Village Hall
See also: The Village Hall Leaflet
For a schedule of what's booked for the village hall, please see: http://www.brownbearsw.com/freecal/NCVHALL.
Northchapel Village Hall News Jan 2009
Village Hall Grant Award
We can now confirm the success of our application for a grant from COMMA, which is ACRE'S (Action with Communities in Rural England) part of the deliverance of Defra's Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund.
We have been awarded £3,500 towards the hall floor, which was in a bad state of repair. The renovation work has been carried out by C. Berwick & Sons Ltd and the floor is good for future use.
We would also like to thank Action in Rural Sussex who sponsored our application.
Re-opening Party
The newly re-furbished hall is now open and up and running again. The re-opening party well off very well and everyone present seemed to enjoy themselves. And the new commercial dishwasher in the kitchen was duly christened washing up 150 wine glasses in 3 minute fast cycles!
Our regular user groups like the Carpet Bowls team will be back on a Thursday evening - do give Buster Guard a ring (707620) if you think you might be interested in coming along - and the Brownies and Rainbows on a Monday after school.
With regard to new activities - Kids' Judo classes are starting on a Thursday after school (contact: Tony Newton 07734617169); there is a new Pilates starter course of 6 classes starting Feb 3 on a Tuesday morning (contact: Ruth Vivian 707662) and Andrew Dempsey is taking junior 'soft' football sessions until the light evenings return. We are also currently trying to find a teacher for keep fit classes one evening a week as there does seem to be a demand for this.
Please let us know if you would like to be involved or have any ideas for activities in the Hall. Let's enjoy it and use it! Hall Management Committee contact numbers are at the back of the magazine and updated leaflets about hiring the hall are available in the hall and shop and the parish website.
Past News/Events
Northchapel Village Hall News Dec 2008
Work on the village hall is nearly complete. The builders, K J Temple, have done a really wonderful job with all the renovations - and in record time. Thanks are also due to Willie Poste, who has also done a great job as site manager, and to Mr Beglin, who has done a great job painting the outside of the hall, which now looks extremely smart!
HydeMartlett have generously given us another grant of £1,500 towards the hall re-furbishment, which is very much appreciated.
And at the time of writing we have just heard that Big Lottery Fund, Awards for All Programme, have agreed to award the Hall a grant of £10,000. This is wonderful news. We can now go ahead with ordering new kitchen equipment, including a commercial dishwasher, which means that all users will have up-to-date kitchen facilities in the future. We are also going to replace the old stacking chairs and tatty tables, which take up a lot of storage space, with new folding ones. Once the hall is up and running again this will make life a lot easier. The grant will also cover the cost of new blinds for the kitchen and the high windows in the main hall.
Don't forget the 'Re-opening Party' on January 10th, from 6-8pm. Come and see all the work that has been done and celebrate the 'new' Village Hall!
Northchapel Village Hall News June 2008
We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant of £50,000 from the Big Lottery “Reaching Communities” Fund towards the cost of renovating our village hall. This is added to the total already raised and pledged of £115,000 and brings us very close to achieving our total funding goal of £180,000.
Getting to this point has required a lot of time, commitment and focussed effort from many people including the village hall trustees, management committee, development team and many local residents. Without everyone’s help and support we would not be poised to start the renovation project this summer.
Pam Bruce, trustee and member of the development team commented, “We are all absolutely thrilled to have been successful in this very competitive process. There is no doubt that the level of money raised from within the community was viewed positively by the grant committee.”
Work is scheduled to begin this summer for a period of 4-5 months. At the end of the project, the revamped and renewed village hall will provide a key community facility for group activities, be they educational, sporting or social in nature.
Big Lottery official press release: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/pr_120608_se_rc_northchapel?regioncode=-se
Northchapel Village Hall News March 2008
Chilli Night Supper and Quiz. A most enjoyable Chilli Night Supper and Quiz was held in the Village Hall on Saturday 1 March as another fundraiser for the Hall. Eighteen teams of four vigorously competed for the 'honour' of winning the 'Northchapel Gnome'. Team 'Allo Vera' were the eventual winners in a closely fought contest beating 'The Mexican Has-Beans' by one point in the final round. Nearly £900 was raised for the Village Hall Appeal. Many thanks to all who competed and sent donations.
