New Hartley, Northumberland
Hartley Memorial Hall
Last Updated:
25 Nov 2024
New Hartley, Northumberland
This is a
Concert Hall, Memorial
55.083702, -1.518122
Founded in
Current status is
Extant
Designer (if known):
Clayton Greene
Still in use
Hartley Memorial Hall - an outstanding bit of 20s pit village architecture built in tribute to the locals who lost their lives during WWI. 42 of the 235 who enlisted in New Hartley died - a tragedy when the village was still recovering from the pit disaster 55 years prior.
It was paid for through a deductible from local pitmens wages and was completed in 1926. Though its official opening wasn’t until February 1927, it still held concerts here to raise funds for the Hartley Soup Kitchen, based here, during the general strike when most of the men here withheld their labour. Depressed wages and dire working conditions led to it being called by the TUC. It’s quite apt a hall they paid for came to their need in the same year it was built.
It was “officially” opened on the 27th February 1927, and went on to hold village concerts and functions. The concert hall had an intended capacity of 484 and was designed by Clayton Greene of Sunderland. His work is mainly set in his home city - Hammerton House at Ashbrooke and St Gabriel’s on Chester Road are both his creations as well as many dwellings in the city. It also went on to be a "British Restaurant" during WWII - ie communal kitchens for those who had been bombed out of their homes. They were essentially soup kitchens to serve the fundamentals for those in need.
I do get big arts and crafts vibes from this building, but I think that only pops in my head because of the paint scheme and the lovely sign above the door.
Listing Description (if available)
Both Ordnance Survey maps shown illustrate New Hartley between the 40s and 60s. This was well after the sweeping transformation and developments here, with St Michael's Avenue probably the last major project in the village. You'll notice on the 1940s map that there were still minor remains of the pit rows from the Hester days - Cross Row appears to be the only one with the rest dwellings built in the 20s and 30s. It was a total reinvention of a settlement mostly depleted of its original industrial purpose.
The Hester shaft was originally in the back garden of a street at Hester Gardens, but since its own memorial park.
A step back to the 1890s now, just to give an idea of how much this place changed in the first few decades of the 20th century. The hall was yet to be built as well as St Michael's Avenue, with the road ends occupied by an infant school and part of the row on Melton Terrace. Barely any of this is still here bar the Roman Catholic chapel built in 1895 and the Hester shaft itself.
The Memorial Hall and a relatively fresh paint job in October 2024.
