The History of the Council Office Building

The Parish Council Offices and Village Hall are located on the corner of Birstall Road and School Lane in what was the National School.

Built in 1859, it replaced the original National School, which since 1828, had operated in a barn next to Birstall D.I.Y in the Village centre and which was by 1858, in a state of dereliction.

The site for the new school was provided by Mrs Ellen Paget who lived at Cliffe House. The cost of the site and building amounted to £500 of which, £165 was provided by a grant from the Privy Council.

There was a little difficulty at first as the land had been for centuries, the site of the Blacksmith's Forge but Thomas Goodman, the Village Blacksmith, was quickly won over to the project when he was promised a brand new purpose built forge on the corner of Church Hill. The 'new' forge still stands today, strongly built in the same Mountsorrel granite as the school.

The official opening of the new school took place on 4th January 1861 and until 1928 it provided an all-through education for Birstall's children. In 1928 the National became infants only and the older children went to a new junior school (the 'old wooden hut') on Wanlip Lane and to Roundhill (a new sceondary school at Thurmaston). Eight years later in 1936, new brick built junior and infant schools opened on Wanlip Lane and the National - no longer a school - became the Church / Village Hall.

It passed into the hands of the Parish Council in 1997.

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