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The Embassy Ballroom, Forest Hall

One night the ceiling came down.

 

The Embassy Ballroom was situated on the site of the Percy Hedley Workshop on Station Road, Benton.  Three times a year, the Red Cross held a dance in aid of charity.  These dances were always well attended; the men in evening dress and the ladies in their long dresses as was usual at these events.

The ballroom was upstairs and Wilkinson’s, a high class grocer, was on ground level.  One night a barn dance was being held in the ballroom and the dancers must have been very enthusiastic because the ceiling of Wilkinson’s came tumbling down on the barrels of butter in the room below.  The butter was ruined, and other stock was knocked off the shelves.  Needless to say, there were no more barn dances.

Shortly afterwards the Embassy and shops were destroyed in a fire.

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