Watchfield Village Hall

Watchfield Village Hall

Update about The New Watchfield Hall

 

2016 – Watchfield Hall Management Committee are informed that the Village Hall needed replacing.  The Hall was approaching 90 years old and as it was a wooden structure it would not be able to be refurbished as the committee were hoping to do.

2017 – 2018 – Plans were drawn for a new hall on the same footprint as the current building, with modern insulation, heating system and meeting current building regulations.  The approximate cost of the re build would be £300,00.00.

A local consultation was undertaken to ask the local community if they agreed that we should replace the Hall. A 65% return by the local community were agreed that a Hall was important and necessary as we live in a rural area and the Hall is the only public building in the Parish of Burnham Without.

2018 – 2019 – The Hall committee continued to fund raise with local events, two weekly Bingo, Prize Bingo, an Annual Flower Show and an Annual Harvest Supper and Coffee Mornings. The Hall was hired fairly regularly and several families gave donations when remembering local people who have, sadly, passed away. it was a slow process to raise funds.

The committee took advice from Community Council of Somerset who help look after and advise local Halls.  We asked the Hinkley Community Fund for help and were refused as we are some distance from Bridgwater.  We spoke to The National Lottery and other groups and charities that support Village Halls.  We were then advised to arrange full charity status as this would help with fundraising.  We were informed that we should particularly try to obtain a status of Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) as this is the better Charity status if you need a large sum for your building.

2020-2021 – Early in 2020 we had to close the Hall because of the Covid crisis.  In this time all our meetings were online and we did manage to achieve charitable status as a CIO.  We also had a large, generous donation from a local businessman.

2022-2023 – In this period and to date we have received a large donation from Sedgemoor District Council as it closed and merged with Somerset Council.  This has been match funded by your Local Parish Council, Burnham Without PC.  We have updated the Hall plans to meet new building regulations. To date we have raised £120,000.00

2023 and the future - With the help of Community Council of Somerset we are hoping you will help us revisit the survey we undertook in 2017-2018 this will be a survey online using the Hall website  www.watchfieldvillagehall.com

 and  our Facebook page or paper copies of the updated survey are available.  With this information, if enough people support the Hall, we can then use the feedback when we build a Business Plan to be sent to the main supporters who offer Grants to community halls.  With costs rising evermore steeply we know that we shall have to raise £500,000.00 to rebuild the Hall.  This is a huge task for a small rural community but the Trustees think that it is a worthwhile task.  Our Hall has always been popular as a meeting place, family parties and reunions have been held there, arts and musical events and hobby groups have hired the Hall.  We think that the new building would be a great asset to the area and would be used by the community for many years to come.