Gralix Hall

History of the Hall

Date	Event	Further Information
1851	The building was opened as a National School.	The National School
31/3/1908	The school was closed	Closure of the school
20/4/1954	The P.C.C. resolved to inquire into the ownership of the hall – at the request of the Parish Council.	PCC Minutes
8/6/1954	The P.C.C. agreed to accept a quote of £150 for the purchase of the Church Room and Cottage.	PCC Minutes
1/10/1954	The P.C.C. agreed to pay £150 for the Hall + £10 which is outstanding rent for the the cottage. Rev. Gray to write proposing this payment of £160.	PCC Minutes
7/10/1954	Richard Preston (Diocesan Solicitor) says he is “doing his best” to obtain consents to sell the School and Schoolhouse to the P.C.C. for £125.	Letter
2/11/1954	The Minister of Education approved the sale of the Hall and Schoolhouse for a sum of £125.	Report to PCC from Diocese 29/7/2019
15/11/1954	The P.C.C. agreed to pay a deposit on the Church Room.	PCC minutes
6/12/1954	The Diocesan Board of Finance acknowledged receipt of £2. 2s. 0d. as “fee on acceptance of trust”. There are no supporting documents to explain this payment.	Letter
2/5/1955	The Diocesan solicitor received £150 for the purchase of the school and schoolhouse. [This statement is in a summary transcription of the records and is at odds with the entry below for 3/5/55. The latter references the actual documents.]	Report to PCC from Diocese 29/7/2019
3/5/1955	Receipts for 3 cheques, each described as being “in part payment of purchase money for Deopham School & School House”:- £50 from The Revd H. W. H. Gray; £50 from W. A. Allen Esqr; £25 from Deopham Parochial Church Council. These receipts were issued by Norwich Diocesan Board of Finance.	Receipts
5/5/1955	Covering letter for the three receipts.	Letter
7/6/1955	A tripartite conveyance was made between: 1) The Diocese as selling agent; 2) The Diocese as representative of the PCC and 3) The P.C.C. as Managing Trustees.	Report to PCC from Diocese 29/7/2019
13/01/1978	The Diocesan solicitor confirmed that the Diocese in 1955 had “conveyed the property in a sense to itself”.	Report to PCC from Diocese 29/7/2019
6/10/1978	Sale of schoolhouse for £4,500	PCC Minutes of 20/11/1978
16/11/1978	The Diocese sold the schoolhouse in conjunction with the P.C.C.	Report to PCC from Diocese 29/7/2019
1/3/1979	Planning application submitted for construction of toilets	EDP
27/4/1979	PCC was advised that planning permission for toilets and for water in the kitchen had been granted.	PCC Minutes 27/4/1979
12/11/1980	The Diocese agreed that the net proceeds from the sale of the schoolhouse could be used to effect improvements to the Hall.	Report to PCC from Diocese 29/7/2019
1983-5	Ongoing discussions about boundaries between the Hall and the schoolhouse indicate that the Diocese was still the legal owner of the Hall.	Report to PCC from Diocese 29/7/2019
10/06/85	A deed of rectification was agreed between the Diocese and the owners of the schoolhouse to correct boundary definitions. This indicates that the Diocese were the legal owners of the Hall.	Report to PCC from Diocese 29/7/2019
16/07/07	The Hall was registered at the Land Registry by the Diocese in the name of the Diocesan Board of Finance (this was just after the purchase of the schoolhouse by M^r & M^rs Boniwell).	H.M. Land Registry

Bingo in the Hall

At the PCC meeting on May 29^th 1964 there was a discussion concerning whether or not Bingo and drinking should be allowed to take place in the Gralix Hall.
The Bishop of Thetford¹ was invited to the following meeting, which has been minuted as follows:

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF DEOPHAM PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL HELD AT THE CHURCH ROOMS DEOPHAM ON WEDNESDAY JULY 29 1964

