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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Drill halls


Graeme Fisher

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Sorry I sent 8 messages but I haven't got the knack of this photo sending thing.

Hope you publish this as a book/paper/journal article etc.Let us know.

Ronald J ohn Saunders

post-6-1076885490.jpg

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Dyfed Army Cadet Force, c/o Major Malcolm E Evans, HQ Dyfed ACF, TA Centre, Murray St, Llanelli SA15 1BQ

is the contact name and address for the Drill Hall in Llanelli.

Ronald

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Ronald

That's fantastic. Photos and history all at once. The database thanks you!

By way of response I'll ask the Burry Port Mafia (Mother in law and her sister)

to terrorise people for something on ROF Pembrey.

Thanks again

Graeme

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello Graeme! (exclamation mark)

I’m sure I’m not the only Forum member who automatically pops her camera in her bag when she goes out and about. Full stop.

It would enable us to help you in your project if you could post a few ideas about what to look for, comma, so that when we see promising-looking buildings, comma, we could investigate and take photos for you if appropriate. Full stop.

I, apostrophe, ’m sorry if this seems a naïve (diaeresis) question, comma, but you apostrophe ‘re quite right when you comment that a lot of people walk past familiar buildings without giving them a second thought, comma, so many treasures may be missed. Full stop. I know I, apostrophe, ‘m guilty of that, comma, too, comma, because I live in a small Georgian town which is preserved with GrII listeds and conservation orders and I am ashamed to say that I think I apostrophe ‘ve become quite blasé. (e acute) Full stop.

I have viewed through this thread and formed a few ideas, comma, but though I would like to help if I can, comma, I am a bit lost. Full stop.

À (a grave) propos your comment on my message in Credit Cards, comma, which I will loftily ignore, comma, please note that I have punctuated this message correctly (no comma) and have even noted the diacritics. Full stop. :P

Gwyn :)

Translation:

Willing innocent will take photos. Where to start? How to identify? Please. Ta.

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Graeme

I was at East Sussex Record Office last week looking at the Sussex Territorial Association minutes, and although I was supposed to be looking for details of No. 2 Eastern General Hospital, the writing was so illegible, that the only words that kept jumping off the page were ‘Drill Hall.’ So I made a note of the following Drill Halls existing in Sussex in 1908/10. Perhaps some forum members may know if any of them still exist. I will check out any that I can that are local to me – some of these might be the same building under a different name.

Church Street, Brighton

Gloucester Road, Brighton

Coombe Road, Brighton

Marmion Road, Hove

Wish Road, Hove

The Goffs, Eastbourne

40 Junction Road, Eastbourne

Rock-a-Nore, Hastings

Hatherley Road, St. Leonards

Recreation Ground, St. Leonards

Tower Road West, St. Leonards

Queen’s Hall, Seaford

Watergate Lane, Lewes

Franklin Road, Portslade

Station Road, Bexill

34 Teville Road, Worthing

Eskdale, Burgess Hill

and at:

Heathfield, Pevensey, Hailsham, Ninfield, Newhaven, Battle, Hayward’s Heath, East Grinstead, Midhurst, Bognor, Hurstpierpoint.

Sue

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And any areas where you have significant gaps in your database?

I was asking because I seriously wished to know, by the way! :)

Gwyn

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I made a note of the following Drill Halls existing in Sussex in 1908/10. Perhaps some forum members may know if any of them still exist.

Sue - thankyou.

That's just the sort of information that is so difficult to find. Brilliant.

There's some familiar addresses there, and some new ones.

Sussex has just got better!

Thanks again

Graeme

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À (a grave) propos your comment on my message in Credit Cards, comma, which I will loftily ignore, comma, please note that I have punctuated this message correctly

Gwyn :)

Translation:

Willing innocent will take photos. Where to start? How to identify? Please. Ta.

O Mighty Gwyn

allow me to introduce you to humility. Mine.

Sorry.

Point taken (no pun intended. Is there a pun there?)

Warning to other forum users. Never, ever take the mickey out of your colleagues, because apart from being particularly rude, you leave yourself wide open to crushing retribution by someone wittier and cleverer than yourself. And rightly so.

Anyway, back to my thread. (Can you hijack your own thread?)

Drill halls come in all shapes and sizes, materials and guises. It would be nice to say that they're all crenellated stone, like toy forts with the relevant regimental insignia in relief on the front, with flags and sentries and a sign saying 'drill hall'.

But for me, that's half the fascination. There's no standard pattern, no style or symbolism to guide us. Some are mighty Victorian works like Ardwick in Manchester, others quite anonymous. Purpose built, aquired or inherited, they're all different. And a century on, neglected, dimissed, demolished.

So if you know of one, and your camera's in the car..........PLEASE!

Big gaps at the moment are mid and north Wales, and Scotland.

But wherever, I'd rather suffer duplication than nothing at all.

