New chapter for Clayhidon’s old village hall

Please take a look at our revised plan for a village hall extension and tell us what you think (writes Neil Carter, chairman, Clayhidon Village Hall Committee).

Before the pandemic stopped everything the hall committee was able to make big improvements, thanks to the generosity of local people and donations from Viridor and our parish, district and county councils.

We replaced the leaky roof, bought equipment for the kitchen, and invested in sound and film projection equipment. We also gained planning consent for an extension behind the stage, but this has expired and we have to reapply.

The committee took the opportunity to look again at the extension plan and we now think we could do better.

So, here’s the new plan—pretty similar to the old one but a little bigger and, we think, much better.

We have added a new entrance lobby on the side of the building towards the back of the car park. When necessary, we can turn this into a one-way system, using the existing front entrance as the exit.

There’s a lot more storage, in addition to the original plan for converting the old toilets to stores for tables, chairs, portable staging and other equipment.

We are separating the bar from the kitchen hatchway, to improve hygiene and reduce queuing. There’s much more room allocated to the new toilets.

We’ll have a smart, well insulated small meeting room, which on performance nights will double-up as a green room. And there’s an upstairs area for the parish archive, where the wonderful records kept by the history group can be stored safely.

What do you think? Have we missed anything? Do you have any questions or suggestions? I’d love to hear from you. Talk to anyone on the committee. Stop me in the lane or drop me an email at clayhidonhall@gmail.com.

We would especially like to hear from people with fundraising ideas. We already have £40,000 and we are likely to need another £125,000 to finish the job

Neil Carter, chairman,
Clayhidon Village Hall Committee.

PS:   Keep an eye on the parish website and The Pump for news of another major development. Following advice from a major potential corporate donor we have formed ourselves into a new-type charity  organisation known as a CIO, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. It sounds boring but it could make all the difference to our fundraising.