Partizan - Forlorn Hope

This book explores the form, function, locations & current status of the hundreds of drill halls across Britain, which have accommodated volunteer forces from Victorian times to the present day, and it includes a comprehensive gazetteer.

This book is designed to provide the general reader with a guide to a neglected, and often over-looked class of building, once part of every town, and urban neighbourhood; and the local or family historian a starter for further exploration. There are chapters on the historical background of the volunteers; the development of the design and functions of drill halls from 1860 to the present; detailed case-studies of towns, cities, rural areas, and specific formations at particular times; the recent fieldwork survey carried out by the author; and gazetteers listing hundreds of drill halls in England, Scotland & Wales. There are appendices dealing with those buildings specific to the Militia; the current uses to which former drill halls are put; inscriptions and crests; architects; and other topics. It is illustrated throughout by more than 300 photographs and plans of, mainly, surviving examples.