Village hall extension
Exciting plans for an extension to the village hall are being actively developed by the Village Hall Revival Group (VHRG – see more about the group below). VHRG are keen to have feedback from everyone in the village about the project. Feedback can be by filling in a feedback sheet at the village hall, by responding by email to ashburnhamVHRG@gmail.com, by text to a member of the VHRG committee or by leaving a message on the feedback phone line on 07471 190257.
The chart below tells you more about the project and the plan and as you can see there is a dedicated email address for your feed back. mailto:ashburnhamVHRG@gmail.com
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 have 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 2025 it was held on Saturday 12th April in the village hall. Click this download to read the unadopted minutes of that meeting.
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 winter of 2024. It has morphed into a formal organisation called Village Hall Revival Group. More details from Sharon Spicer sharonspicer1@sky.com
Village Hall Revival Group (VHRG)
An active group of supporters who organise fund raising events and do some hands on tasks with the upkeep and maintenance of the hall have come together during 2024. It ha since morphed into a formal organisation called the Village Hall Revival Group. More details from Sharon Spicer sharonspicer1@sky.com
What’s new at the village hall
The kitchen had a facelift in 2024 with new cooker, flooring and re-painting.
Also in 2024, fibre was installed providing hi speed broad band and a telephone line.
The hall is equipped with modern GOPAK tables, chairs and the kitchen has a good stock of crockery and cutlery available to hirers.
The last big 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. There is a good sized car park.
The Village Hall is regularly used by the Table Tennis group and the recently formed indoor bowls group (see pictures below).
The village hall is the local Polling Station and other regular users include the Library and Cafe, Table Tennis, Short Mat Bowls, PANTS (am dram presentations one or two times a year), Ashburnham Arts every November and local churches who hold Harvest Supper and Plough Sunday services in the hall.
How is the village hall financed?
Like many village halls the finances can be precarious with income coming from a mixture of rental income, fund raising events and donations.. To keep income from fund raising events separate, a group of supporters in the 1990’s set up the Ashburnham Village Hall Appeal Fund. Money from their fund raising events for the maintenance of the village hall was banked in the Appeal Fund separately and disbursed for specific improvement or maintenance projects. The account is still used for any ad hoc fund raisers such as the Art Exhibition.
In 2006 Ashburnham Thanksgiving Trust offered to augment fund raising by adding £3 to every £1 raised and setting a cap on their spend of £50,000. In 2025 there is still some £30,000 remaining to be drawn down.
In 2025 a new group of fund raisers emerged, the Village Hall Revival Group, and they have their own bank account for funds they have raised.
In November 2022 the parish council became Sole Managing Trustee of the village hall charity 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 and this was repeated for 2025/26. £1,500 is typically the annual shortfall of income to match expenditure.
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 2025 is £75 per session with a 50% reduction for parish residents. For village groups meeting on a regular basis the charge is £23 per session.
Bookings
For enquiries about availability and to make a booking, please contact Robin Ratcliffe on 01424 892674 or robin.ratcliffe@btopenworld.com