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The Hastings and Macleay Valley
Your locally owned community news • Phone: 6583 9088 • Thursday 8 March 2018
Hall is back to glory days By SUE PATERICK
WITH the help of many local businesses, Sherwood Hall in the green rolling hills of the Macleay Valley’s hinterland has been restored to its former glory. First built in 1911 the hall’s exterior has been repaired and repainted in soft heritage colours. It has taken the Sherwood Hall Committee 13 years of fundraising through their bi-yearly markets and letting out the hall for events to save enough money for the restoration. But it has been a labour of love because most of the committee have a deep and long-standing family connection to this little gem of history. A part of the community for 107 years, Sherwood Hall has been the scene of many dances, weddings, birthdays and parties. According to committee
chairperson Bev Davy, the hall had the best dance floor in the Macleay and was well-known for its epic dances. Committee secretary, treasurer and booking officer, Joanne Norris, said they held dances that were so big they had to allow groups of dancers onto the floor in two stages. “I’ve done many a mile on this dance floor,” Joanne said, beaming. To attend these renowned dances Bev’s Mum rode on a horse-pulled dray all the way from Kempsey with her feet dangling over the edge. Joanne said her Mother’s family used to ride horses too and the horses were tied up in a row, as excited to meet up with old friends as their riders. It was Joanne’s great, great, grandfather, John Ward, who left the land that Sherwood Hall was eventually built on to his daughters Rebecca and Anne when he died. • Continued Page 9
Page 3: Faces tell our story
Members of the Sherwood Hall Committee, from left, Joanne Norris, Bev Davy, Jean Forrest, Darrell Cottel, Annette McMillan and Lyn Saul, have held many markets to make enough to fully renovate the outside of their beloved hall
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