Hinckley

Grimms lane

ds 'D' Squadron Leicestershire Yeomanry
D Co. 5th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment

Wright's 1880 directory lists 'the Volunteer Rifle Corps (10th Leicestershire) numbers nearly 100 members. The armoury is on the Stockwell head.'

Kelly, 1912, notes new buildings on Grimms lane for the D Co. 5th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment.


Built in 1803, the former Baptist Chapel was from 1875 to 1894 the armoury and drill hall of the 10th Company of the First Battalion, Leicestershire Rifle Volunteers ( later, from 1883, L. Company First Volunteer Battalion the Leicestershire Regiment). Its site is now a large retail outlet.

The former grammar school building and site was altered and extended to provide drill hall facilities, including, according to the architects' plans, dated 1902, toilets, ante-rooms, an armoury in the former school buildings, an office and linking passageways. The work cost £398.5s.6d, including a spend of £118 on the Armoury, repairs, furnishings and architects' fees; and further sums were spent on the conversion during the next two or three years.

Since its use as a Territorial Drill Hall, the premises' reincarnations have included time as a Pavilion of Varieties (1911), a cinema (1912) a roller skating rink (1926) and again a cinema. It was demolished in 1990.
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The Drill Hall Project - Charting a neglected legacy