Preliminary Research

The Finchingfield Guildhall was built over 540 years ago, in around 1470, by the Guild of the Holy Trinity. Around this time, the main hall itself would have been used as a school room. However, when the Guilds were abolished, the Guildhall was left to fall into disrepair.

John Mildmay bought the Guildhall, but in the 1620s it was sold to Robert Kempe. Kempe paid for the Guildhall to be repaired and in 1630 he sold it to members of the village for £50 each. To this day the Guildhall is still owned by the villagers of Finchingfield.

The Guildhall continued to be used as a school and from 1658 was also used for almshouses. Over the centuries, the villagers continued to use the hall for a variety of purposes, but by the 1900s it had fallen into disuse and disrepair.

With World War II taking place, it wasn't until the 1950s that the hall began to be repaired. A museum and a library were created on the ground floor. However, the repair work of the 1950s is damaging the building and so the restoration aims to strip the Guildhall of the harmful materials and restore the original hall. The almshouses will be removed and a museum and a library will be re-fitted on the ground floor. Several bathrooms will also be fitted, including disabled access bathrooms, in order to better serve the public once the building is opened after restoration.

The restoration will cost approximately £1.8 million, of which £1.3 million was donated by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Work will begin on the Guildhall on 4th January 2012 and the building will re-open to the public in April 2013.