Sir Robert Harvey Memorial Hall

Sir Robert Harvey Memorial Hall

A village hall built in 1933 by the architectural practice Cowell, Drewitt & Wheatly, commissioned by Robert Alexander Harvey in memory of his father Sir Robert Harvey (1847-1930). The building is constructed of concrete and steel with rough cement render and Delabole slate roofs, supplemented by stone and slate details. Fireplaces are built of rubble stone with brick and slate detailing. The building incorporates timber joinery including panelling, partitioning, doors and balustrades, with metal casement windows set in timber frames.

The plan is L-shaped, forming two adjoining halls with service rooms and conveniences positioned between them. The main north-south hall has a storage loft at its north end and a first-floor projection booth at the south end.

The exterior design employs local materials in an Arts and Crafts idiom, characterised by deep half-hipped roofs covered in Delabole slate. The walls, clad in thick rough render, are articulated by regularly-spaced buttresses curved in the Voysey style and fitted with slate offsets. The main entrance at the south end of the principal hall is sheltered by a portico with sandstone Doric columns, a vaulted roof, and a slate-hung projection booth above. The upper room features a plank door to the right and a south-facing window.

The west door to the main wing is contained within a full-height projecting porch set within the roofs at the junction of both wings. The doorway has a wide opening formed by slender, polychromatic stone pieces. At lower level in the right jamb sits a granite foundation stone inscribed "THIS STONE WAS LAID BY / AVERIL HARVEY / DECEMBER 23rd 1933". The doorway possesses a deep reveal and a round-arched head beneath a shallow hood with label stops. The two-leaf timber doors are fitted with cast-iron decorative strap hinges. Two riven, patterned stone steps lead to the entrance. In the gable above is a narrow single-light opening with slender stone jambs, stone cill and lintel, flanked by stone kneelers at the eaves.

The west gable of the smaller wing also features a door under a round arch formed by five sets of triple stone pieces serving as voussoirs to the head. This door has plain strap hinges and a three-light opening positioned above.

Across both wings are slate vents at ground level and angled slate cills to the windows. Three tall rendered stacks rise to the roofs.

Interior of Main Hall

The main hall is spanned by five exposed arch-braced trusses decorated with roses, foliage and patterned painting to both faces and underside. The south-facing trusses are inscribed with the initials "RH" for Robert Harvey. The trusses rest on stepped corbels, similarly painted with roses (though those at the north end have been overpainted). Above the metal-studded door at the south end are openings in the gable: one for a projector and one allowing the projectionist to view from the hall.

The east wall contains a wide stone fireplace with a flared smokehood clad in slate and supported on tile stacks above a brick hearth. The substantial bressumer above the fireplace is inscribed: "THIS HALL WAS ERECTED FOR THE PEOPLE OF GRAMPOUND ROAD / IN MEMORY OF SIR ROBERT HARVEY KT. 1847-1930 / BY HIS SON ROBERT ALEXANDER HARVEY OF TRENOWTH".

At the north end stands a modern stage with re-set 1930s balustrades on each side. A ladder provides access to upper doors leading to a lofted storage area. At ground-floor level at the north end are a modern kitchen and storage area.

A rear corridor accessed from the storage area serves a back door, former coal cupboard and toilets screened by timber-panelled partitions that form cloakrooms with pegs. This corridor connects with the lobby from the west door of the main hall, which has double doors glazed above leading back into the hall.

Interior of Smaller Hall

To the west lies the smaller hall, spanned by three open trusses resting on stepped corbels. A fireplace in the north wall has stone detailing and a slate hearth, with built-in windowseats flanking the hearth on both sides. Most doors throughout the building are original with their original furniture.

Subsidiary Features

In the grounds to the south-west stands a well with handpump, sheltered by a conical roof covered in Delabole slate and supported on four round columns of rubble stone. The base of the well is paved.