This hall, between the terrace of shops and houses (nos. 1-7 Court Street) and Coppelia House, started as the Gordon Hall, built in 1895 for the YWCA, then became a private school run by Miss Warner. In 1936 Dr Glynn Jones, Mr Harry Rihll and Major G.K. Keane started a boys’ club there. During the 1939-45 war it was used as the headquarters for the Home Guard and Army Cadet Force and for issue of ration books etc. In 1956 a club for old people was started there at the instigation of Matron Lee and Sister Haffield of the Convalescent Home, Rev. A.D. Coleridge, and Dr. W.D. Glynn Jones, and this became the Over-60’s Club. In 1992 it was reopened after a £15,000 facelift. Floors, ceilings and inside walls were replaced, central heating installed, and new toilets and a kitchen fitted.
An article in the Herald Express on Tuesday Sept 15, 1992, records that:
“Moretonhampstead’s 97-year-old community hall has been reopened after a £15,000 facelift. Parish council chairman Robin Peardon performed the reopening ceremony after a refurbishment which has seen the inside of the hall completely transformed. Floors, ceilings and inside walls have all been replaced, central heating installed, new toilets and a kitchen fitted.
Much of the £15,000 cost of the work has been raised by the Moretonhampstead Community Club management committee. They were helped by a £7,500 grant from Teignbridge Rural Aid and a further £1,000 from the parish council. The council has also given the committee a £3,000 loan so that work could be carried out quickly. Several events have already been held to help raise the money to pay back the loan. The re-opening ceremony alone brought in almost £750.
Committee secretary George Friend said the hall had not been refurbished for around 30 years. ‘It was a bit drab so we decided to redecorate it and it was only then that we discovered it was all full of woodworm’, he said. Work on the interior of the building is now complete, but the committee hope to install a ramp for the disabled and repoint the outside brickwork.”