b'During the 1940s the Hall was in great demand,took 7 years to pay off! and in 1952 it was extended and modernised; as noFinally, in 1972 the Mens Institute folded, and the extra land was available, the kitchen extension wasbuilding became the Village Hall, although it is still built on an East-West axis, forming an L-shape. Thecalled by its former name by the older generation.total of 680 2s 8d owed to the builder J H Bailey FragmentsKate PrattThe Village Wheel-chairB essy Fridlington remembers that Bishop Wiltonas they were going down Braygate, Bessy persuaded used to have a village wheel-chair, for use byher mother that it would be all right for her to ride on any villager who needed it. It was kept in the huntthe front in the same way as when her father was boxes, the buildings in front of the village hall, nowpushing. Her mother reluctantly agreed, and she used as stables again for the last few years. (Theleapt on, and immediately they gathered speed as it stand and loos for the Show also used to be kept inis quite a steep slope Mrs Smith steered as there.) Her mother, Sally Smith, Butcher Smiths wife,best she could, saying Well, well stop when we get was disabledshe had thyroid problems - and sheto Youlthorpe, but Bessy began to think that it was and her father used to take her for walks in the wheel- no longer safe, so she put out one foot to try and chair, with Butcher pushing, her mother steering withslow them down, and of course this unbalanced the the small wheel at the front, and Bessy riding withwhole contraption, and they both ended upside down one foot either side of this small front wheel, facingin the ditch. Bessy skinned her knee quite badly and backwards. scraped all up her leg, but luckily, Mrs Smith, though One day it was just Bessy taking her mother for ashaken, was unharmed.walk in the chairshe was aged about 12 or 13 - and Ochrepit HillO n the large scale Ordnance Survey map (1:2500,iron oxides produced by the oxidation of the ore. It is 1976) the hill above Vale Crescent is marked aslocated in pockets both in the ore and the rock, and Ochrepit Hill. This rang a bell with David Walker whocomes in a range of colours from browns and reds to remembers as a child using the phrase going up theyellow and deep purple. Perhaps there were links with Okky for that particular bit of hill, but without knowingthe Iron Foundry which used to be operative in the why. villagepossibly iron ore was mined locally, though The inference is that part of the excavations of thethis seems unlikely in this area.chalk pit was actually for ochre, which is a mixture of Stonetable HillMike PrattJ ust above Flat Top House there is an area of landthe aim of the competitors was to get possession of it called Stonetable Hill. I had thought that it wasand run home, the person getting the ball to his home so named because of its flatness until I came acrossbeing the winner, and allowed to keep it. According to a definition for the word dolmen. Evidently derivedthe old standards, large numbers came, wet or fine, from Breton, dolmen translates as stone table. Afrom the whole countryside to take part in the game, dolmen is a burial chamber consisting of two or morewhich would appear to have been more of a scramble upright stone slabs supporting a capstone or table.than anything else, except roughness. There were no Interesting! rules governing the game, and no area was defined, While on the subject it is worth noting an oldthe principal object being to get hold and keep hold. custom that was described in an article on BishopThe spectators who took no part in the game were Wilton in The Hull Times for August 4, 1923: wont to take bottles of whisky with them, and with near by is a hill known as Stone Stable Hillwater from a spring near, had their fling. This annual [sic], where, on each Low Sunday (a day called locallycustom died out some 40 years ago, when, as a Wilton Fine Sunday), football was played. It was theresult of this day, several of the players were fined at old style of football, when a ball was put down andPocklington for breaking down the farmers fences.12 BULLETIN 1'