The Village Hall formerly known as "The Club" was built in 1907 by William Carver of Cranage Hall for his family and his employees. It is a substantial and picturesque building with a most interesting internal beam arrangement in the roof, originally it incorporated a social room, a billiard room and a caretaker's cottage. The Carvers sold Cranage Hall in the 1930's when it became a hospital for the mentally handicapped. In 1947, the Club was given in trust to the residents of Cranage, eventually it was renamed Cranage Village Hall because "Club" status was no longer applicable. If at any time the building ceases to function as a Village Hall it is to be sold and the proceeds given to the YMCA in Manchester.
In 1958, in order to make the Hall more usable and versatile, the central wall in the main hall was removed and a temporary building was erected to provide toilets and a kitchen. In 1975, when a Playgroup opened, this area was connected to the back door of the main building by an enclosed walkway, which became the main entrance to the Hall from the car park at the rear. When the last live-in caretaker died it was decided not to re-let the cottage.
The temporary building, which was rescued from Cranage airfield after WW2 was by this time showing signs of deterioration, becoming difficult and expensive to maintain. In order to comply with ever more stringent safety regulations, the 1990's saw considerable changes made; the cottage was used to provide a comprehensive new kitchen, cloakroom area and toilets. Since these changes were made the temporary building has been used to store Pre-School and village hall equipment. This building continued to deteriorate and eventually it had to be replaced. After an unsuccessful search for grant-funding, the management committee has now spent money raised through its own endeavours to finance the building of new storage rooms. The temporary building has now been demolished and the committee has built a new entrance with wheelchair access, we also have ambitions but no money as yet, to build an additional function room.
Recent improvements comprise the replacement of the original windows, which were in a poor state, with sympathetic styled double glazed windows which improve comfort in the winter, reduce heat loss with a corresponding reduction in heating bills and noise reduction from the main A50 road. The car park has been resurfaced and a new the kitchen has been completely refurbished with new units, sinks and cooker, very recently the roof has been insulated to further help reduce heating bills and the outside has been tidied with fresh new limestone gravel. These improvements have been paid for in full by grants from e-on through its local community fund, RG and ME Street aggregates suppliers of Cranage, WREN (Waste Recycling Environmental and Cranage Parish Council.
The Hall is very well used. There’s a busy preschool open during term time on three full days each week and a toddler group on Fridays. The thriving Art Club meets each Monday evening, Whist club meets every alternate Tuesday evening and the popular Bridge Club every Wednesday evening. The Hall is booked most weekends for a variety of activities including both adult and children's parties, table top sales, cycling clubs and caravan rallies.
The setting is very pretty with a huge south facing grassy area to the rear with a backdrop of tall mature trees, very popular for weddings and other events with space for a very large marquee if needed.