South Luffenham Village Hall
Village Hall Refurbishment
Between 2019 and 2022 the hall under went a major refurbishment project to bring it into the 21st century but maintaining many of it's original features and preserving it as a historical building in the heart of the village.
Thank you to all those involved in all phases of the refurbishment………
Taff and Kev at Great War Huts for telling us we could make it work and save the hall.
All the villagers who wielded a paintbrush, a spade, a hammer or a saw.
Malcolm Foulkes – Arnold at Corporate Architecture Limited for giving his time to us and drawing up the plans for the work.
Carl and all at Phoenix Construction for executing our plans, dealing with all the changes, for donating the hall sign and generally being very patient!
Caroline Lea at The Kings Cupboard for fabric advice (and curtain hanging).
Welland Vale and Rutland Water Garden Centres, James Sellicks Estate Agents and all the villagers for plant donations.
South Luffenham Parish Council for the 3 planters donated for the Platinum Jubliee.
Kevin Butcher at the Rural Communities Council for all his advice and support.
The Augean Community Fund and ACRE (Defra) for the grants.
Karen Roberts at Grantscape and Deborah Clarke at ACRE for their help and advice.
May 2019
After the recent publicity calling for new members we now have a full committee to take on the running of the Village Hall. After some initial investigation with a heritage organisation called Great War Huts we have decided to focus on restoring the hall to it’s former glory starting this summer with the exterior. Working weekends will be announced soon and we will be looking for your support to wield paint brushes and carry out general maintenance tasks – bacon butties and copious mugs of tea to be provided as an incentive! We will also be looking for your support with fund raising ideas as we then plan to remodel the interior. The hall was opened on 28 September 1922 and our refurbishment project aims to be fully completed in time for a grand reopening in 2022 to celebrate its centenary. If anyone has any old photographs or information about the hall over the last 97 years we would be very interested in seeing them.
August 2019
Many thanks to all the volunteers who came along to our maintenance weekends over the summer – we couldn’t have achieved so much without you! We have spruced up the interior, painted and repaired the front façade, treated and repaired the exterior wood, removed the dangerous footpath, dug a flower border, had the windows repaired and crucially exposed the underneath of the building to enable air flow.
November 2020/
January 2021
Earlier this summer we were lucky enough to secure funding from the Augean Community Fund to carry out work on the village hall roof. Many thanks to Malcolm Foulkes-Arnold for his help in achieving this and providing design and project management for the work. The roof improvements will be carried out in early December to increase insulation and re-cover the existing roof in keeping with hall and its surroundings and in line with the planning permission already granted.
We also have a grant from the Parish Council to put a new pathway in alongside the hall and this will be done in the Spring once the roof work has been completed.
Although the current situation has meant we have been unable to hold any fundraising events in 2020 we are hopeful that we are still going to be able to carry out the bulk of the refurbishment plans including the next phase to remodel the interior in time for our 2022 100 years celebrations.
Spring 2021
We have had a full fibre connection installed as part of the Digital Rutland scheme which means we will have Wi-Fi available for users and to allow us in the future to run events and activities using the internet. We were again successful in obtaining additional grants from The Augean Community Fund and Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) who operate a scheme under delegated authority from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The grants were contracted in early 2021 for work which is currently taking place to relocate the kitchen and toilets and remove the internal dividing wall. A new heating system will be installed, the hall will be fully rewired, redecorated and have new curtains and lighting. We also received a grant from South Luffenham Parish Council (as reported last year) which will enable us to replace the path at the side of the hall and that funded some outside storage. Overall, this means by the time we are able to reopen in May, albeit at 50% capacity, we will have a much improved village facility and when further restrictions lift later in the year we will be running full steam ahead. This will leave only the last phase of improvements we would like to make to the hall which is to remove the old lean-to kitchen, improve the patio area and reposition the ‘main’ entrance facing the parish field and we are still aiming to complete all work by September 2022.
Spring 2022
We were fortunate enough to receive further funding at the beginning of 2022 which meant the last phase of improvements we proposed to make to the hall could be carried out - removing the old lean-to kitchen, creating a decking area, improving the storage area at the side of the hall, including installing the old kitchen sink outside and installing bi fold doors in the end wall of the hall, creating more light and access to the decking. We have fulfilled our ambition to complete all work by September 2022 when the hall will have been on site for 100 years and thank the administrators at the Augean Community Fund for funding this final phase and again Carl at Phoenix Construction for bringing the vision to life and Malcolm Foulkes - Arnold for his professional support.
Summer 2022
There was a fantastic morning a few weeks ago clearing the border down the side of the hall and getting those ‘hedgehogs’ in the guttering!
A huge thank you so much to all who came and helped - Ian, Roger, Andrew, Amanda, Jim, Vic, Pat, Peter, Duncan and Jason.
We still are looking for plant offerings so if you have a shrub or suchlike you’d like to donate please get in touch and we’ll happily relocate it for you.