HISTORY

Standish Village Hall: A Timeline of Heritage

Our sTORY

Church House is a 700-year-old Grade II listed building, probably built in two stages—a 14th-century core with a 16th-century addition- refurbished in 1844 and listed in 1955. It was the village school from 1839 to 1964 and has been Standish Village Hall ever since, run by a committee of local volunteers.

The Manor of Standish belonged to the monks of Gloucester. An Almonry was established here to distribute alms, and the Almoner lived at what is now Standish Court next door.
Description textIn 1516 the last Abbot of Gloucester, William Parker, established a fraternity at Standish under a Prior, with "13 brethren clothed in black gown and mantles with the abbey arms embroidered on their right shoulders and a red and blue cross at their breasts." The priory disappeared 20 years later, along with the other monastic institutions, in Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. goes here
The building passed to the Lord of the Manor and his successors, including Sir Henry Winston — whose daughter's marriage brought the name Winston into the Churchill family.
Church House became Standish’s village school for 125 years, closing in 1964. Older residents still called it "The Schoolhouse."
The Gloucester Diocese leased the building to the parish as a hall, run since by a committee of local volunteers. A 2006 refurbishment added a new kitchen and baronial-style chandeliers.
Channel 4’s Time Team excavated a nearby Roman villa and used the Hall as their studio, in the episode "Going Upmarket with the Romans.