The revised plans for the Hall's refurbishment are displayed in the porch window of the Hall. Please do go and have a look.
Don't forget the Sponsored Walk on 12th April.
Do come along on the Sponsored Walk and bring families and friends - and dogs - under control please! We are starting from Northchapel Village Hall at 10.30am on Saturday 12 April. The walk will be around 6 miles in total and the route will take us up towards Hillgrove and across country to the Noah's Ark Pub in Lurgashall. You can either buy lunch at the pub (we can take orders for sandwiches before we start) or bring your own. Hopefully it might even be warm enough to sit outside! We are taking another route back to Northchapel for tea at the Hall. There are sponsorship forms available in the shop - or ring Tony Clay 707249 or Pam Bruce 707202. But if you don't fill in a form in time don't worry - come along anyway and put a donation in the tin. Proceeds will be divided between Northchapel Village Hall and St Michael's Parish Church.
See here for poster.
Northchapel Village Hall News Feb 2008
Hall Fundraising Events
The event on Saturday 3rd February in the Village Hall was well attended with an audience of around 50 people who came to hear a talk given by Rich Howorth of the Sussex Wildlife Trust. The talk was entitled ‘An Island of Tranquillity’ and focused on the special nature of the West Weald landscape and the importance of its management for the conservation of wildlife. Rich gave a lot of information about the Trust and the work being done on Ebernoe Common and the Mens (near Wisborough Green) with which many of us are familiar. The evening, which included wine and refreshments and a raffle, also raised £539 for the village hall renovation project.
The next event is a ‘Chilli Quiz’ evening on Saturday, 1 March at 7.30pm. At the time of writing this event has been widely publicised, with information on Northchapel website, posters around the village and flyers in February’s Parish News and Northchapel Stores. Tickets are available from Ruth Vivian (01428 707662)
There will be another Sponsored Walk on Saturday, April 12th starting at 10.30am from Village Hall. Last year’s circular walk via the Stag at Balls Cross was great fun and this year we are planning another route via the Noah’s Ark at Lurgashall. Sponsorship forms and walk details will be available from Northchapel Stores, Pam Bruce (707202) or Tony Clay (707247). Funds raised will be divided equally between the Hall Renovation Project and St Michael’s Church.
Hall Floor
A very big thank you to Alan Baker who stepped into the breach when several of the hall floor tiles ‘erupted’ in three separate places last month. He has done a fantastic job repairing the floor so that the hall can continue to be used until the proposed renovations.
Renovation Project Plans
A copy of the revised plans for the hall refurbishment will shortly be on display in the entrance window of the village hall. The project includes: a new enclosed entrance porch, which will afford access to the main hall and new WCs’, including disabled facilities; a refurbished extended kitchen; re-roofing the flat roof area; re-wiring; a new drainage system; replacing windows, doors and a new floor. The new heaters in the main hall are efficient and cost effective but further work is required to provide some heating in the kitchen and WCs and bring the hall up to standard. The estimated project costs are around £180.000 and it is hoped that work will begin later this summer. To date we have raised around £125.000, including grants and pledges.
Northchapel Village Hall Draw
Have you bought your tickets for the Northchapel Village Hall draw? If not, please contact Virginia Morgan (01428 707268) for a form, or pick one up from the Half Moon, The Deepwell, The Shop or The Working Men’s Club. One number only costs £2 a month. Set up a Standing Order OR send a cheque for a minimum of six months – just £12 and sit back waiting to win. We would really love every household in the village to buy a number and support the village hall. The more that play, the higher the winnings!
