The Hall, along with the Church, are the centres of village life, providing a space for village functions, social clubs, activity groups and many more. Built in 1987, the current hall replaced the ‘hut’ which had stood on the same site since the early 1920’s.
The hut and current hall have an interesting history –scroll down the page to read more about this.
The hall, car park and adjacent field are available for hire as a whole or in parts. The hall consists one large open area measuring 6.75 metres x 12.2 metres, an adjacent ‘Committee Room’, recently refurbished kitchen, fully equipped with counter top, crockery, cutlery and glassware. There are ladies, gents and disabled toilet facilities and all parts of the hall are accessible to wheelchair users.
The hall can be booked by emailing the booking clerk Carole Vine at arlingtonhallhire@btinternet.com
Arlington Village Hall is a registered Charity No 305159 and is administered by a management committee. The current chairman is Paul Holmes.
Terms and conditions for the rent of the hall can be found by clicking here as can the current rental rates.
Forms to downoad
- Arlington Village Hall – Conditions of hire [view or download here]
- Arlington Village Hall – Declaration of Agreement of Standard conditions of hire [view or download here]
- Hall dimensions - (view or download here)
History of the hall
Until the early 1920’s Arlington did not have a communal meeting facility except for St Pancras Church and it was after the First World War, that thoughts turned to providing such a facility.
This coincided with a growing national feeling to remember our brave soldiers that had not returned from the Great War and Arlington was no different. As a small community, Arlington had in fact suffered only one fatality – Jess Levett, one of an extensive family that had lived in and around Arlington for many years. Jess’s family felt that a memorial in the form of many war memorials was a lot for the loss of one life and so the idea was borne to provide a meeting place as a memorial to Jess’s life. At nearby Seaford, an army camp was being dismantled and the young men of the village joined forces to bring one of these huts back to the village and reconstruct it behind the Corner House.
The hut provided a hub for the village for some 60 years, but it was not of particularly sound construction and showing signs of its age. It was decided that the hut should be replaced and plans were drawn up.
The Bluebell Walk and Farm Trail was, by this time, well established and a significant portion of the money needed to build a new hall was raised through the Bluebell Walk. Also at the time, Jess’s three remaining brothers lived at Woodside and on their deaths, they bequeathed a significant amount of money to the building of the new hall.
Building started in 1987 and had reached eaves height with the wooden joists in place ready for battening and tiling the roof when the great storm of October 1987 struck. The storm that Thursday night, famously mis-forecasted by Michael Fish, caused significant damage to the unfinished roof. The roof structure had to be removed and replaced and hall was finally opened in 1988. There is a plaque on the back wall of the hall to the memory of Jess.
The new hall has since been the venue for many a village function and is available for rent for private functions too. There are many regular clubs and groups using the hall, details of which will be found on this website. Take a look at what’s on for forthcoming events
Our address
Our address is Arlington Village Hall, The Street, Arlington, East Sussex BN26 6RX.
