Update Harriston Village Hall has been closed since June 2015, it was up for lease but it became apparent that no one had put in for the hall, in November 2015 we became aware that the hall had been put up for sale or lease and  we decided as a group of 4 people that had been on a past Harriston village hall committee up until four years before to form a committe, become a charity and put in for the Lease.
It hasn`t been an easy ride they have really made us work for the Lease. In early February we became a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) this is to try to secure the future of the hall. on the 26th February we had a 3 hour interview at Derwent and Solway where we had to present our case of why we wanted the Village Hall and how we were planning to run it and pay for all the bills. We have been waiting nearly 2 weeks until  8/3/16 when we provisionally got told we had the Village Hall Lease subject to our business plan and our policies and procedures being in place. We now have until the 18th March to present these to Your Housing Group and Your Derwent and Solway. Hopefully after that date we will have the keys and can bring our Village Hall back into use with the help of our local Community. It hasnt been easy and I dont pretend it will be easy in the future, as this time we need your help to support and help us keep the hall in the heart of our Community. We will be opening the hall up for an open meeting once we have the keys. We are now Trustees, thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

 

History

When, in 1868, the trustees of the infant Joseph Harris sunk a colliery one mile to the south east of the town of Aspatria they were escalating their mining responsibilities. At that time the population of Aspatria numbered 1,100 and comprised 250 houses.  Since the mine required a minimum of 200 workers, they had to recruit miners from outside the district and in consequence build houses to accommodate the new influx. They knew that through the provision of tied housing they could not only attract the right quality of worker but equally important, once employed retain their services. To this end they built a village with three streets comprising, 96 two-up and two-down terraced houses and aptly named it Harristown. Shortly afterwards this became Harriston.
In 1879, at personal expense, Harris constructed a large commodious building, which residents used through the week as an infant’s school, in the evenings a hall for temperance meetings and on Sundays a place of worship. In 1892, Harris opened the Harris Institute, a colliers club comprising reading, smoking and billiard rooms; a club where workers could enjoy their evenings playing games and reading newspapers away from public houses.

In July 1974, Allerdale Borough Council took the extraordinary step of condemning the village in its entirety;[16] and the houses many of which were owner occupied became the subject of a compulsory purchase order. The village with few proper bathrooms would have been raised to the ground had it not been for the efforts of a few local councillors. Instead it became the subject of a prestigious rebuild and a short residential relocation.  
The new Harriston contains the same number of houses as its predecessor, arranged around a traditional village green. When complete it contained a variety of dwellings, ranging from bungalows to family homes with three and four bedrooms. The new facilities included a village shop, allotments, garages and children’s play areas. Only two of the original buildings remained, the old village hall became a modern village hall, while the old cooperative store became a small industrial unit. In the early 1980s the design won several nationwide awards for the architects Happer, Errington, Collerton Partnership, including the prestigious Civic Trust Award.

 

(Taken from wikepedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriston,_Cumbria)