Thursley Institute, now Prospect Cottage, was originally built as a working men’s club. The Parish register states – ‘the site for the institute was given by Captain H Rushbrooke, the architect was Sir Edwin Lutyens, the builder was Mr W K Fosberry. The building was formally opened and given to the Parish Council on February 11th, 1901’. Captain Rushbrooke paid for much of the building itself and took a paternal interest in the running of the club. Reg Fosberry gave Thursley History Society one of the original Lutyens architectural drawings, as shown below, now in their Archives.
The Institute comprised a reading room, a billiards and games room and accommodation for the caretaker. Until 1914 one of the bedrooms was used by the Thursley Parish Nurse. The institute was disbanded in 1959 and was sold for residential use in 1968. The, then, conditions of sale included an interesting clause, presumably inherited from the rules of the institute, forbidding the purchaser to use the building for the ‘discussion of political or religious subjects ….or for the consumption of intoxicating liquors’.
Prostpect Cottage and Barbara Richmond, 1997
