Platinum Jubilee celebrations at Richard Bentley Smalley Memorial Hall

Date published: 07 June 2022

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was celebrated at Richard Bentley Smalley Memorial Hall in Thornham on Friday (3 June).

A special celebratory jubilee event took place with lots of activities and entertainment, including Her Majesty's Fun and Commonwealth Games, organised by Ash at Ed Start Rochdale Primary Sports; a tug of war; a barbeque; a bar; plus singing from Hayley Elliot, her setlist spanning the last 70 years.

Refreshments were also on offer, including the Queen’s official strawberry and champagne sorbet, plus Scoop's ice-cream for dogs.

A tree was even planted for the Queen’s green canopy on the day.

Trustee Jeanette Farrugia said: “We had an amazing day; luckily the weather brightened up about 10.30am and it was perfect after that. I think we picked the best day of the weekend.

“Thank you to Asda and Deckers for their support to the hall, and donations from other members of the public.

“We’re raising money for the hall to have a lot of well deserved TLC since coming out of lockdown and are on a mission to make it the heart of the community.”

Trustees at the Thornham Lane hall recently secured a National Lottery grant which paid for a new accessible toilet and baby change facilities and an accessible ramp at the rear of the building.

The hall was given to the local community in the 1930s and is used weekly for uniform groups, parties, weddings, and social events.