Berners Hall

Berners Hall is a reading room and attached cottage, now a village hall, dating to 1887. It was likely designed by JP St.Aubyn and HJ Wadling. The building is constructed of red brick with a brick plinth and tile hanging to the cottage, featuring a plain tile roof, ornamental cresting tiles, and gable finials. Brick stacks are located on the left cross gable of the hall, the main ridge far right, and the rear gable of the cottage. It is executed in a restrained Arts and Crafts style.

The hall is a single storey, connected to a single-storey-and-attic cottage. The long range has a projecting cross gable to the left, containing a small bellcote, while the main range features a projecting porch and the cottage gable facing outward. The building has a six-window range, with wooden mullion windows, and many incorporate transoms. The majority of the windows are 3- and 4-lights, featuring fine leaded-light casements with coloured glass in the narrow margins. A plank door is set in the re-entrant angle of the hall’s cross wing. A double-leaved plank Gothic arched door is at the front of the porch, flanked by small windows. The cottage has a 4-light and a single-light casement, and a 4-light casement above, framed by tile hanging. A similar window with two transoms is found on the left end of the hall. A further 3-light and 4-light window with transom and similar glazing is located on the rear wall, alongside a single-storey, 20th-century flat-roofed extension. A projecting arched recess, with a pentice roof and a small 20th-century door within, is located at the right end of the building. There is a 4-light window to the cottage’s first floor gable.

The interior of the hall features an open roof with exposed rafters, purlins, and wood and metal ties, along with a stage at one end behind a proscenium arch.

The hall was commissioned by the Berners family and is a carefully considered design where the fine glazing is a key feature. St.Aubyn and Wadling were also undertaking a major rebuilding of the local church at the time, and may have designed this hall in conjunction with that project, potentially as a temporary church. It subsequently served as a reading room, with an integral caretaker's cottage indicating this intended use. In the 20th century, the hall was used as a men’s club before becoming the village hall it is today.