Services
The Rebuild of Elford Village Hall
This year we look back at one of the most important chapters in the history of Elford Village Hall — the ambitious rebuild project that transformed an ageing village facility into the modern, welcoming community space we know today.
Marking 20 years since construction began in 2006, we celebrate the vision, determination and community spirit that made the rebuild possible, and reflect on how the hall continues to serve village life today.
Not only does this period represent the centenary of the forming of Elford Village Hall management committee but in 2006 we also celebrate the 20th anniversary since the rebuild project was begun.
By 2001 there had been no Village Hall committee for a few years but eventually a new group came together in November of that year.
They inherited a 75-year-old basic village hall of simple timber construction, few modern facilities, an inability to meet current regulations and virtually bankrupt.
There was a main hall with a stage at one end and a bar/kitchen passageway at the other end, with a 1960s flat roof extension on the side providing the Shakespeare meeting room(Named after Fred Shakespeare), ladies/gents and a table/chair store that had been partially cleared to provide a small meeting room (named the Jubilee room after the recent Queen Elizabeth II golden Jubilee)
Following a few years of fundraising the hall was put back onto a good financial footing and the committee began to the plan for the future…………… when the list of requirements got longer and longer it was suggested it would be better to knock down the hall and start again…………. when the laughing stopped there was a poignant silence and as they say the rest is history.
An initial small grant was obtained from the local authority to fund the design and planning process. A local architect was appointed to redesign the existing hall and to extend the premises to satisfy upcoming legislation and fulfil the requirements suggested by the response to a village questionnaire and 21st-century usage.
The plans that were drawn are largely what we see today. The main hall was extended for greater capacity and the stage was moved to the opposite end to replace the kitchen. The Shakespeare room was left untouched, the toilets revamped to incorporate disabled facilities and the old storeroom converted into a kitchen and bar.
A new extension provided the Jubilee room (that had been the latter use of the storeroom), a much needed foyer and provision for a room upstairs if funding allowed.
The cost was put at approximately £500,000 and so whilst the planning process was followed the committee set about raising the money.
The required monies were eventually raised after 3 years with a combination of cost cutting the initial plan, grants and fund raising with the final gap funded by a personal loan taken out by the members of the committee.
On the advice of the architect a quantity surveyor(Francis Graves) was appointed which proved invaluable on a project like this when staged payments had to be justified from all the various sources of funding.
After a tender process local builders R B Williams were appointed and all was set for a start date…………… but not quite The original plan was to leave the main building as it was but replace the timber walls with modern cavity masonry whilst retaining the original roof and then extending into the car park.
The newly appointed builders suggested it may be a lot cheaper to simply knock the whole thing down and start again……. but to the agreed plan. Not wishing to start a complete planning process all over again we approached the local planning authority with the idea of knocking the whole hall down on license and then rebuilding as per the agreed plans………….. we held our breath…….. and they agreed.
And therefore on the morning of the 15th of May 2006 the bulldozers arrived and by dusk the old Hall had gone
The first phase of the main hall was largely finished by the beginning of 2007 and reopened for business.
However almost immediately further funds were secured to provide additional accommodation upstairs and so the foyer was divided to provide the builders with a separate access to the first floor conversion.
We also obtained further monies to build the missing stage, landscape the garden and then to install a ground source heat pump to replace the original fitted electric heating.
(It is indeed true that when the drills arrived to fit the underground pipes below the car park that one village resident was fooled into believing we were building an underground car park)
All the major works were completed by 2008 although various items removed with the initial cost cutting were gradually reinstated over the next 5 years
Next episode: “the opening ceremony“ 2008)
(An excerpt from the history of Elford Village Hall
by Gregory J Watkins)
