organisations, has been prudently invested. The site acquired in Nursery Road has been let to produce more income.

All this has been done freely by a group of local people convinced of the worthiness and necessity of their objects. Unfortunately, the cost of building has risen faster than the capital value of the Fund.

Meanwhile Huntingdon’s need for such a Hall is just as great, if not greater than it was 10 years ago.

However, the Committee understands that the local education authority in their plans for the new secondary modern school to be built in St Peter’s Hill have included a hall which could well meet the local requirements envisaged in the original project and if such an arrangement came about the Committee would be able to consider suitable alternative proposals for the utilisation of the Commemoration Hall Fund.