From junior school to Village Hall

Brome Primary School closed its doors as a school on 25th July 1969. Well over 100 years of history as a school ended and Brome & Oakley junior school children transferred to Eye.

In 1970 Brome & Oakley Parish Council agreed to buy the building for £2,250 from the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. The new village hall was to replace the old ‘railway carriage’ sheds on the corner of Buck Lane which had hitherto served as a village hall.

However, Church restrictions meant the management committee itself could not provide a bar selling alcohol. Clearly this would inhibit its social offering. The solution was to set up Brome & Oakley Community Club, a members’ club which would manage the bar. That arrangement survives today.

In 1970 the old school had no modern toilets, no proper kitchen and very little space other than the two classrooms. In addition to raising £2,250 to buy the building over £4,000 was invested in toilets, drainage an oil-fired central heating system to replace the old school’s coke heaters, and the bar and kitchen. In November 1971 Brome & Oakley Village Hall was formally opened by the then MP for Eye, Sir Harwood Harrison.

Since then the hall has played a central part in village social life. It has hosted wedding breakfasts, parties, funerals, formal meetings on local planning and development, birthday, Christmas and New Year celebrations, royal wedding and jubilee parties. It has been home to the British Legion, The Women’s Institute, The Over 60s Club, Mothers’ Union, darts, dominos and table tennis teams. It has seen vigorous tap dancing classes and more serene yoga sessions, arts and crafts lessons and lively debate.

It prospers by the efforts of a number of volunteers who work hard to maintain the venue as the centre of social life in the village. Many have come before them since 1970 and the village owes all of them, past present and future, grateful thanks for making Brome & Oakley a welcoming and friendly place to live.