First mention of a village hall for the village was made in 1901, when it was suggested as a memorial to the late Queen Victoria. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners were asked to donate a piece of land but they refused, and a public meeting didn’t show much enthusiasm for the idea as only eight people turned up for it, and a house to house collection only raised 16. 10s. 6d. However a Committee was setup, and Mr. Walter Lister, who lived at Great .Walton offered the Council a building which belonged to him and had recently been vacated by a Mr. Troward Clark who had used it as an engineering workshop. However, it was estimated that it would have cost over £300 to convert it for public use and the idea was dropped. It is ironic that the building was then taken over by the Wingham Engineering Company and used by them for heavy engineering equipment such as steam rollers, steam ploughs and threshing machines for over 50 years, and when they vacated it in the early nineteen thirties it then was purchased to be used as a Village Hall.

Prior to this a village hall was set up in an old army hut elsewhere in the village. By the early 1930’s this building was in a very dilapidated state and was reportedly being propped up in places.

In early 1933 the Reverend Y B Yearsely headed up a consortium of like-minded local people who through interest bearing bonds raised the princely sum of £650 (plus 1% stamp duty) to purchase the engineering works and surrounding land. They then secured an interest free loan of £750 from the National Council of Social Services to fund the alterations to turn the building into the village hall you mostly see today.

The alterations obviously proceeded very smoothly as the hall was opened in late 1933, having been registered as a charity and held in trust to provide “physical and mental recreation as well as social, moral and intellectual development for the benefit to the inhabitants of the Parish of Eastry and the immediate vicinity”. Although various clubs and hall hirers have come and gone over the last 90 years this statement has been the bedrock to all the hall improvements since 1933 and will continue to be so.