The History of Pickering's Memorial Hall
Standing on the edge of Pickering Beck, the building (it's on the right in the photograph, closest to the bridge and with a tall chimney) was first constructed in 1865 as a steam powered corn mill, but in 1919, after the end of the First World War, Pickering Urban District Council (the predecessor of Pickering Town Council) asked to buy the mill in order to convert it into a Memorial Hall, dedicated to those people from Pickering who had fallen in “The Great War”.
In fact, the mill’s owner, Arthur Kitching, gave the mill to the council for free, and the council then paid the princely sum of £3,736, raised by public subscription, to convert it into “The Memorial Hall”.
On 26th April 1922, after nearly three years' of work, the Hall was opened. Amongst its early facilities was the Kirk Museum (which moved to York in 1933) and even some public baths. An indoor swimming pool was installed in 1930.
As the years passed, more facilities for the town were added; they included reading rooms, the county library and, during the Second World War, a “British Restaurant”.
On Christmas Eve in 1943, nearly 300 children from Pickering attended a party in the Memorial Hall, at the invitation of the Welsh Guards, who were based at their camp in the grounds of Pickering Castle.
As well as a Christmas tree, the Hall had been decorated with murals of Father Christmas on his sleigh, children ice-skating and children eating cakes. On either side of the stage were large painted wooden panels 10 feet high, depicting caricatures of Welsh Guardsmen, one oval-nosed, the other round-nosed.
The idea of this Christmas party to lift the spirits of the town's children had been suggested by a young officer of the Welsh Guards, the famous artist Reginald John Whistler, known as Rex, who found himself “decorating the hall, engaging conjurors and generally making preparations to entertain about 250/300 little troglodytes on Christmas Eve,” (as he described the children in a letter he wrote to a friend). Indeed, he was still painting as the children arrived, to be entertained by a Punch and Judy Show, a visit by Father Christmas and the Band of the Welsh Guards. Whistler's painting of children eating cakes is, fortunately, still to be seen in the Memorial Hall, in the Whistler Hall which bears his name. His two Guardsmen panels can be found in the Beck Isle Museum opposite the Hall.
Whistler deployed to Normandy with his battalion shortly after D Day in June 1944. He was killed in action a month later, on 18th July 1944, and is buried near the town of Caen.
Rex Whistler (self portrait and (front centre) with his tank crew before D Day)
In the 1950s, the appearance of the hall changed dramatically. Steps that had led from Potter Hill up to the first floor were removed and the present circular façade was added at a cost of £3,900.
Further major works were carried out in the late 1990s and, at that stage, Pickering Town Council moved offices from the back of the building to where we now find them in the circular frontage above the front door. During these works, the old swimming pool was filled in and spaces such as the Whistler Hall (named, of course, after Rex Whistler) were created.
Major works in the 1990s to demolish the council offices, fill in the swimming pool and build what is now the Whistler Hall
On the side of the converted mill, installed in 1922 and added to in the 1940s, is a large memorial tablet to the town’s fallen of both world wars, around which we still gather each November to pay our respects. Inside the entrance are two smaller plaques dedicated to the memory of the town's fallen of World War 1.
