Village entertainment is provided at The Coronation Hall, which is well sited near to the roundabout by the River Ure and provides facilities for a number of the villages to the north of the river.

For further information please contact the Bookings Secretary.

Booking information and prices call:

John Brookes Tel: 01423 324345

The Yorkshire Post Article

·  Published Date: 11 June 2006

Full steam ahead at village that went off the rails

Losing their railway station set one community off on a different track.
Chris Berry reports.

Many lament the passing of the age of steam and the breakdown of rural rail services but one community has made the closures work for them.
Milby, Kirby Hill and Langthorpe lost their railway station in 1950 (Boroughbridge Station on Milby Road just outside of the town and over the River Ure boundary) and opened their new village hall, on the site of the old station, in the year Queen Elizabeth acceded to the throne.
The Coronation Hall at Milby served its purpose. Les Gill, a retired farmer from Langthorpe, says: "Our old hall was well supported for 43 years, but it didn't have much in the way of facilities. You could just about hold a dance for 60 people but it had been thought of more as a meeting room than a function centre.
"It consisted of two wooden huts, ex-army, from St George's Field in York."
When Harrogate council said the hall didn't meet health and safety standards it was time to move on and build another.
"We felt it was a waste of time spending money on the old building so we started raising funds back in 1992," says Les. "It ended up costing £268,000. If we had mentioned that figure in the first place I don't think we would have ever got started.
"Redland Aggregates owned the land that we needed for the new building, so I approached them and they ended up giving us it for £1. That was our first bit of good luck, and we then knew we had something to work with.
"What it meant was that we could still use the old hall while the new one was being built, so we didn't lose anyone who was using our facilities and we were still able to fundraise using the old hall. We ended up raising £40,000 from our communities themselves."
Still a long way short of what was to be the final figure but Les and his team had also attracted £60,000 by way of grants from various local bodies and further afield. That still left £168,000 to find.
They applied to the Lottery but were turned down. Undeterred they reapplied. "It said the same thing as we had put before, it was just the way we said it that was different. The Lottery people rang through to tell me that we had been successful. I was over the moon. I finally knew that we could get on with the building work."
Les pays tribute to the many people involved, but singles out two for particular praise – Eddie Bradley and Steve Marklew, a retired bank manager. "Eddie was our construction engineer. He was so good that every single element of the building work was passed first time, without
a hitch. We are also very grateful to Severfield Reeve who took just six months to build the hall, and finished exactly on time."
The project's progress featured in a regular newsletter delivered to everyone in the three parishes keeping in touch with everyone who might be interested.
Two years ago the Yorkshire Rural Community Council hosted its village hall conference here – an ideal opportunity for Les and his fellow committee members to show off their pride and joy which is only a matter of yards away from Boroughbridge, with its burgeoning population. "Milby, Kirby Hill and Langthorpe are separate to Boroughbridge and we like to keep it that way. We have our

own parish councils and make our own decisions."
When I arrived there was the happy sound of children playing in the purpose-built facilities of the Applejacks nursery school and indeed as soon as you set foot into the building itself you cannot fail to be impressed.
Les, chairman of the management committee for the past 20 years, is at the hall nearly every morning, setting it up for the day's activity. He shows me the hall booking plan which looks to me as though it is pretty much booked solid. "We certainly have a full programme of activity and we have a fantastic management committee who make sure the wheels keep turning."
They are already considering an extension to the hall, providing another general purpose room. As well as the nursery school, drama group and dance group the hall is also home to the local Women's Institute, Cubs, Scouts, Brownies, Guides, yoga and art classes, and indoor bowls.
It also hosts country and western concerts, belly dancers (yes, you read correctly!), a vintage motorcycle club, cycle clubs and a bird auction.
This is one village hall that has managed to go full steam ahead in providing an amenity that can be used by all and although it may no longer be on track, it's rolling along very well.