The men who built it

I was at a Wind Farm Trust meeting in the Glendaruel Hall this afternoon and - like most people in the community I suspect - I take the existence of this little place for granted though I know the hall committee do a huge amount of work to keep it going (and I declare an interest in that statement as Cathleen is the Treasurer).

We also dont think much about  how the hall came to be here, and it is an interesting story.   My blip is part of a larger framed  collage  (added as an extra photo) which confirms that the squad that built Glendaruel House in 1900 (who were from Trail's the Builder is Helensburgh) first built the hall as their bothy for the bigger job.  When the house was finished it was given to the community and has been used as the Glendaruel Community Hall ever since.  

Glendareul House was sold to William Harrison Cripps in 1903.  He was a surgeon to the King and performed one of the first removals of an appendix on King Edward VII.  He wasn't knighted however because he had scandalised London society by leaving his wife and living with an Italian opera singer, for whom he built a little Catholic chapel just uphill from Glendaruel House.   

Now the hall is used for meetings, badminton, dances, elections, private parties (like my 70th) ,  community lunches, funeral purveys and a host of other things.  Thanks of course not just to the people who look after it now, but also those who built it over a century ago.