Drill Halls - British & Commonwealth Military Badge Forum

Keith Blakeman · #1 09-11-10, 06:57 PM

I've just come a cross this interesting website dedicated to providing information for old Drill Halls.

http://drillhalls.org/index.htm

bewley · #2 09-11-10, 07:18 PM

Good find Keith.

Just goes to show that the internet can be put to good uses sometimes! [a bit like this forum really].

Charlie585 · #3 09-11-10, 07:56 PM

Some good info on there Keith,

some of the Hampshire ones I'm familiar with.

Shame about London & Middlesex, they would have been very interesting.

The site could always be added to of course.

Ry

Peter Brydon · #4 09-11-10, 09:40 PM

The site is far from complete yet, I know the site owners (Members of the Great War Forum ) have a lot of info on Lancashire Drill Halls but unfortunatly have not yet included it on the site and I am sure the same applies to other Counties as well.

P.B.

Keith Blakeman · #5 10-11-10, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie585

Some good info on there Keith,

some of the Hampshire ones I'm familiar with.

Shame about London & Middlesex, they would have been very interesting.

The site could always be added to of course.

Ry

Ry,

I quite agree about some of those with no info, I've never tracked down one in Peckham. I think many of us, myself included are suprised how small they can be, platoon sized and very much as depicted in Dad's Army. It's a good site though and we'll worth a regular re-visit.

Peter if you do speak to the owners please thank them for creating this site.

matti467 · #6 10-11-10, 06:46 PM

The old one at Hilsborough in Sheffield was tiny. The one on Marlpit Lane where I joined had the badge of the West Surreys on the building.
Matti

Peter Brydon · #7 10-11-10, 06:48 PM

Keith,

There is a part of the Great War Forum which in someways has a connection with the Drill Hall project. Often information turns up there well before it gets onto the Drill Hall web site. Well worth keeping an eye on that part of the GWF from time to time.

Peter

Keith Blakeman · #8 10-11-10, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matti467

The old one at Hilsborough in Sheffield was tiny. The one on Marlpit Lane where I joined had the badge of the West Surreys on the building.
Matti

Still does Matti, I was working there a couple of months ago. It's the post WW1 version of the Queen's badge, I think the barracks was built in the 30's.

cossack · #9 11-11-10, 05:10 PM

I have to say that I e-mailed this site MANY many months ago with information relating to the Drill Hall in Sutton, Surrey. I never got any acknowledgement of the e-mail with the info I supplied to them & also there was never any update on the site even recently when I checked.
Andy

Peter Brydon · #10 11-11-10, 07:07 PM

Andy,

Some of the pictures and other items items relating to Lancashire (Liverpool ) and Cheshire Drill Halls which I sent were sent at least a couple of years ago and have still not appeared on the web site.

It is a voluntary thing and whilst I am,like you, disappointed that the stuff I sent has not been used to date ,hopefully it will appear in due course.

Peter

Y Saethydd · #11 29-11-10, 04:25 PM

The Drill Halls site is the work of two volunteers and a volunteer web creator all of whom have complex, active lives and very limited time. It is a work in progress and it is not complete. The flag symbol on the database page shows which counties have had a first upload. All those will be revisited in due course.

There are over 3500 locations to upload. Everything which is uploaded on the site is re-checked and sources cited as far as possible in the interests of academic integrity.Then the text is rewritten into a reader-friendly format, because a lot of visitors are not people with experience of military material. They include students, family history enthusiasts, school pupils and historic environment researchers.

The connection with the Great War Forum is that the originator of the project initially started the thread as an appeal for information. Everything which is posted on there is recorded in the database for future use. Now a fair amount of information comes from external contributors who have found the site online. The project is always appreciative of any information which is offered.

All emails are answered unless they have been screened out by the hosting company's rigorous spam filters. This does sometimes lead to mails being missed, unfortunately.

The project also has an existence outside its Internet-facing front. The two volunteers have responded to inquiries from local authorities, town planning departments, county Historic Environment Record staff (it has supplied the complete drill hall data and photographs for two counties at their request), campaign organisations and heritage bodies attempting to compile a case for retaining a drill hall, conservation architects, Territorial units. It is always possible that data which is non yet online has been of use to a third party in that way, although the project owners would always contact owners of copyright before passing on photographs.

The site has been selected for preservation and archived by the British Library. As such the site owners are determined that the site will grow and continue to be a useful source.

It is good to know that the site has been valued by some readers of this thread.

Keith Blakeman · #12 30-11-10, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Y Saethydd

It is good to know that the site has been valued by some readers of this thread.

It certainly has, I'll be a regular vistor.

41st · #13 30-11-10, 08:16 PM

Archer,
To start you off for Glamorgan the Drill Hall in Cardiff was in Dumfries Place. Right behind my current office. I have an old OS map showing it if it's of any use.
It was used by the 1st Cardiff Detachment, 2nd Glamorgan Rifle Volunteers amongst others.
Cofion gorau,
41st

cossack · #14 19-08-15, 08:40 PM

I was amused to see this thread again today while searching on Drill Halls on google. Back then I had commented on the fact they hadn't acknowledged my e-mail with the info I sent at the time or added the info to the site & also was reminded of the response from someone connected to it on here which ended with this comment...

"It is good to know that the site has been valued by some readers of this thread."

I looked at the site again just now & there is still nothing on there about the Drill Hall I sent them the info on - 5 years later

I'm sure they are getting round to it

Andy

Keith Blakeman · #15 19-08-15, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cossack

I was amused to see this thread again today while searching on Drill Halls on google. Back then I had commented on the fact they hadn't acknowledged my e-mail with the info I sent at the time or added the info to the site & also was reminded of the response from someone connected to it on here which ended with this comment...

"It is good to know that the site has been valued by some readers of this thread."

I looked at the site again just now & there is still nothing on there about the Drill Hall I sent them the info on - 5 years later

I'm sure they are getting round to it

Andy

Nothing on Sutton in this useful database Andy.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/W...Drill-Halls/11