Jan 2008 update
The Northchapel Village Hall Appeal for the hall refurbishment has so far raised almost £120,000 through pledges, grants, the monthly lottery, donations and fundraising events. The estimated revised project cost to carry out the hall refurbishment will be £170.000, so although we still have a shortfall of £50.000 we are well on our way to reaching this target. Grants and pledges have been received to date from:
- Chichester District Council
- Chichester County Council
- Northchapel Parish Council
- Action in Rural Sussex - Local Network Fund
- Martlet Homes
- Hedley Foundation
- Garfield Weston Foundation
Alhough very disappointingly a bid to Community Buildings Big Lottery Fund last year was not successful (other halls in West Sussex also failed in their bids) alternative funding bodies are being applied to and all other funding sources explored. With building costs escalating and the hall building deteriorating quite rapidly, which in turn increases the amount of finance required, it is essential that work on the hall gets underway as soon as possible. It is therefore proposed that renovation work will start in July 2008.
Local Fundraising
With all that said - we are continuing with local fundraising. If you don't have a Lottery ticket yet - please do buy one. If you have never been to an event - make this the year you do! Your support is needed and it is very much appreciated.
Dates for Diary:
- 2nd February, 7.30pm in the Hall. Talk on the West Weald. £5/person to include a glass of wine and cheese. Raffle for Hall funds. You can find poster and ticket details on this website.
- 1st March, 7.30pm in the Hall. Another Quiz evening. Put your thinking caps on and come on down. £30/table of 4 - to include a Chilli Supper.
- 12th April. Hold this date for another Sponsored Walk, in conjunction with raising funds for St Michael's church. Work off those Easter Eggs!
Residents of Northchapel step out to save the Village Hall
£1,576.25 raised!
On Saturday 17th March 2007 about 40 residents of Northchapel, both young and old set out on a sponsored walk from the Village Hall in Northchapel to The Stag at Balls Cross and following light refreshments returned by a different route to the Village. Many of the walkers were accompanied by their dogs.
The walk was to help raise funds for the redevelopment of the Village Hall, built in the early 70s and which is badly in need of repair and updating .
Come And Walk For Northchapel Village Hall!
On Saturday 17 March - St Patrick's Day - there will be a FUNdraising walk for the Village Hall. This walk is for anyone, and everyone, who would like to join in and enjoy a fun day out in the spring sunshine... hopefully!
The walk will start from the Village Hall car park at approximately 11am. The route is a circular one of around 6 miles and will take us past Horton's Farm, through Wet Wood and Colhook to the Stag at Balls Cross, where you can buy drinks and sandwiches etc. The return route takes us back through the Ebernoe Woods, past Freehold Farm and Hortons to the Village Hall where Daphne Robinson and team will be on hand with tea and refreshments. If you don't feel up to walking that far, or have young children, you can always walk to the Stag and take a lift back to the hall - or alternatively you can take a short circular route of around one mile, starting and ending at the Village Hall - so you can still join in.
Sponsorship forms are available in the Shop - so do please pick one up. You can even just sponsor yourself! The important thing is to come and join in and raise some more money for the hall. Dogs - under control - welcome!
It would be helpful to have some idea of numbers - so if you think you might be coming could you please ring Tony Clay 707249 or Jane Walter 707458
Northchapel Village Hall Development Team Progress report for 2005/6
We would like to say a big thank you to the fund raisers for their ingenuity and hard work over the past year, which has been most successful in raising over £9,000 from the various events that they have arranged, including jazz in the garden and 2 quiz nights amongst many others.
In addition our appeal, which raised £2520 and a donation of £1600 from the Steam Rally has made our total from donations £4380. We have also received pledges and grants of £74,000 from CLC, West Sussex initiative, Chichester District Council, the Hedley Foundation, together with a loan arranged through the Parish Council.
The Village lottery has been very successful, but still needs your continuing support. To date it has raised £2445 and has paid out £1,000 in prizes through the monthly draw.
All the grants and fund raising means that we now have pledged a grand total of £88,825, which has enabled us to put in an application to the Big Lottery Fund for a grant in excess of £150,000.
None of this would have been possible without the generous support of everyone in the Village and their friends and family. Thank you all for your continued help and support.
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