A little history
The Village Hall formerly known as "The Club" was built in 1907 by William Carver of Cranage Hall for his family and his employees. It is a substantial and picturesque building with a most interesting internal beam arrangement in the roof, originally it incorporated a social room, a billiard room and a caretaker's cottage. The Carvers sold Cranage Hall in the 1930's when it became a hospital for people with learning difficulties. In 1947, the Club was given in trust to the residents of Cranage, eventually it was renamed Cranage Village Hall because "Club" status was no longer applicable. If at any time the building ceases to function as a Village Hall it is to be sold and the proceeds given to the YMCA in Manchester.
In 1958, in order to make the Hall more usable and versatile, the central wall in the main hall was removed and a temporary building was erected to provide toilets and a kitchen. In 1975, when a Playgroup opened, this area was connected to the back door of the main building by an enclosed walkway, which became the main entrance to the Hall from the car park at the rear.
The temporary building, which was rescued from Cranage airfield after WW2 was by this time showing signs of deterioration, becoming difficult and expensive to maintain. In order to comply with ever more stringent safety regulations, the 1990's saw considerable changes made; the former caretaker’s cottage was used to provide a comprehensive new kitchen, cloakroom area and toilets. The temporary building continued to deteriorate and was eventually demolished. New storage rooms were built with money raised by the Village Hall.
Looking ahead we aim to continue raising monies through bookings, grant funding and event hosting in order to drive further improvements to the hall and hopefully one day to add a new function room to better serve the community.
