BISHOP Wilton may be a village of only 500 souls, but they're a lively bunch.

The cricket and football teams have been revived. The school is one of the smallest in the East Riding with only 30 pupils, but it now boasts an early years centre and an energetic new head.

The annual agricultural show is always popular. And two years ago Bishop Wilton Local History Group was founded by Kate and Mike Pratt.

Considering there is so much going on, one look at the Bishop Wilton Village Hall tells you it is not up to the job.

Little more than a rusting, corrugated outbuilding, it is still in daily use. Until the late 1980s, the children would walk to the hall for their school dinners. Now it is home to almost every other activity, from the mother and toddler group to wedding receptions.

The beautiful Bishop Wilton, tucked at the foot of Garrowby Hill about four miles north of Pocklington, deserves something better. And villagers are campaigning to get it.

They plan to modernise and extend the existing sports block into a proper Community and Sports Hall. That will cost £250,000.

Before villagers can apply to various funding bodies for help they must raise a fair whack themselves. They already have £8,000 in the coffers.

That total should be boosted this coming Sunday, October 10. A grand auction is being held at Wilton Lodge, Bishop Wilton, from 2pm. Items on offer include household goods, furniture, garden implements, sports equipment, bric-a-brac, prints and original artwork, and they can be viewed between 10am and noon on the day.

Although villagers are desperate for a new hall, they will be sad to see the back of the old one. It has been around a bit in its fascinating 122-year life.

Kate Pratt undertook to research its past as one of her first projects for the local history society. Asking around she discovered it had only been in Bishop Wilton since 1938.

The year before, the Men's Institute - once a thriving twin to the WI - bought the hall from a nearby village. But which one? Gate Helmsley, Sutton-on-Derwent and Thornton were all suggested by older Bishop Wilton residents.

Kate's impressive detective work at local libraries and archives discovered it was built as Sutton-on-Derwent's Methodist Chapel in 1882, costing £202.

On a visit to Sutton-on-Derwent, she met long-standing resident James Beal who showed her where it once stood.

"He was full of stories," Kate said. "During sermons some of the children would chuck stones on the roof of the tabernacle, because the noise would be wonderful."

When the Men's Institute bought the building it was dismantled and loaded onto a cattle wagon for delivery to Bishop Wilton. Once it arrived, villagers had to reassemble the "flat packed" hall, a job which would daunt even the most ardent Ikea enthusiast today.

Its value to the village was immediate. In 1939, it was transformed into a school for children evacuated to Bishop Wilton from Sunderland, and later from Hull.

After great use throughout the Forties, the tin tabernacle was extended and modernised in 1952. It took seven years to pay off the £680 builder's bill.

The Men's Institute folded in 1972 and the building was rechristened the Village Hall, although villagers with the longest memories still use the old name. And, despite its outward appearance, it remains watertight and welcoming inside.

Having charted their hall's mobile past, there is plenty more for the local history society to go at.

Kate and Mike have overseen four archaeological excavations in their own garden. "We have got a very interesting iron age boundary ditch which had been filled in in early Roman times, and pieces of pottery came out of it."

Centuries ago Bishop Wilton was an important staging post for the Church, too. Like Bishopthorpe, Cawood and Bishop Burton, the village once hosted the Archbishop of York on his travels. Hence the name: originally it was plain Wilton.

"There was a palace in Bishop Wilton. The site of the Archbishop's palace has never been excavated," said Kate. But the primate's stopovers ended in the 15th century.

Now the village is looking to write a new chapter of its history book by building a modern hall. It took the Men's Institute 16 years to save up to buy the original; residents are hoping the current fundraising campaign won't take so long. If you would like to help, or join the Friends group for £12 and stand a chance of winning in the prize draw, send cheques made payable to Bishop Wilton Village Hall to Kate Pratt, 11 Main Street, Bishop Wilton, York YO42 1RX.

Success would mean the end of the tin tabernacle, of course. "Unless somebody would like to buy it," says Kate.

AVRIL Webster Appleton is researching her new book. The writer, whose histories of Layerthorpe, The Groves and Heworth proved so popular, is now looking back at Goodramgate and King's Square.

She would love to hear from anyone who has photos or memories of the area. "I am particularly interested in anyone who attended Bedern School, went dancing at the Albany or worked at Hunter and Smallpage or Cussin and Light's," she writes.

If you can help please write to Avril at 18 Whitby Drive, Stockton Lane, York YO31 1EX, ring her on (01904) 424872 or email avrilappleton1@btinternet.com

Updated: 09:03 Monday, October 04, 2004