About the hall

About Stichill Village Hall

Stichill has had a village hall since the early 1960s. The hall was built on its current site with a small outdoor play area for young children added sometime later.

In 2002, following consultation with the community, an improvement plan was drawn up for the hall. Lottery funding was sought and a grant was awarded which enabled the premises to be refurbished. In 2007 the renovated and extended hall was opened. At this time the play area was also moved to the green space opposite the new houses built on Ednam Road.

In 2016 an extension was built to provide increased storage space for equipment that supports activities and events held in the hall.

The hall is used for a wide range of activities including carpet and short mat bowls, Pilates, craft, bridge, art classes, Tai-Chi and a community cinema. It is also used for concerts, quiz nights, children’s parties, BBQs, and the annual church “Summer Fayre”.

The village hall is run by a group of volunteers - the Village Hall Committee.

As was the case with all venues, the hall was closed for most of 2020/21 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It re-opened following Government guidelines as restrictions lifted.

You can keep up to date with what’s happening in the village hall by visiting our web pages at https://sites.google.com/view/stichill and following our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/stichillvillagehall/

Pre village hall days

Like most rural communities the residents of Stichill enjoyed getting together for social activities and events long before there was a dedicated community space in the village.

In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries the church and the school provided the focus and venues for community activities.

Traditionally, the church was used for religious ceremonies.

Outside school hours the school was used for larger gatherings for specific events e.g. when the community met to pay tribute to George Gunn in the late 1800s. The school was also used for adult education classes and by the men of the district for carpet bowling in the early 1900s.

Following the amalgamation of the Parish Church and Cairns Memorial Church in 1938 the Cairns Memorial Church Halls continued to be used by the Women's Guild, the Kirk Session and the Sunday School as well as being used for other meetings and, for a time, it housed a local library. When the Church and the halls were sold alternative premises became available when the stables adjacent to the Parish Church were converted to provide a new church hall.

Between the 2 world wars (1914-18 and 1939-45) the Bowling Club Committee raised funds to purchase a sectional wooden army hut from Dreghorn Barracks in Edinburgh – “The Hut”.

The Hut served as the village hall providing indoor community space where dances and other activities were held.

Bowling was always a popular pastime in Stichill and from the 1920s to the 1980s a Young Men’s Club existed to facilitate social activities for the young men of the district. A branch of the Scottish Women's Rural Institute (SWRI) was formed in Stichill in 1926 and there has been a Women's Guild in Stichill since the 1920s. Over the years Putting the Shot, Bee-keeping and gardening have also been popular leisure activities.

Text adapted from “Stichill Parish - Past and Present” by Margaret Carlow and Derek Ogston