St Peters Lane Drill Hall Canterbury 4th Buffs - threat & Info

[David Terry]

This Drill Hall in Canterbury was the base of the 4th & 5th Territorial Battalions of the Buffs & the Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles during WW1 & served as such for the 4th Buffs up to at least WW2.

The drill hall was taken over by the City Council in the early 1970's and has been a popular community hall (Westgate Hall), now in the latest budget cuts they have decided to close it and demolish it for more car parking spaces. This is a political decision as at the same time they want to move the market (which will cost more than renovating the hall) and extend the mayors residence!!

We are fighting this move & with my interest in military history I thought I would raise it on this forum with some questions we need help with.

Firstly how do I get hold of the battalions, which were home service battalions, records?

the hall is listed on the Drill Halls project web site but any Buffs historians have any photo's?

Any expert on the REK Mounted Rifles, where are their records/photo's etc?

Was this hall built initially just as a dRill Hall were there any 'patterns' or design principles for drill halls

see

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=181466832361

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westgate_Hall,_Canterbury

Any help much appreciated by the community of Canterbury

[Dragon]

I am going to put some modern pictures on our website tonight (if possible) and links to the Facebook and museums petition sites on ourCanterbury page.

drillhalls.org

For forum friends' information: we have been in contact with one of the people involved in this.

Gwyn

[David Terry]

I am going to put some modern pictures on our website tonight (if possible) and links to the Facebook and museums petition sites on ourCanterbury page.

drillhalls.org

For forum friends' information: we have been in contact with one of the people involved in this.

Gwyn

Thanks Gwyn

Linda has just e mailed me saying you have been in contact great... hope others on the forum can help to

[Graeme Fisher]

David

Your drill hall appears to be a classic example of a turn of the century drill hall.

A big hall with a clear area of something like 120 feet by 60 feet, and attached accommodation for the sergeant instructor (very often a time-served sergeant-major) and offices, armoury, stores, etc., and possibly an indoor rifle range.

Places to look for further information are your local newspaper archives - local papers loved the opening of buildings such as this - I'd expect to see three or four columns on its opening - local large scale OS maps might show something, try your local archives, searching every possible word related, such as volunteer/territorial/regiment/drill/rifle/buffs and anything else you can think of.

The building would have a huge validity as a community resource - documented uses apart from the obvious military requirements include dances, dog shows, mayoral teas, all kinds of community functions hat required a large, inexpensive space with somecatering facilities and toilets. Sounds dull, but it all adds weight. I'll bet there were hundreds of jumble sales and exhibitions in the hall's history.

The other thing to consider is the ownership of the building. Many drill halls were built by public subscription, ownership ending up with the Government at some stage. Many of these buildings gave way to Post Office sorting offices or telephone exchanges, or similar 'public' uses. Just query the validity of the council's ownership of the premises....

I wish you well with your fight.

Graeme

[Dragon]

I'm making this address into a live link:

Facebook

[Dragon]

Updated page on drillhalls.org I'm afraid I'm quite poorly at the moment and I have put something brief together as well as I could in the circumstances.

Was this hall built initially just as a dRill Hall were there any 'patterns' or design principles for drill halls

Every Kent drill hall I have visited or seen pictures of is different. That is one aspect you could focus on: the fact that each drill hall is unique. You could make a case for its preservation on that basis. They have common features, as Graeme says, but the overall appearance and design of each is different. Some counties appear to have a basic standard style which is then adapted and reinterpreted, but still each hall is unique.

Incidentally, if you haven't already seen them, the Introduction and the Anatomy pages on our website have some background information.

Gwyn

[Paul Reed]

As a local resident, from what I can make out the council are back-peddling on this. There has been a lot of local discontent and protest and it seems to be having some effect.

I'm happy to add a quote of protest from anyone locally who is fronting the protest but what I find difficult to ascertain is who is actually coordinating it?

[David Terry]

As a local resident, from what I can make out the council are back-peddling on this. There has been a lot of local discontent and protest and it seems to be having some effect.

I'm happy to add a quote of protest from anyone locally who is fronting the protest but what I find difficult to ascertain is who is actually coordinating it?

Hi Paul the group has been formed from people who met on facebook,we had our first actual meeting last friday and a second meeting with additional volunteers this thursday from this an action group and officers of the organisation will be appointed.

We come from different backgrounds & professionally I am a community development/funding specialist but also extremely interested in Military history (just piecing together my grandfathers service history RMLI in naval division 1915-1919, have his service records from FAAM a tape of his unpublished reminiscences, and just comparing with the war diaries online), military aviation is my other main interest.

I placed the entry on the forum so anyone wishing to follow up with more information for us or any offers of help or support please send a message directly to me via this forum as I am one of the main coordinating people. I hasten to add at this point that the group will be approaching this from a non political viewpoint with our total aim of providing a different form of community management & saving this piece of military history, refurbishing it to continue to be used as a community center for the people of the city of Canterbury.