The Hall

A Memory of Raunds.

The Hall had three impacts on my life. Firstly the library was open there on Mondays and Thursdays and for many years I visited on both as I was an insatiable reader. You began with one ticket but eventually managed to persuade the librarian to give you two. On Mondays,you were supposed to have one fiction and one non fiction book, but the librarian on Thursdays was much nicer and let you have two story books.
The optician Mr Rixon was also there on Thursdays so from the age of ten I visited him once a year. At the beginning you sat in a big old arm chair to have your test but one year, he'd gone high tech. and had a proper metal chair. I wasn't keen at first as this looked too much like the dentists.
The Hall Grounds were wonderful in the 1950s and early 1960s. What a pity so much of them has been built on. We used to go down on summer Sunday evenings to listen to the Town Band and some summers, a United Charities fete was held there. As Brownies we used to sell crisps and fizzy drinks, spruce we called it. There were side shows and games, fancy dress parades and one year even a proper fairground roundabout. We had a wonderful time.
The event didn't stay at the Hall Grounds for many years, eventually moving up to the field at the top of Windmill Avenue where there was more space but this lacked the charm of the flower filled gardens.