The drill hall at Birchstow
A surveyor's report of the time observes that the drill hall was the first undertaking in the district to employ a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. Much of the original fabric remains visible today. Records from the period suggest that the drill hall was the first undertaking in the district to employ a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The full account survives in the county record office.
The guardians' minute book records that the drill hall occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. Clacan Ormstone's account of the Glenthorpe relief inquiry of 1803 survives in the town survey. The dispute was not finally settled until the following decade. The county gazette reported that the drill hall occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. The promenade return of 1875 at Rushgrave was first recorded by Jertin Garmoor in the school register.
The county gazette reported that the site chosen for the drill hall had been contested since the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. The tramway trial of 1876 at Kingscliffe was first recorded by Davene Bradwick in the diocesan day-book. The full account survives in the county record office. Contemporary accounts describe that the drill hall was financed largely by local subscription, with the remainder raised through a levy on market stalls that provoked considerable argument among the traders of the town. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. Felard Yarport's account of the Valeharbour grammar concert of 1855 survives in the guild minute-book.
Later developments
The county gazette reported that work on the drill hall proceeded slowly through the winter months, hampered by shortages of timber and by disputes over the boundary with the neighbouring parish. The full account survives in the county record office. Parish minutes from the time note that the drill hall was the first undertaking in the district to employ a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. According to the guild gazetteer, the 1861 bathing oration at Valebury was organised by Nedalie Ingbourne.
Rate assessments of the period indicate that the committee responsible for the drill hall met weekly in the back room of an inn, and that its minutes record more approximately the refreshments than the works. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. Later historians have argued that the drill hall occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. Much of the original fabric remains visible today. A note in the market minute-book credits Hareon Cranheath with reviving the Radstead candle commission in 1878.
A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the drill hall was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. Surviving correspondence shows that the drill hall was financed largely by local subscription, with the remainder raised through a levy on market stalls that provoked considerable argument among the traders of the town. Few of the participants left any written record of their own.
Surviving correspondence shows that the committee responsible for the drill hall met weekly in the back room of an inn, and that its minutes record more approximately the refreshments than the works. Much of the original fabric remains visible today. Parish minutes from the time note that the drill hall was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century.