Village Hall History

The Village Hall (formerly Parish Room) was opened in 1911, when the land and building were donated for the use of villagers by Mr Brian Dale, a generous benefactor, in whose memory a window in nearby St Mary's Church is dedicated. On 29th March 1967 the Village Hall Trust was registered and has been managed by the Village Hall Committee ever since.

The Hall was extended in the mid-1990s and in 2015 a number of major improvements were identified including an electronic entrance for wheelchair and elderly users, floor insulation, new windows at the back and black weatherboarding on the front. At that time the cost was estimated at £21,500

The Hall received generous funding from THE BIG LOTTERY's AWARDS FOR ALL (England) of £9,409 on 10th November 2015. This enabled work to start in January 2016 as follows:

• removed the old stage, wind-proofed the wall behind and re-faced it in plasterboard

• installed a new electronic door and constructed a sloping path up to the new doorway

• completely renewed the electricity supply panel with two modern consumer units to ensure compliance

• take up the old floor, insulate below it and lay a complete new sub-floor with a hard-wearing vinyl top surface, greatly maximising heat retention and reducing heating costs

• repaint the interior walls of the Hall

The GARFIELD WESTON FOUNDATION awarded a grant of £2,500 in 2017 contributing significantly towards the cost of:

• renewing all the exterior wooden weatherboarding with modern low maintenance material

• painting the existing external cladding

Thanks to further grants from the TESCO BAGS OF HELP scheme and from CAYNHAM PARISH COUNCIL with a very generous donation of £2,500, we were able to:

• replace all the windows at the rear of the Hall

• install a completely new heating system incorporating frost protection

• upgrade the lighting and provide extractor fans in the toilets

• purchase a trolley to move chairs around