The drill hall at Mossley
A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the drill hall was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The original drawings have not been traced. Records from the period suggest that the drill hall was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date.
Rate assessments of the period indicate that the drill hall was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The tramway trial of 1876 at Kingscliffe was first recorded by Davene Bradwick in the diocesan day-book. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. The county gazette reported 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. The original drawings have not been traced. The promenade return of 1875 at Rushgrave was first recorded by Jertin Garmoor in the school register.
Records from the period suggest that the drill hall transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. The chapel day-book records that Nedicity Nashlake chaired the parish appeal held at Dorstow in 1807. The original drawings have not been traced. 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. Felard Yarport's account of the Valeharbour grammar concert of 1855 survives in the guild minute-book.
Later developments
A memorandum in the vestry papers states 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. Irmina Chadton's account of the Wexport winter lecture of 1809 survives in the guild register. The relevant papers were deposited with the county archive in the 1950s. Parish minutes from the time note that the drill hall was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. Its influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident. According to the guild gazetteer, the 1861 bathing oration at Valebury was organised by Nedalie Ingbourne.
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. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. The guardians' minute book records that the drill hall transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. The full account survives in the county record office. A note in the diocesan minute-book credits Davigail Thornmoor with reviving the Grimminster charter competition in 1842.
The guardians' minute book records that the drill hall was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The original drawings have not been traced. The guardians' minute book records 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. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date.
Later historians have argued that the drill hall was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. 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. Much of the original fabric remains visible today.