Present:-
Rev A. Castle
M^r W.A. Allen
M^r P. Morton
M^r Downes
M^r Jones
Miss Woods
Miss Cudmore
M^r R. Allen
The R^t Rev. The Bishop of Thetford (by Invitation)

The Bishop of Thetford was welcomed by the Rev Castle.
The minutes of the previous meeting were read, confirmed & signed.
The Chairman invited the Bishop of Thetford to address the meeting on the subject of the use of the church room. The Bishop of Thetford stated that the legal² position regarding the use of the church room was that the P.C.C. had the right & duty to decide for what purposes the hall should be used. Having stated the legal position, the Bishop went on to explain that there were moral issues involved also & that it was the duty of the P.C.C. to weigh these carefully in coming to any decision & to listen to advice given by the vicar. On the particular issue as to whether or not the church hall should be used for Bingo the Bishop stated that he agreed with the vicar that this would not be a desirable activity & he would not recommend the P.C.C. to allow the hall to be used for that purpose. In his view, the P.C.C. should not encourage games of chance like Bingo.
A lengthy discussion followed at which several P.C.C. members put forward reasons for using the hall for such a purpose. These reasons included the need to raise finance, the desire to restore a more congenial atmosphere in the village, the desire to obtain the cooperation of all people in the village in the affairs of the church itself & in its social activities.
The Bishop appreciated the views put forward & stated it was the duty of the P.C.C. to come to a decision on the matter weighing carefully all the issues at stake. After further discussion, it was agreed to defer a decision until the next meeting.
The vicar then thanked the Bishop for attending the meeting.

The next meeting of the PCC took place on September 11^th 1964. Those in attendance were:

Rev Castle Chairman, M^r Morton, M^r Wilkinson, M^r Jones, M^r W.Allen, M^r R. Allen, Miss Woods, M^rs Cudmore, M^rs Grand.

Item 4, Church Rooms, was minuted as follows:

It was proposed that the Church Room be used for Bingo. This was agreed by the P.C.C. (Rev Castle dissenting).

Notice in the Hall

The following is the text of a notice displayed in the hall (as at November 2022) written by Michael Allen:-

The Hall was built as a Church School in 1851 for 84 children.

The School was closed by 1908 and subsequently used as a Church Room for Sunday School, Meetings and Social Events.

The Church Room, together with the former school house adjoining, was sold by the diocese in 1954, and purchased on behalf of the Parochial Church Council by the Vicar, the Rev. Harold Gray, and his two Church Wardens, Mr. W. A. Allen and Mr. W. Phoenix.

As the result of The Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1956 and The Parochial Incumbents and Churchwardens (Trusts) Measure 1964, the PCC could no longer hold interests in property. The PCC’s interests became vested with the Diocesan Board of Finance.

In 1978 when the cottage fell into a state of disrepair and was condemned as being unfit for habitation, a meeting of PCC members and other interested parties from the village was called to gauge support for retaining and improving the hall.

As a result of this meeting a joint management committee was formed of PCC members and others from the parish.

The PCC recommended to the Diocese that the cottage should be sold, and requested that the sale proceeds be given to the management committee to fund the provision of modern toilet facilities. This was agreed.

At this time it was decided to rename the hall. The name chosen incorporates the names of the three benefactors:
GRay, ALlen and PhoenIX
GRALIX

Developments that didn’t happen

There are some interesting architectural drawings of proposals for enhancing the Gralix Hall. These are available here.

Footnotes

The Bishop of Thetford at this time was the Rev. Eric Cordingly. He had been sent to Singapore during WWII as a chaplain to the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. Not long after, he was taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese and was sent to work in Thailand on the Burma Railway. His diary Down to Bedrock was published posthumously. ↩︎
It will be noticed that no basis for this “legal” assessment is supplied. ↩︎

Date	Change
29/4/24	Developments that didn’t happen
28/11/23	1978 sale of school room & 27/4/1979 planning permission
23/11/23	Bingo added
14/6/23	Removed duplication of sign photo
29/9/22	Published