Proud history of Horsham’s historic Drill Hall

The Drill Hall was designed by Lt Col G R B Godman, paid for by the officers of the 4th Royal Sussex Regiment for the men, with the intention it should serve as both a military headquarters and a social space.

It has the largest sprung wooden dance floor in Sussex, so the hall could hold dances. Godman of Godmen and Key also designed the town’s war memorial and the Capitol Cinema - the original cinema in the Carfax run by another officer of the 4th Royal Sussex, Captain (later Major) Rupert Middleton MC who formed the Blue Flash Company, taking the name from the blue shoulder flash on the regimental uniform.

He employed ex-bandsmen to play music during silent films. As for the then local council, after WWI Horsham Urban District Council took up the challenge of employing not less than 5 per cent of the workforce as disabled ex-servicemen. That continued throughout the 1920s.

The Drill Hall continued to be used by both military and social functions throughout the 1930s to 1960s. With the coming of World War II the site held the Observer Corp - later Royal Observer Corp.

On the day this Hall opened the local newspaper ran a fulsome account: The principal architect was Lt Col G. R. B. Godman who was also the “popular commanding officer of the 4th Royal Sussex Regiment”.

The paper described how the Drill Hall, built by the well-known local company of Rowland Bros, allowed for ‘proper training of territorials’ as well as being a ‘modern club’ for members and ex-members of the Regiment.

It also provided regimental headquarters offices, and quarters for the Regimental Sergeant-Major. There was a miniature firing range, baths and other recreational facilities.

The Hall was seen as a focal point to keep the Territorials ‘more closely together and inculcate in them the spirit of comradeship and esprit de corps.’

Later on the newspaper describes the parade of officers and men to the railway station to meet the G.O.C.-in-Chief Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Whigham who arrived by car with other officers to inspect troops before marching back through the town to the Drill Hall where it was officially opened.

Sir Robert Whigham, who opened the Hall, was reported as saying: “In the Territorial Army your military training should go hand in hand with your civic duties, and the more you can combine the two, the better it will be for all of us” indicating quite clearly how the Hall was built to combine both military and civic life.

When the Territorial Army moved out, Horsham District Council became owners and custodians of the Hall.

The Hall has always been used for a wide range of social activities – in the 1930s the Hollywood Circus put on a show featuring 40 artists and, incredibly, 1,500 people attended an Empire Day celebration, clearly well before today’s health and safety considerations (capacity is 400).