The Quenington Institute
Historically, Quenington village had been served by The Quenington Institute since 1906. This building started life as a Reading Room donated to the village by local landowner, Thomas Bazley.
In January 2013 the community meeting place moved from The Quenington Institute to the new Quenington Village Hall. The new building, previously known as The Gate on the Green, was originally built as a Chapel.
The Gate on the Green
In 1921 two men came to the village to preach. By 1926 they had bought a building on the corner of the green and every Sunday for 34 years, until the congregation grew too large, services were held twice a day, with Sunday school in the afternoon.
It was announced during the opening address of the Christmas Fayre December 3rd 1960, that a new Brethren Chapel, a church of stone, would be completed early the next year on land sold by the Meade family for the nominal sum of £5. The remaining cost of £4200 was raised by local subscriptions and fund raising. The chapel opened with a service of dedication on the eve of Easter 1961, exactly one year after the first stone was laid. Attending the service of dedication were some of those who had heard the preachers forty years earlier, and been baptised by them in the river at the bottom of the village.
Quenington Village Hall
When services at the Gate ceased in 2010 an opportunity arose to buy the building as a replacement village hall. This was discussed at a public meeting held on the 12th July 2011 and put to a vote for the residents of Quenington. The village vote in January 2012 gave a mandate in favour of moving from The Quenington Institute to the Gate on the Green building.
Following extensive fund raising by the local community and the sale of The Quenington Institute (with planning permission for conversion to residential use), the village acquired the Gate on the Green building a year later in January 2013.
The building was renamed Quenington Village Hall, thus ensuring its future as an amenity at the heart of the village for the benefit and enjoyment of all.
After renovation, Quenington Village Hall was officially opened on 11th May 2013 by the son and daughter of Mr Meade, who sixty years earlier gave the land for the Brethren Chapel to be built.