Birgham Community Development Trust

The "accommodation" currently comprises an entrance vestibule, main hall with a wooden floor, two separate toilets and a fully equipped kitchen. Externally, we have a car park and storage sheds.

The village hall was originally as the village school and it is attached to the former school house (now one of several B&Bs in the village). The school closed in 1960 when the local County Council deemed it to be too expensive to make the building conform to the standards for primary schools. The closure seems to have coincided with the retiral of the only teacher, Mrs Rolph. The pupils were transferred to Coldstream Primary School, which is still the school for local children. Local recollection suggests that pupil numbers were in the range of 19-20 for the 4 years prior to closure.

A couple of notes found in old education minutes from around the time of closure record that:

    December 1957: £20 was provided by the Council to purchase a wireless set for the school.

     February 1958: There were complaints about problems with the school heating (still something of an issue with the hall) which were to be addressed in the following Financial Year. Whether this ever happened is not indicated.

On early 2010, Scottish Borders Council "sold" the village hall to Birgham Community Development Trust.  This was designed to try and make it more attractive to grant funders to allow us to upgrade the hall.  The jury is still out on that one!