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Drill Halls in Worcestershire

23rd October 2015

Following our successful Home Front Legacy training day, John Madden, one of our course attendees drew our attention to some work that has been done on drill halls.  

John told us that:

'...The Geograph website has been recording surviving WW1 Drill Halls as part of a nationwide project. So far 90% have been photographed.'

The Worcestershire halls can be found below.

geograph.org.uk/article/WW1-Great-War-Centenary---Drill-Halls/12#worcestershire

This extract from the website explains the significance of the buildings:

'...Drill halls were built from 1860 for the local Rifle Volunteer Corps funded by public subscription or local benefactors. This became more formalised with the 1863 Volunteer Act. The units required a secure armoury and place to train. Initially this may have been found in the town hall, corn exchange, school, chapel or large house and a number of facilities were purpose built.

The Cardwell Act of the 1880s aligned the units as Volunteer Battalions of County Regiments whilst the Haldane Act of 1908 disbanded the Volunteers and set up the Territorial Force with funding through County Territorial Associations. A further surge in hall building occurred in the immediate pre-war period with some of the previously used hired halls falling out of use.

The Drill Hall provided indoor training facilities typically 80ft by 40ft, offices, an armoury, indoor rifle range and accommodation for an instructor or caretaker.

Southfield Drill Hall in Worcester

Remnant of boundary wall to Drill Hall compound - Southfield Street

Complete with round tethering hooks for horses. The Drill Hall was used by the Worcestershire Yeomanry and Royal Field Artillery in 1914.

Former Drill Hall - Southfield Street

This building and terrace appear on the 1904 mapping but not on the 1887 version.

The building in the foreground appears to be associated with the drill hall complex completing the range of pre-1887 buildings on two sides of a courtyard. A blank shield on the gable end offers no clues to function. The earlier buildings have been replaced by housing though opposite boundary wall still has a series of tethering rings for horses.

Drill Halls as community buildings were often constructed near town centres andcontinue to be lost to redevelopment. Cuts in local government funding and unsuitability to meet needs for modern facilities has put pressure to demolish or sell the halls. Some buildings are listed but many are of little architectural merit. There are good examples of re-use of buildings but for many the only acknowledgement is a street name in a housing development.

The 1914-1918 Great War centenary marks an opportunity to record the remaining examples.'

For further information and county list see http://www.drillhalls.org/index.htm

Reference:

Always Ready - The Drill Halls of Britain's Volunteer Force by Mike Osborne (Partizan Press, 2006)

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