How it all began 

Emsworth Community Centre, situated in the heart of the village, thrives with activity and is used by residents of all ages.    It is run by Emsworth Community Association, a registered charity, no 1181509> and managed by a committee of trustees, many of whom have an interest in groups that run the Centre.  Trustees and staff aim to make Emsworth Community Centre a welcoming place for all our residents.

 

It all started in 1841  when St James Church (Church of England)  was built on the site of an old brickfield,  the Church of England National Schools Society raised the funds to build a school near to the church in 1865 and it was a boys school for the first 50 years.

In 1902 the County Council became responsible for elementary education for the first time and a new County Council school was built in Washington road. There was now to many schools in  Emsworth  so the Girls school was closed and St James School became mixed. The small schools around Warblington and Leigh were also closed and the children from those areas now travelled to Emsworth, mostly by train.

Emsworth was the first parish to have their own public elementary school and no other has been built since. 

St James School became to big for the site near the church and moved to Bellvue Lane. In 1974 their was a big debate on what should happen to the old  school building, It was leased to a group of residents of Emsworth who formed a Community Association  and eventually was able to purchase the building in 2016 to run a charity based  Community Centre

previous to the purchase in the 1987 an extension was added to the Community Centre which created extra rooms for hire and  included a large room for social and private functions and

a dance studio which was called the Lumley room

and was named after

 Joanna Lumley ( actress) who opened the new

extension.  

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The pictures below tell the story.