Current account
The village hall is a registered charity ( charity number 305160) and regulated by the Charity Commission. Income is from rental of the hall or of equipment such as tables or crockery plus donations and grants. The principal outgoings are insurance, energy costs and maintenance.
The hall generally covers its running costs from rental income, but it leaves little for more than minimum maintenance and it has hade to rely on fundraising and donations to bridge the gap between income and outgoings. In the last couple of years fortunes have changed with an uptick in rental income meaning that there is a greater surplus available for maintenance and improvement projects. A summary of the finances since 2021 can be viewed by clicking this link.
Improvement costs have been considerable over the years with the last major improvement being the renovation of the car park including the relaying of the surface water drains and channelling it into a new soak away that also takes the rain water of all the roofs including those of The School House. Earlier replacements were all the wooden windows with uPVC double glazed units and a new oil tank. All were made possible due to a generous subsidy from Ashburnham Thanksgiving Trust which donates £3 for every £1 raised by fundraising activities. The £3 + £1 creates a pool from which the village hall can draw 75% of the cost of maintenance and improvement work.
April 2026
Appeal Fund
The Ashburnham Village Hall Appeal bank account was opened at Lloyds Bank in 1986 by the Village Hall Committee at that time in order to have a separate account for income and expenditure from fund raising events. It has no separate committee and is administered as part of the village hall charity by the Sole Managing Trustee.
For many years money raised from events was transferred from the Appeal Fund to the Village Hall Committe’s funds as required to maintain solvency or fund projects. After June 2015 fund raising activities for the village hall came to a virtual standstill when many represented organisations on the village hall committee at that time withdrew to concentrate on fund raising for a new village hall to be built at the cricket ground in Church Road.
Since then the Appeal Fund bank account has continued to be used as a convenient repository for specific fund raising initiatives such as Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee where monies for a specific cause can be ring fenced without muddling the basic accounts of the village hall. Currently there are two ring fenced funds in the Appeal Fund account. One is the New Village Hall project and the other is the original Village Hall Appeal for which the fund was set up. Each ring fenced fund has additions made as and when the proceeds from a fund raising event for that cause are banked.
Ashburnham Thanksgiving Trust (ATT)
In 2006 Ashburnham Thanksgiving Trust offered to add £3 to every £1 raised from fund raising events in aid of the village hall. They set a cap on their total donation oat £50,000. It means that fund raising of £16,667 will support expenditure of £66,667 in total.
As at the spring of 2026 the total of funds raised to date is £13,500 meaning that only another £3,167 is required to reach the maximum that will attract the 3:1 uplift. Of the £50,000 that ATT will pay only some £20,000 has been drawn so there is still approximately another £30,000 that could be drawn as the need arises.