TWELVE years of hard work were rewarded when the new Memorial Hall at Salford Priors was officially opened by Dr W S Flack, vice-chairman of the Warwickshire Rural Community Council, 50 years ago.

Introducing Dr Flack, Mr P Hughes, chairman of the memorial hall committee, which was formed in 1945, recalled some of its work and efforts during those 12 years.

He paid tribute to former secretaries of the committee and to the late Mr A Robbins, who was treasurer from the time of the committee's inauguration until his death a few weeks previously.

Dr Flack, referring to his link with the district as former headmaster of the Open-air School at Broom, emphasised the benefits to be derived from living in a rural community, and he expressed the hope that the hall would be made the centre of the village life.

"The ideal village is a community which is bound together by good fellowship based on a common purpose. In a village you get an intimacy and friendliness - a oneness which is something of great value, something which you do not get in a town."

Dr Flack added that good leadership and a well-organised programme of events would be required to avoid the hall becoming just another building with a liability.

Before the formal opening ceremony ended, the chairman said that in the near future a plaque would be erected in the hall in memory of those villagers who had lost their lives in the last world war.

He also announced that while the hall was starting off with almost no funds in hand, they were also starting off with no debts outstanding.