Thringstone - Thringstone House Community Centre

Thringstone House Community Centre

In 1901 Charles Booth purchased an 18th-century farm house on The Green, known as 'Thringstone House', for the purpose of providing local inhabitants with a meeting place for social, recreational and educational activity. This venture, which became known as the 'Thringstone House Club', proved so successful that in 1911 Booth engaged his cousin, the architect Harry Fletcher of London to add the imposing two-storeyed hall to the rear of the premises and founded The Thringstone Trust, a registered charity. The Trust deed states that the institute and its grounds shall be used in perpetuity for the benefit of the inhabitants of Thringstone and the surrounding parishes of Whitwick, Swannington, Worthington, Osgathorpe, Coleorton and Belton. Booth bestowed an endowment of £3000 and a further endowment of £400 was later made by Mrs Booth for the women's section.

By 1950, trust monies left by the Booth family were insufficient for all that was needed in changed times; moreover, members of the Booth family had left the area and it was impossible for them to maintain an active status as trustees. Trusteeship of the institute was transferred to the Leicestershire County Council. The institute is now known as the Thringstone House Community Centre and a member of the Booth family (James Gore Browne) remains as honorary president of the institute, which proudly lays claim to be the oldest of its kind in the country. The centre is administered according to the aims and objects of the Thringstone Community Association. It has a strong educational focus and a clear sense of having a community development role.

Architecturally, the community centre buildings have a great deal of character, comprising a gabled, white-washed 17th-century farmhouse fronting The Green with, at the rear, a large two-storeyed hall overlooking the rural valley of Thringstone Brook. The hall carries a louvred ventilation turret on its western gable which, together with brick buttresses erected to reinforce the north and south walls in the late 20th century, gives the building a distinctly ecclesiastical appearance.

Today, there is a great deal of involvement from local people. The centre has a bar which is open every evening providing a setting where people attending activities in the centre can associate at the end of the evening. A warden is employed and has done much to develop activities in the centre. The Association has adopted a development plan and is challenging itself to respond to the needs of a community hit hard by the closure of the coal pits and which is also seeing some growth as a number of new estates bring younger people to the community.