There are records relating to the ownership of the land on which the village hall stands from 1851; however it is believed that the first hall on the site was built for the Village Institute in 1914, the same year in which the recreation ground was opened as a coronation memorial to King George V. The king and queen came to Rowledge and walked on the recreation ground soon after on a visit to the area.

The owner of the land was Mr Charles Hay Walker who owned Frensham Hill (later Frensham Heights). He leased the land for the Village Institute for 1/- a year (5p in today’s money). He was a strict teetotaller and insisted that no alcohol was drunk at the institute. (not a rule we apply now!)

Until the mid 1920’s there was a single hall of galvanised iron with match boarded interior, with about three small committee or green rooms leading from it. There were no inside toilets. In 1925 Mr Faulkner of ‘Faulkner’s Nosegay Tobacco’, who lived in Bayford Cottage on the corner of The Avenue, paid for the erection of the room that abuts the Long Road standing in front of the original hall.A trust was established in 1926 to operate the hall for the ‘physical and mental recreation of the inhabitants of the parish of Rowledge’. This trust still operates today and governs the running of the hall.

By the mid 1970s the hall had fallen into some disrepair and faced an uncertain future. However, a bequest from Mr Sohns, a local nurseryman and gardener, allowed for another major refurbishment of the hall.