The building, currently named The Chapel, adjoining no. 2 Lower Street, was built as a hall by Edward Silcocks in 1868.
In the mid 1800s there was no public hall in the village, despite the joint population of Rode and Rode Hill being about 1,000. Villagers wishing to avoid the often rowdy surroundings of the local inns had only the churches, chapels or schools for large indoor gatherings. The 1843 tithe map of Rode Hill shows that there was a small house on the site with a garden at the back ending at the Somerset/Wilts county boundary, which ran between Lower Street and High Street. Silcocks made the Hall as large as possible using the whole plot and attaching the Hall to the back of the High Street houses.
The directories of the time claimed that Mr Silcocks’ Hall would hold about 200 persons and he granted its use free to the village for entertainments. Reports indicate that it was well used for a wide range of events – large variety shows, concerts, music and choir recitals, dinners, tea parties, auctions, open meetings and committee meetings of local groups. The organisations using the Hall included the Church Union Friendly Society, the Mechanics Institute, Northfield Cricket Club, the Church Choir, Rode Harmonic Band, the local Conservative party, Road Band of Hope, the White Ribbon Movement, the Bible and Mothers’ Class and the Temperance Society (its own hall at the bottom of Farthing Row being in a dilapidated condition).
A typical evenings entertainment was that given by the Mechanics Institute on 21st. December in 1880 The programme read:
Overture – ‘Caliph of Bagdad’ – Band;
Reading – selection from ‘Valentine Vox’ – Mr J. Goulter;
Song – ‘There’s Music in the Fountain’ – Miss. Keeling;
Reading – ‘Plum Pudding’ – Mr Lewis;
Trio – ‘Mark the Merry Elves’ – Miss. F. Woolley, Messrs Trollope and Martin;
Song – ‘She wore a Wreath of Roses’ – Mr J. Goulter;
Song – ‘The Christmas Log’ – Miss. Silcocks;
Polka – ‘Bric a Brac’ – Band;
Reading – ‘The Old Man in the Wood’ – Mr Kinton;
Song – ‘The Mistletoe Bough’ – Mr Trollope;
Reading – ‘The Christmas Goose’ – Mr Lewis;
Song – ‘Where go the Swallows?’ – Miss. Woolley;
Duet – ‘The Flower Gatherers’ – Misses. Keeling and Lewis;
Dialogue – ‘Fine Feathers make Fine Birds’ – Company;
Song – ‘Love has Eyes’ – Miss. Silcocks;
Quadrille – ‘Rossini’ – Band;
Glee – ‘Sleep, Gentle Lady’ – Miss. Silcocks,
Music was provided by the Road Harmonic Band and Miss Woolley on the Harmonium
The Hall was still in much demand after the opening of the larger United Counties Public Hall and Reading Rooms in 1887. Edward Silcocks died in 1899 and there is little information about the Hall after that. It became the Scout headquarters in 1916 and it was mentioned in 1948 in discussion about a nearby building. An article in the June 1976 Link magazine describing the shops in the village in bygone days, recorded:
Silcox Hall (Baker) – Built to commemorate Queen Victoria’ s Jubilee? – Vicar collected tithes for Church here, later a fish and chip shop.
By then the Hall had become part of the adjoining house, no.2, occupied by Fred and Gladys Baker. In the early 1980s, Shaun Kirkpatrick was living there. He was a guitarist in the hard rock band, Bronz, and they used the Hall to record one of their pieces. Recently the Hall was developed into a separate property from no.2 by inserting an upper floor and extending into the adjoining outhouse.
Edward Silcocks was born in 1832 and became a carpenter, builder and undertaker. He lived and had workshops at Hill View Farm at the top of Marsh Road. He was also a leading figure in the village, serving as a church overseer and on the committees of several village organisations.
Silcocks left a distinctive trademark on some of the houses he built or renovated – stone brackets supporting the roof gutters – see image below:
