Village Hall

Timetable of the "Save the Hall" campaign

8th March 2005	Extraordinary meeting called to discuss the future of the hall following the refusal by the Lottery to fund the rebuilding project. Decision made to extend the life of the existing hall and carry out repairs using the cash surplus. The most urgent requirements were the replacement of the rotten windows, repair of leaking roof and provision of gutters, down-pipes and soak-aways.
5th April 2005	Annual General Meeting of the Village Hall Committee to elect members for the forthcoming year.
July 2005	Notification of refusal by DEFRA to fund re-building the hall as "the scale of the project was unrealistic for the size of the population." Confirmation from all funding sources approached that we were not eligible for grants for sums sufficient to re-build the hall.
July 2005	Committee decision to go ahead with double glazed replacement windows and patio doors from Ivybridge Home Improvements and carry out a full maintenance programme.
16th August 2005	Extraordinary meeting called to discuss the condition of the building following the discovery of a serious problem with the roof structure and the top of the south wall, which had apparently been pushed out by movement of the roof. Unanimous decision by the trustees and committee to "Produce and implement a full maintenance programme for the upkeep and refurbishment of the existing hall and attempt to raise all necessary funding through a programme of grant applications, fund raising events and requests from the community as the needs arise." An Action plan was drawn up to identify the full nature of the work required and grant applications were made to the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Sustainable Development Fund and The Inman Trust. Ideas for fund raising events were discussed and the committee were delighted to accept a generous offer from Bill Guest to start the ball rolling with a sponsored "10 marathons in 10 days".
September 2005	A fantastic response to Bill's marathons, raising £4,397 in sponsorship money. A further £897 raised through Gift-Aid, reclaiming the tax on donations. Notification that the application for funding from the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Sustainable Fund had been unsuccessful because: "the fund was over-subscribed and did not push the right buttons with the spirit of the grant. We were not identifying new ideas or ground-breaking innovations and although the panel stressed that they recognised the importance and value of our hall this was not in line with what the grant was for." Matched thirds funding claims submitted to the Community Council of Devon and South Hams District Council.
November 2005	The committee identified that if we wanted to raise money for the hall we would have to do it ourselves and launched the "Save Our Village Hall" fund in the Link magazine and on posters in the hall. Steady sums of money started coming in from events such as barbecues, Villages in Action, sponsored Christmas Cards, Games Evenings etc, plus donations from the PCC, Bell Ringers and individuals. A generous donation of £5,000 was received from a Charitable Trust in the village.
January 2006	Donations since August 2005 had now reached £12,551.
March 2006	A magnificent donation of £10,000 was received and further sums of over £1,000 from local residents
April 2006	The appeal letter was distributed to all owners of homes in East Portlemouth. Professional advice was taken to establish the nature of the work needed to restore the hall and quotations sought from local builders
25th April 2006	The Chairman was able to inform the 27 people present at the Annual General Meeting that since launching the appeal the grand total so far was £32,547. A letter was being sent to local businesses and many fund raising events were planned for the summer. The committee were re-elected and Elaine Neaverson and Julia Ilsley were welcomed to the ranks. Moves were being made to try to purchase some of the land surrounding the hall to provide extra facilities.
May 2006	A fundraising "Supper Party" was held, sponsored by Julia and Martin Ilsley which raised another £747.40
June 2006	Further Gift Aid revenue added £5,907 and donations brought the total so far to £38,627. An Access and Awareness Audit was carried out confirming that any work or alterations undertaken by the committee must comply with the Disability Discriminations Act, raising the likelihood of additional expense to the project.
July 2006	A highly successful Summer Barbecue was held on a beautiful evening with the knowledge that it would be the last function in the hall before the work began. The contract was granted to Simon Proctor who in typical Devon fashion decided to start work immediately. A hasty working party met on the Thursday evening to prepare, put away and drink a toast to the hall before work commenced on Friday July 21st. The first ever Car Boot Sale was held in the field next to the old Gara Rock Hotel and just under £1,000 was raised by our budding antiques road-show Steptoes.
August 2006	The hall was a hive of activity with a new storeroom, a new south wall, strengthened roof trusses, new tiles, a beautiful timber clad ceiling, and plenty of Radio 1.
September 2006	Donations to date reached £53,952 with the Gift Aid total adding a further £11,656.32. As fast as we complete something a new problem rears its head and we are faced with ever increasing bills for replacing the kitchen and small meeting room ceilings. The flat roofed porch continues to leak and the committee decide to submit plans to replace the existing with a pitched roof porch, which will comply with the Access and Awareness Report findings. Following a generous offer to fund it the internal decoration in the main hall is completed and the decision to have the Art Room decorated to match is taken.
October 2006	Planning permission for the porch is granted and an anonymous donor offers to pay for its construction.
November 2006	Volunteers start work on the outside drains and soakaways, the storage cupboard, the kitchen and meeting room decoration and the massive task of cleaning and clearing everything in order to re-open as soon as possible. A grant is received for £500 from the Southwest Small Grants Foundation, for the purchase of four high backed armchairs for use in the hall. Donations to date now reach £55,282
December 2006	A series of working parties continue to carry out voluntary work to get the hall ready for use. The consumer units are boxed in, coving is put up in the small hall and kitchen, windows, doors and skirting boards painted, ground is leveled and gallons of cleaning materials are used. Somehow Christmas happens as well! Saviours come from afar. Brian Carleton from Appleby and Mandy Kressin (nee Johnston) from Texas, USA join with us to transform our sea of mud into a beautiful natural pine floor. Sanding, cleaning and varnishing takes place day after day until a stunning finish is achieved. Even more cleaning, Painting and sorting takes place.
January 2007	The first Pilates and thursday afternoon teas are held in the hall since July 2006. A real feeling of coming home is experienced by us all.
February 2007	Mandy Cole starts making the curtains for the hall and art room. Poles are put up. We receive a sideboard from Joyce and Stavert Irving and a fridge freezer from Peter Harding's estate. We purchase a second hand shed from the gazette and continue to get the hall ready for our Villages in Action production in March. Parish Council meetings all resume in the hall. Estimates are sought for the refurbishment of the toilets and we decide to halt the construction of the porch until March to make sure that we can hold our first function as planned. Plans are made to enclose the area under the kitchen sink and provide a sliding door cupboard and shelves.
March 2007	The first function in our newly renovated hall takes place. Under the newly installed lampshades "The Amazing Mr Smith" performs to a full house of appreciative locals and friends. Thank goodness the roof survives the hilarity. The newly acquired shed is erected by enthusiastic working parties and is prepared for use. The application to the lottery Awards for all fund is submitted in an attempt to raise the money needed to replace and upgrade the w/c's and fire doors, as required by the Access and Awareness report. The builder still hasn't started on the porch.
April 2007	The hall is used as a Polling station for the local elections. Working parties continue to transform the outside and regular events are taking place again inside. Still no start on the porch.
May 2007	Notification is received that we have failed to receive lottery funding. This is a considerable blow as the "match funding" to be sought from South hams District Council (SHDC)was dependant on this being secured. Work finally starts on the porch and footing are dug out and the concrete base is laid. The uprights start to appear.
June 2007	An application to the SHDC Community Grant Fund is submitted. Work continues slowly on the porch much to everyone's frustration. The porch roof is tied into the main hall roof and tiling commences but progress is slow. Preliminary work for the electrical supplies both inside and outside is undertaken and occasional sitings of the builders are met with much rejoicing.
July 2007	After some delay and a lot of telephone calls, work has commenced on the porch again with the wooden framework being completed. The glass for the main outside doors has been fitted and the rendering work to the sides of the porch is progressing well.
August 2007	This month progress was slow on the porch. Although the weather was kind. However, the fencing around the perimeter of the hall was started, but an unforeseen obstacle has ceased all work for the time being.
September 2007	Work continued on the porch and the electrics were installed - we are now making progress!
October 2007	We are nearly there. All work on the porch is nearing completion. the walls have been painted and the lights fitted both on and inside. A nice few days in October meant that the whole of the building could be painted outside and what a transformation.
November 2007	Work has now finally been completed on the porch and only the carpet needs to be laid, probably in December. The three new fire doors have been fitted.
December 2007	Alas it has been noticed that water has been seeping in under the porch doors and we have had to request that a new door be fitted to rectify the problem. Because of this, it was decided that we should not go ahead and lay the the matting in the porch until the new door has been hung and tested in adverse conditions.
January 2008	We are still waiting for the new door to the porch. However work has now commenced on the new toilets. The wall in the corridor has been demolished and bricked up from the kitchen where a cupboard is going to be, in order to house the fridge freezer. The wall from the ladies toilet has been knocked down and a new door fitted. This is now the disabled toilet. The old gents toilet has been transformed with just a w/c and corner basin. The remainder of the room is to be the new cloakroom.
February 2008	The disabled toilets/cloakroom have now been completed and new floor coverings together with the painting of the walls and skirting boards will hopefully be completed by the end of this month. We have had a cushion made for our donated pew which is housed in the porch together with the new curtains for the inside of the porch doors.
March 2008	We have fitted the new blinds in the toilet facility. The work on our new toilets has finished. All the painting and floor coverings are complete, which has made a vast improvement to both the toilets and also the amount of space produced by the new layout. The only things we need now are accessories and fixtures and fittings. We are still waiting for our new door in the porch but this is now being made and hopefully should be fitted within the next few weeks. The fencing around the front of the hall will be completed by the end of the month when we shall have the new notice board together with a new gate fitted. we still cannot commence with the fencing at the rear and side of the hall until the ongoing problem is resolved. We are hoping to take delivery of an amount of top soil which is to be spread around the side of the hall. The only big item left still to do is the landscaping of the grounds so watch this space.
April/ May 2008	Towards the end of April the finishing touches were put in place in the hall. All that was left was the new gate and Brian Carleton's superb notice board to be put in place. The Grand opening was due to happen on the Sunday 4th of May. By friday the 2nd there was still no sign of the carpenters, by saturday it was all in place! Whew. That was close. Sunday dawned with showers forecast for the afternoon but by 12.30 with over 100 villagers present the sun was shining and Lady Jephcott was ready with her mother in law's original presentation scissors, first used in 1961 at a previous refurbishment opening. The red ribbon was duly cut and the gathered throng made there way into the hall to celebrate the occasion with a cheese and wine spread of sumptuous proportions. Presentations were made to retiring chairperson Bernice Johnston and her husband Malcolm in recognition of their tremendous success in achieving this landmark occasion.