Nostalgia: Historic hall was making the news

There was an argument raging in the Glossop Chronicle columns of 75 years ago about the description of Victoria Hall.

It began when a reader wrote in describing it as a ‘dance hall’, which got several town councillors hot under the collar. 

In letters to the Chronicle, they said that ‘first and foremost’ Victoria Hall was built as a public library where people could borrow books for free and where there were rooms for studying.

The arguments ran for a couple of weeks and ended, as arguments always seem to, with people sticking to their own opinions

Victoria Hall was making the news again on our court pages a few weeks later when we were reporting on a fight that broke out when four Glossop men were refused entry to a New Year’s Eve dance.

They arrived around midnight and demanded to be allowed in, but the doorman refused, saying it was an all-ticket event and the men, who were clearly drunk, had no tickets.

An argument began, a struggle started and the doorman did what he usually did at the hall’s Saturday night dances, he called the police.

Even the law could not restore order. The men grappled with the police, Glossop’s Chief Constable was kicked, a sergeant and a constable were assaulted with the four - three men and a 15-year-old boy - arrested and carted off for a night in the cells.

All four appeared at Glossop Magistrates’ Court where each was fined the princely sum of £1.

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