The St Andrew’s Church Halls have stood at the heart of Histon & Impington for over 150 years and have played an important role in the lives of many local people past and present.
The Past
The halls were built in 1834 as a school, extended in 1872 and 1893, and have historically played an important role in village life. The photograph below shows the St Andrew’s Church Halls in 1903, when they were still in use as a school. Further modifications were made later and they were used for a time as a hospital in World War I. Many residents of the village will have more recent memories of attending Sunday School there.
The children used to make holes in the wall with their coins while waiting for classes by the porch door. This has now largely been hidden by the defibrillator, but you can see one fine example near the door.
The Recent Past
For many years the halls were a focal point for many of the children of the village who attended playgroups or church activities and they were used by many different groups throughout the week. However, they were sorely in need of major refurbishment, both internally and externally.
The Development
St Andrew’s Church, Histon started the process of updating the church halls and creating a new centre in 2013 with facilities fit to take the halls forward into the 21st century and to provide a range of modern and comfortable accommodation which will benefit the local community.
The new St Andrew’s Centre was opened by the Bishop of Ely on 7 June 2014.
