Second Hall
by Glynis Williams
In January 2011 the Committee heard that both applications had been successful.
ELM Construction were appointed to build the hall and completed the works in July 2012 with the Hall having an unofficial opening on the 13th July 2012.
As part of the Big Lottery application, a revenue sum of £20,000.00 was requested to employ a Manager/Marketeer and Mrs Rebecca Taylor was employed on the 1st May 2012 to manage and run the hall.
The official opening of the new hall took place on the 18th August 2012 some 63 years after the original opening on the 18th August 1949.
Building of the New Hall
The original Village Hall, which was opened on August 18th, 1949, served the local community well for the next 45 years but during the 1990s it almost closed due to lack of support and the building being in need of major refurbishment.
Thanks to the sterling work of the Hall Committee during this period the village hall was saved from almost certain closure. The minutes recorded the Hall Committee as R.E. and A.R. Hinds, Glynis and Steve Woodward, Lynette Jones, Sue Pask, Jo Reece, A.H. James, Messrs A.B. Davies, S.S. Monk, Barry Markham, D. Jones, E. Charrett, T. James, B.M. Emms, G.E. Fortescue, Barry Avis and P.D. Price.
A further 20 years passed and the hall was again in need of major renovations. Mr E. Spuffard offered to re-build the hall and it was his offer which sparked a meeting being called on the 12th September 2007. It was agreed at that meeting that a committee would be formed to seek funding to rebuild the village hall.
The original committee comprised John Evans, Mair Duthie, Ann Price, Edward Spuffard, Carol Preece, Jean Anderson, Glynis Williams, Tazine Bogue, Fraser Price and Laura Spuffard.
Shortly after the formation of the committee, Mrs Preece resigned and Sandra Bogue joined the committee becoming Treasurer and Proof Reader.
Architects, Page and Dean were appointed to design the building. Joanne Page of Page and Dean suggested that the committee approach the Welsh Assembly Government and the Big Lottery for funding.
The committee agreed this course of action and she along with John Evans and Nigel and Glynis Williams completed an Initial application form for Lottery funding in the sum of £15,000.00. It was proposed that this initial £15,000.00 would be used to consult the local community, prepare building plans and seek planning approval.
The Lottery felt they could support the hall's application and a full application (comprising 65 pages) together with Child Protection policy, Vulnerable Adult policy, planning documentation, Marketing and Communication plan and Project Plan was completed by Nigel Williams with the help and support of John Evans, Joanne Page, Glynis Williams and Sandra Bogue. Sandra unwittingly became the proof reader of the application and documentation.
Nigel Williams with the help and support of John Evans, Sandra Bogue and Glynis Williams also completed a funding application to the Welsh Government (WAG). Funding was also sought from other organisations with Bernard Sunley providing some £2,000.00 and the Welsh Church Fund £2,000.00.
The WAG application was successful but unfortunately, the Big Lottery felt that the hall's application was too expensive and not value for money. Due to that decision, the WAG funding was also lost, this was in August 2010.
Following the rejection of the Big Lottery application and the reasons for the rejection, it was felt that it would be worth making a further application but on a much smaller scale. Accordingly, Nigel Williams agreed to prepare, draft and lodge another application. This occurred in August 2010.
Accordingly, the Committee appointed Mistral, Architects to re-design the Village Hall on a smaller scale. Mistral were extremely efficient in that they produced their design and obtained planning permission within four months thus enabling the Big Lottery application to be lodged by December 2010. The funding sought from the Big Lottery was for £316,323.00 A further application was also lodged with WAG for £200,000.00. Again, John Evans and Sandra Bogue were very supportive proofing reading all the documentation.
Whilst these applications were being lodged, Mair Duthie, Ann Price, Glynis Williams and Jean Anderson along with other members of the committee and village, had been organising fund raising events and over a period of time, raised many thousands of pounds. A request was also made to the local community and many local residents anonymously donated significant sums of money towards the rebuild of the hall.