that reads "Her Majesty Queen Victoria granted this site and £200 towards the building of this school erected to the Glory of God and to the use of the poor of Aldborough Hatch". It was built to accommodate 160 boys and girls. In 1895 the average attendance was 135. The school was closed in 1912 when the building was adapted for use as St. Peter's Church halls. In 1948 the site of the church halls was purchased from the Crown Land Commissioners for £50. The halls were extended in 1958 at a cost of £4,714.14s.5d, when two flat roofed structures were added. One is a large hall that fronts onto Aldborough Road North, the other a Vestry room on the north west corner. The headquarters of the 1st Aldborough Hatch (St. Peter's) Scout Group was added and opened on 3 February 1979. Vicarage The first vicarage was built around 1879 adjacent to the south-west corner of the churchyard. It had an extensive garden to the south, a large field to the west, known as the meadow, and a lake to the south of that. The meadow was used for fêtes and garden parties, and by the Scouts and Guides who camped there. When he was living there it was common for Revd. Pickles to swim in the lake and undertake gardening naked. The vicarage was demolished in 1965 when the Revd. Jack Hesketh, who, as incumbent, held the title deeds of the vicarage and associated land, and with agreement from the Crown Land Commissioners sold them to a builder for housing for £82,500. The sum was invested for the benefit of the vicar which meant that his stipend was one of the greatest in the diocese and said to be greater than that of the bishop. The Revd. Hesketh died suddenly at the end of 1965, only had the benefit of this stipend for a few months and never occupied the new vicarage which was erected as part of the deal with the builders. When church law changed in the 1970s the stipend reverted to be the same as that for other clergy, and the Diocese probably put the balance in their general funds. Therefore, except for a short time, neither subsequent vicars, nor the parish benefited financially from the sale of the land (the proceeds of which would be worth in excess of £1 million today), despite assurances given