The village hall charity
The village hall is a registered charity (number 305160). The Sole Managing Trustee is the parish council which means that parish councillors serve an additional role as a member of the trustee body. The two roles are kept at arms length from each other at all times. The trustee must hold an annual meeting open to the public and in 2024 it was held on Saturday 13th April in the village hall. Click here to read the unadopted minutes of that meeting.
Become a friend
An active group of supporters who help organise fund raising events and do some hands on tasks with the upkeep and maintenance of the hall have come together in the spring of 2024. It is an informal group without meetings or committees and keep in touch by quarterly newsletter. If you would like to receive the newsletter than ask to join the mailing list by emailing Paula Jones.
What’s new
The kitchen is having a face lift in the spring of 2024. Redecoration, a new cooker and a new floor.
The old wooden trestle tables have been consigned to the bonfire! Most of the tables are now the modern GOPAK variety found in most church halls.
All the old plastic chairs have gone too and we have 100 new (new to us) chairs courtesy of Appledore Village Hall who were undertaking a major renovation of their hall.
The redecoration throughout was completed in 2016 thanks to the good offices of the W.I. who not only provided materials and labour but also managed to preserve the curtains by having them cleaned and replacing the track! Well done, W.I., and many thanks.
Address and user groups
The address of the Village Hall is Brownbread Street, Ashburnham, TN33 9NX. For users of the app What3Words the three words are satin.skews.ropes. The Village Hall is regularly used by the Table Tennis group and the newly formed indoor bowls group (see pictures below).
The village hall is the local Polling Station and other regular users are the W.I. Library and Cafe (twice per month), PANTS (am dram presentations one or two times a year), Ashburnham Arts every November and the churches with services once or twice a year (Plough Sunday).
How is the village hall financed?
Like many village halls the finances can be precarious with income coming from a mixture of rental income and fund raising events. To keep these two income streams separate, a group of supporters set up the Ashburnham Village Hall Appeal Fund sometime in the 1990’s. Money from fund raising events for the maintenance of the village hall are banked here separately. Since November 2022 the parish council became Sole Managing Trustee and in November 2023 the Parish Council resolved to make an annual grant to the village hall. Commencing in 2024/25 the grant is £1,500.
History of the village hall
The building was the former school which closed in the 1960’s. In 1963 the Revd John Bickersteth, who inherited the building together with the entire Ashburnham Estate from Lady Catherine Ashburnham (1890-1953) gifted the building (minus the integral School House) to the village for use as a village hall. The building was conveyed to the Parish Council as Custodian Trustee but ownership reverts to the Estate should the building no longer be used as a village hall. The conveyance created both a charity (number 305160) and a management committee whose members were also charity trustees. In November 2022 trustee numbers had dwindled and no new members could be found and so the final act of the management committee was to appoint the Parish Council as Sole Managing Trustee.
Facilities
- main hall (16m x 7m)
- small hall (8m x 5.8m)
- toilets
- 60 chairs, 8 GOPAK tables @ 2ft x 3ft and 12 @ 2ft x 6ft
- can seat up to 90 people (theatre style)
- kitchen with cups, plates, cutlery, urn, coffee machine, cooker.
Charges
Charges for the hire of the village hall are per session. A session is either morning, afternoon or evening. The standard charge from 1st April 2023 is £70 per session with a 50% reduction for parish residents. For village groups meeting on a regular basis the charge is £20 per session.
Bookings
For enquiries about availability and to make a booking, please contact Robin Ratcliffe on 01424 892674 or robin.ratcliffe@btopenworld.com