The opening ceremony and unveiling of the Roll of Honour was performed by Right Hon Earl Howe on Saturday 3rd September 1921. More information on the names on the Roll of Honour can be found by CLICKING HERE. The ceremony included the opening of the new entrance to the Recreation Ground and the Main Entrance to the Memorial Hall.
On 23 January 1922 Earl Howe gave a conveyance to Mr J J Sheppard and Mr J N Derbyshire for the eleven acres of land. Later that year these two local dignitaries conveyed the land to the Rev. R A Bidwell and others “upon trusts of a village land and premises situated in Gotham”.
The original Deed and Conveyance sets out the Trust as follows:
“The Trustees shall hold the said premises hereby assured as and for a recreation ground and a site for the village hall which has been erected on the said premises as a memorial to the men of the parish of Gotham who fell in the great war 1914-1918”
In 1953 the Trust Scheme was varied to appoint Gotham Parish Council as sole Trustee, the original Trustees were now deceased.
The Hall was completely re-built in brick in the 1960s, and was officially opened by the oldest resident of the village, 99 year old Mrs Lacey on 16th November 1968.
In the late 1960s the main building was extended under a Government Scheme by adding a self-contained annexe which was to be used as a Youth Centre. The Trustees took on the additional financial burden of maintaining that part of the building, with dwindling usage and income.
In 1974 the Trustees further extended the hall to provide accommodation to be used by the local GPs as a satellite Surgery. This extension also included a room which was rented by the Notts County Council Library Service who had previously used a smaller room in the Hall. This was equipped with purpose-made lockable book cabinets to enable the Librarian to clear and secure the books when the room was needed for other meetings.
In 1999-2000 with a grant aid from Sport England, Foundation for Sports and Arts, Rushcliffe Borough Council and others, a floodlit all-weather Multi-purpose Sports Arena was built on the Recreation Ground for netball, tennis and five-a-side football. The facility is entirely self-funding and runs at a profit.
Numerous attempts were made to re-start the “Youth Club” without success, and for several years the annexe was largely unused. The heating system broke, the hall was dark and unappealing. There were no facilities for the disabled. The area was temporarily used by a Boxing Club until the hall refurbishment in 2009.
In 2003 the Trustees were approached by the Library Service and the Doctors Practice to determine whether any additional floor space could be made available to enable them to offer a wider range of services. This coincided with the Trustees’ discussions on how to improve the facilities to provide the badly-needed accommodation for small clubs and meetings (which were not available in other parts of the building) which they felt could be achieved by re-configuring the floor area of the former Youth Centre, replacing the heating, lighting and plumbing with energy efficient systems, and ensuring that all areas of the facility were accessible for disabled users. The Trustees believed that this solution would enable them to allow more space for the Surgery and Library area, but also re-vitalise the entire amenity which has been central to the well-being of the inhabitants of Gotham.
A long term plan was essential, which started with invaluable help from Prohelp (Business in the Community) through whom we were able to access the necessary legal help to split the Trust from the Parish Council in order to enable the Trustees to become a Charity and apply for grants. The new Trust Scheme commenced on 9th September 2005. The trustees worked hard for several years fundraising and applying for grants to refurbish the hall, which cost about £200,000. The refurbished hall was opened on 28th November 2009 by Mayor of Rushcliffe, Councillor Peter McGowan. The new facilities included a revamped library, multifunction room, meeting room with kitchen attached and a single disabled-access entrance with new toilets. In early 2023 a major fire destroyed the hall, leading to a re-organisation and total rebuild, resulting in the Hall and Doctors Surgery becoming separate.
The Hall re-opened in the Spring of 2025.