Graeme

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Please, please, there’s no need for self-abasement. It’s no secret among a few people that I am irritated with the occasional visitor to my website who has completely ignored the meanings, effects and passion and simply commented that I’ve made this or that punctuation mistake. Personally I think some people write a lot of empty words between perfectly placed capital letters and sentence-final punctuation. So I read your commas comment that I was being teased and I didn’t mind. Not one bit.

Anyway, to revert to the thread.

I know where my little town’s drill hall was. The best I can do at the moment is screen grabs of aerial footage from the 30s, but I’ll set off a quest on the eighty-year-olds’ social circuit and someone somewhere will have a photo, I’m quite certain. It works like Chinese whispers.

I think there is nearby still a part of a wall, a few red bricks just hanging together with old mortar, where the lads used to sit kicking, opposite the squat Cheshire-magpie pub with the thatched roof and windows dusty from the animals which bleated plaintively in the livestock market in the Square. Now adjacent to the site is an extensive glassy mirrored showroom, glossily tiled in marble with a couple of small trees to create an urban-chic landscape and in the centre of the floor is one car. Its price tag is probably more than a house.

The semiotics are pretty powerful. In under a hundred years, this little bit of land has gone from being the opening scene of some young men’s personal script encompassing suffering, selflessness and spirit, to the setting in which someone symbolises his success by signing for a RR Phantom.

Gwyn

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........And in a couple of paragraphs Gwyn hits the nail on the head.

Whether or not your local drill hall remains, if you have an address, please let me know. All these little clues add up, and I'm grateful to everyone for whatever they offer.

Sometimes all that remains is rubble, but your local drill hall was the starting point of our Territorial forebears' journey to war. And for many, leaving the familiarity of their drill hall and marching to the railway station was the start of their final journey.

And for those who trace their footsteps now, the Terriers' pre-war weekly meeting place is a part of the jigsaw of remembering Grandad.

Thanks, Gwyn

Graeme

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But wherever, I'd rather suffer duplication than nothing at all.

They won’t really be duplicates, because each photo will be unique: different lights, weather, seasons, passing human or canine interest. Each will tell its own individual story, be created by the building’s message to the individual photographer, be an individual moment in time.

That’s why I always sling my camera bag in the boot, cos you never know when you’re going to see something that you’ll never see again, even a shaft of light caressing a familiar sight in a way you’ve never seen before. It’s one of the good aspects of being medically retired but far too young for a zimmer frame: being able to go out and about with the time to capture these fragments of mood and circumstance in a way you rarely can if you plan it.

You never get the moments back if you don’t record them somehow.

How many drill halls have you already got on the database?

Gwyn

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Hallo Graeme

This is a picture of the Drill Hall, Marmion Road, Hove. I have more, and also a series of photos of Little High Street, Worthing, and 34 Teville Road, Worthing. Little High Street might not be original - the building is old enough, but looks more like a converted pub. 34 Teville Road is interesting, because the railings and flag pole, and buildings are still there [just escaping death by shopping centre], but it wasn't possible to distinguish what was what without getting run over or arrested. If you let me have an off-list email address I'll send them all as an attachment.

Sue

[Life getting more interesting - or is it just sadder?]

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Hi Graham

Here is an old photo of the drill Hall in Faringdon, Berks (now Oxon) it's the 3rd building from the left (gable end) and is in London Street. It was a Girls School prior to becoming the territorial drill hall and is now a private house. I can get you an up to date photo of it as well if you would like but probably not until the weekend?

Mark

post-6-1079476184.jpg

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Ooops :(

Please excuse my spelling of Graeme, Graeme

Mouth open, both feet firmly implanted

Mark :wacko:

Because of the photo, I forgive you.

No problem, Mark, you just went for the obvious spelling rather than the 'I know it's different but I'm not sure how so I'll have a go' spelling, where the writer asks Carol Vorderman for 'a vowel, a consonant, another consonant' ad infinitum.

Regards

Greayhamme

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Hi Graham

Here is an old photo of the drill Hall in Faringdon, Berks (now Oxon)

I can get you an up to date photo of it as well if you would like but probably not until the weekend?

Mark

Thanks, Mark, I'd love an up-to-date photo, but entirely at your leisure.

I'm particularly grateful for the location details, and the county change. I've tried to remain in the early 20th Century with my counties, no West Midlands or Greater London. But it's nice if someone either alerts or confirms the change of boundary.

Thanks

Graeme

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You never get the moments back if you don’t record them somehow.

How many drill halls have you already got on the database?

Gwyn

a) That's why I'm trying to e-save them

B) The database has about 3600 listings, somewhere around 1000 drill halls? Many of these places had multiple occupancy, a couple of battalions of infantry, a company of engineers or medics, or a battery of guns. Oh, and some cavalry types, too. That's part of the fun for me, trying to work out which unit was where.

Confirmed premises are around 300 or 400 so far, with no small thanks to you lovely people.

c) Ta, Dragon

Graeme

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