Another busy month for our village hall with the chance of meeting up with some of our lovely groups who use the hall at the Village Hall open day. Over 50 people popped in to see us and enjoyed the homemade cakes and biscuits along with a good old chat!!
We asked people what they would like to see at the hall and they had some great suggestions.
- Regular table top sale
- Farmer’s Market
- Craft Fairs
- A weekly cafe
- A regular get together with a quiz night, race night, bingo night etc.
- A Pizza oven
- Cinema nights
- Activities during the school holidays for our children
- Themed nights
All of these suggestions were fed back to all the Village Hall Trustees at the monthly meeting and a fundraising sub committee has been specially set up to look at this wish list so there will be lots to report next month. I am pleased to report that a Table Top sale has been arranged for the 25th March between 10am - 2pm. Keep an eye out for posters on the Village Hall website, Facebook page, Parish Noticeboards and the Village Hall Noticeboards.
We discussed improvement plans for the hall, from flooring in the side rooms, to an extension and accessibility issues for hall users using the side rooms if the main hall is occupied.
Two Architects are submitting plans to us addressing the various issues and on what hall users have suggested.
- Better access to all the rooms
- A conservatory style extension to the back of the hall
- Soundproof bi fold doors between the side rooms and similar to the main hall to allow the whole hall to be opened up for large events
- To remove the energy wasting lights to the stage and replace with LED lights
- To improve the sound system
- To remove the carpet and replace with LV tiles
- Investigate a better more energy efficient heating and lighting system
- To re-configure the main entrance to allow a ramp and automatic doors
We will be holding a public consultation and presenting our vision for the hall in the next few weeks. Your participation in this consultation is very important.
We are currently chasing funds for all these proposed ideas and we will keep you posted on whether we are successful or not. Fingers Crossed!
Two Trustees visited the brand new village hall in Ellingham for a National Village Hall Week 2023 event. The hall has all the latest technology from solar panels to a drop down projector and a beautiful wall of glass so the light was impressive. We heard about Warm Hubs, the Northumberland Village Halls Heritage Project and a Solar Powered Community Buildings Project. We came back full of really good ideas and most importantly, where funding for these projects is available. The speakers spoke about Welcome and Inclusive Village halls, Children and Young people and how they may benefit hugely from activities at our Village Halls. We are attending a presentation around a Solar Power cooperative this month and we are definitely signing up for the Heritage Project as we have our own Historian, Richard Tolson, and such a lot of great memorabilia of our hall. The material collected will form a big book of all our beautiful halls and their place in our communities.
Stannington Village Hall Trustees