The following brief history of St. James's Hall, Long Bennington by Geoffrey Swallow was first  published as part of celebration of the opening of the re-built St. James's Hall in 1989

In 1890 Mrs.Maria Susanna Grote, who lived at Long Bennington Manor, defrayed the cost of building two separate halls ... St. James's Hall and the smaller Reading Room ... on the site belonging to her, in the south-east corner of the Manor Field adjacent to the Great North Road. Messrs. Isaac Dixon & Co. of Liverpool were commissioned to build St..James's Hall at the cost of £650. Then known as St. James’s Church it was dedicated and opened on 25th July 1890 and was often referred to as “the Iron Church” because of its corrugated iron exterior construction. It was built in an ecclesiastical style with belfy and bell, and was intended for holding church services and social gatherings. The Reading Room was also built with a corrugated iron exterior and was used for meetings and occasions of an educational and recreational nature.

On 24th April  1900 Mrs Grote marricd the Revd. C. Joyce and was henceforth known as Mrs. Grote-Joyce. While she was alive the buildings remained in her ownership and were  used as intended. But she was always desirous that the site and the buildings should be handed over to nominated Trustees to he held in trust for purpose beneficial to thc inhabitants of Long Bennington. In 1921 the executors of her will conveyed the land and the two buildings to three Trustees. In the indenture dated 17th August 1921 St. lames’s Church was described as the “The Iron Church" and it was stated that from that time onward it should be known as St.James’s Hall to be used as a village hall or church.  The original Trustees were Arthur Delavel Younghusband, Robert Mills and Gertrude Mary Bingham

Until 1970 the administration and upkeep of the two buildings remained the responsibility of the original Trustees and their successors in office. In the period 1966 to 1970 a Village Hall Improvement Committee was established to raise funds for improving the facilities and furniture in both buildings. This body functioned with the full approval and co-operation of the then Trustees. By 1970 sufficient money had been raised, together with grants, to improve St.James’s Hall and to build the intercommunicating link between the separate buildings, incorporating a new main entrance, kitchen and toilets.

The Department of Education and Science published a Scheme on 17th April 1970 to establish a Long Bennington Village Hall Management  Committee as a charity under the terms of Section 18 of the Charities Act 1960. This Scheme is based on the Reading Room and the main entrance block and does non include St. James's Hall and the land on which it stands. Long Bennington Parish Council became the Custodian Trustees of the nominated buildings and land covered by the Scheme.

Because of certain conditions of an ecclesiastical nature in the 1921 Trust document relating to St.James’s Hall it was not possible to include it in the 1970 D.E.S. Scheme. So St.James's Hall continued, and still continues, to be held in trust by the St.James’s Hall Trustees. But it was agreed by all parties in 1970, after taking legal advice, that the Trustees (Freda M. Baggaley, Robert A. Drury and Geoffrey Swallow) had the power to lease the Hall to Long Bennington Parish Council for it to be used, along with other buildings on the site, as a total village hall complex to be administered by the newly formed Village Hall Management Committee. A document was signed on 27th November 1970 leasing St.James’s Hall to the Parish Council for a period of 21 years* at an annual rental of 75 pence (15 shillings, old currency) This arrangement has worked well since 1970.

The fire damage to St. James's Hall on Friday 8th May 1987 occurred during the period of lease to the Parish ish Council. Since the fire there has been whole-hearted co-operation to rebuild the Hall to modern standards (and to raise the necessary finance for this purpose to augment payments from the insurers) between The Village Hall Management Committee, The Parochial Church Council, The Parish Council, The Trustees of St James's Hall, Lincolnshire County Council, South Kesteven District Council, The Community Council of Lincoinshire and many other organisations and individuals.

*editors note: the lease has since been renewed  

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