May 2023 Newsletter

May has once more been a busy month at our Village Hall, with the Parish Council and the Trustees of the Village Hall organising the celebrations for the Coronation of King Charles III on May 6th.

Over 200 people attended the event and it was wonderful to see so many children enjoying the day with their families.  We started with the Coronation showing ‘live’ in the Village Hall and then, as the weather forecast was completely wrong, the afternoon was enjoyed by all, outside in the sunshine, unlike the crowds in London who stood for hours in the pouring rain!  Northumberland weather wins again!  There was music, magic, face painting and more music. The Hall looked very patriotic with all of the bunting and union flags displayed to the full.

 

Upcoming improvements in the Hall:

The side room carpet has served us for many years but it’s looking a little tired!  We have decided to replace with a more practical hard floor which will benefit hall users much more and will flow nicely from the main hall.  Many thanks go to the Parish Council who have given us £5000 towards this.  A nice little aside, the chap who came to measure and quote remembered helping his father (many years ago) to lay the wooden floor in the main hall.  He’s also given us some practical, professional advice on the wooden floor and that is that it should never be washed, only polished and buffed.  Good to know.

After the great clean-up and polish of our kitchen by the W.I., we discovered that the cooker is not always left in the condition it was found by hirers.  To this end we have hired the services of a professional cooker cleaning company to come later in May so the cooker will match the rest of the kitchen.  In the future we feel that we will have to ask for a refundable deposit to cover professional cooker cleaning should it be needed.

All VH user groups should have now received the new hire charges either by hand, by email and if all else fails, on the website and VH notice board.

Our green-fingered Trustees have been busy tidying and potting up the planters outside the Village Hall and it all looked lovely for the Coronation weekend.