Ecton Village Youth Club Building

Ecton Village Hall before the refurbishment which was completed in 2004

The building now known as Ecton Village Hall was originally built as a Youth Club Building for the children of the village. Following the sale of Ecton House by the church, the village lost the use of Ecton House as a Village Hall. It was neccessary to invest in the Youth Club building to make it suitable to be used as a Village Hall. Many people have worked very hard and spent a lot of time in trying to achieve this aim and we applaud all their hard work and relentless dedication. Due to their dedication we now have a Village Hall to be proud of.

The original Ecton Youth Club building, which took nine and a half years to complete, was officially opened by Sir Hereward Wake. The club first opened in 1963 but had not got a building so meetings had been held in the front room of President Mrs. Jan Wetherall’s house. Due to technical hold ups, the club built until this year.Chairman, Mr. George Allinson, said that the club, which cost £9,000, was in debt.

“We still require a lot of money to meet our bills and equip the building.” he said. The cost was subsidised by a grant from the Department of Education and Science and a grant from the local authority, and 25% of the costs was raised by voluntary organizations.

Sir Hereward Wake praised the work of the Ecton people in getting the club built. “This is a wonderful club and obviously, a lot of work has gone in to building it” he said.

Present at the opening of the club was Mr. Harry Whittaker- Director of the Northamptonshire Association of Youth Clubs, and Mr. Don Ward, Youth Officer for Northamptonshire County Council.