Salle Memorial Hall

Salle Memorial Hall

A memorial village hall built in 1929 to the designs of Edward Boardman, constructed in red brick laid in English bond with brick dressings and a pantile roof.

The building follows a long rectangular plan, with the main hall positioned at the north-east end and catering facilities and WCs at the south-west end. It is a single-storey structure designed in picturesque Tudor style.

The exterior features a steeply pitched roof with cogging at the eaves, decorative cresting, and kneelered crow-stepped gables topped with saddleback coping and a roll moulding along the ridge. The entrance is approached through a low bay on the north-east gable front, which has a lean-to roof with kneelered crow-stepping on each side and a central projecting crow-stepped gable. The recessed double-leaf vertical plank door is reached via two semi-circular steps laid in a decorative brick pattern. The doorway features rusticated brick quoins and a depressed three-centred arch of brick headers with a narrow hoodmould. Above the door is a rectangular stone plaque with a segmental top and decorative border, inscribed "IN MEMORIAM 1914-1918 LYNTON WHITE INSTITUTE". The doorway is flanked by two-light casement windows with lozenge-shaped metal glazing bars and straight brick arches. Below the right-hand window is a rectangular stone plaque inscribed "THIS STONE WAS LAID ON ARMISTICE DAY IN 1929 BY LADY WHITE" and naming the architect Edward Boardman. The gable head displays a carved stone plaque bearing the White family's coat of arms.

The main hall element is divided into five bays by lesenes, with the third lesene on the south-east side rising into a square chimney stack with oversailing brick courses. The bays are lit by large six-light casement windows with lozenge metal glazing bars and a transome.

The south-west gable end contains the catering facilities projection, which has a hipped roof and a square chimney stack rising from its south-west end. This projection is lit on the north-west side by a six-light window matching those on the main hall, and on the south-east side by an eight-light window and a vertical plank door on the left. Attached to the south-west end of the hipped projection is an extension, presumably added in the mid-20th century to provide WCs. This extension has a crenellated parapet with capping matching the crow-stepped gables. It is lit on the north-west side by two single-light casements and on the south-west end by a centrally placed single-light casement. To the left of this window is a blocked doorway, and further left is a vertical plank door with a segmental brick arch.

The interior remains in near-original condition. The entrance porch floor is laid in large red and white quarry tiles. The double-leaf doors have three panels below—two vertical and one horizontal—and four glazed panels above, with brass drop handles. All joinery is unpainted. Horizontal wooden mounts for coat pegs remain on the right-hand side only.

The main hall features a segmental arch-shaped ceiling with wide ribs marking the bays and a moulded wooden cornice, wooden floorboards, and dado panelling with fillets. The brick fireplace opening on the south-east side has been blocked. The south-west end is panelled to door height with a narrow raised platform flanked by five-panelled doors—one panel in each corner with a horizontal one between them. These doors are used throughout the building.

The door on the right leads to the kitchen, which retains the quarry tiled floor and a tall built-in dresser/cupboard with panelled doors. The door on the left opens into a small room with wooden floorboards, panelling to mid-height, and a central beam with a roll moulding. This room contains a corner brick fireplace, also blocked, and two doors in the south-west wall leading to the WCs.