The Drill Hall, Church St - North Laine History

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The Drill Hall, Church St

The drill hall at the top of Church St was completed in 1890 to provide a home for the Brighton Corps of Volunteer Rifles. At the time it was built the commanding officer of the corps was Lieutenant Colonel Tamplin, the wealthy owner of a Tamplins a large local brewery, and it was Tamplin whop provided the funds to purchase the empty site and construct a home for the Volunteers who had grown in strength to 724 under Tamplin’s leadership.

 
When completed the hall was quite impressive as can be seen by the picture above. Besides the drill area in Spring Gardens, there was a large canteen, and comfortable messing facilities for the officers and men. In November 1898, the most famous general in the British army, came to the drill hall for the annual presentation of prizes. Earlie in the day General Wolseley had been to the Royal Pavilion to receive the Freedom of the Borough, the first person to have that honour.

The drill hall at the top of Church St was completed in 1890 to provide a home for the Brighton Corps of Volunteer Rifles. At the time it was built the commanding officer of the corps was Lieutenant Colonel Tamplin, the wealthy owner of a Tamplins a large local brewery, and it was Tamplin whop provided the funds to purchase the empty site and construct a home for the Volunteers who had grown in strength to 724 under Tamplin’s leadership.

When completed the hall was quite impressive as can be seen by the picture above. Besides the drill area in Spring Gardens, there was a large canteen, and comfortable messing facilities for the officers and men. In November 1898, the most famous general in the British army, came to the drill hall for the annual presentation of prizes. Earlie in the day General Wolseley had been to the Royal Pavilion to receive the Freedom of the Borough, the first person to have that honour.
The entrance to the building with the 'martlets' sculpted on to the wall near the corner with Spring Gardens
The rifle volunteers, when formed had no permanent home, and initially were administered from a small room in Prince’s Place but there was no drill hall and no official parades took place until in June 1860, 300 gathered on Lindfield Common.  The Town Hall was then made available and remained the base until the 1880s with all weapons stored in the Town Hall armoury. Firing ranges were acquired in Sheepcote Valley and the standard of marksmanship improved to such an extent that the corps began to win many shooting competitions.

 
In 1884 Lieutenant Colonel Tamplin took charge of the corps and numbers increased making it more important to find a permanent purpose-built home. With the purchase of land in Church St and the building of a new drill hall , the men were able to prepare fully for the military needs of the country so that when Britain went to war against South Africa men from the Brighton corps of Volunteer Rifles were amongst the first volunteers in the country to travel to South Africa to reinforce the forces there. The volunteers fought alongside the regulars in General Robert’s army that marched on Pretoria in the spring of 1900.

The drill hall is now listed grade II.
The drill hall today alongside Spring Gardens.
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