Monday 9 June 2014

Big Lottery Award

St. John the Baptist
Our community has just been allocated a Big Lottery Award to rebuild the village hall.

The village hall is an important place in our community.
Over the past 20 years the community has lost a local shop, post office and public house. We have no public transport service and the nearest town is Appleby-in-Westmorland, four miles away. The Church and the village hall are the only places to meet people socially. The photo shows the Church; the village hall is across the road and up a bit to the right of the picture, out of sight. I will get photo's before they begin the rebuilding.

I heard the news at the monthly 'Coffee & Craic' on Saturday.

Coffee & Craic is one of a number of events held at the village hall. We also have film nights and other one-off events such as Pot Luck suppers and quizzes. With a new, bigger, and better designed hall, many more events can be hosted and ideas are already piling up.

The Coffee & Craic is an important part of our rural life. As newcomers we met people from our new community. Going forward it is a chance to socialise with the people we only wave to in passing, or yell "Good Morning!" to as we spy them whilst out walking.

We have seen the plans and, if all goes well, it will be a bobby dazzler of a village hall.

11 comments:

  1. That's brilliant news. When I buy my lottery tickets every week, I always think, ah well if I don't win at least some of the money goes to good causes. The lottery fund is good like that.

    Jean x

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  2. Very good news indeed, as you say with so many places closing in villages you really need a meeting place.

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    1. It's sad to see how much the closures affect village life.

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  3. With no other public amenities the village hall is clearly somewhere that needs keeping and, thanks to this award, rebuilding. Flighty xx

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    1. It's too small to serve the community properly as it is. A new design will open up more opportunities for different groups.

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  4. The small towns will disappear but you can keep a community if there's some place to meet and celebrate.

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  5. What wonderful news... our village benefited the same. We were able to restore the village park at its centre and repair the toilets. Our village was built around a factory in 1926 and has quite a history to it. I look forward to reading your updates.

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    1. It's good to hear of somewhere else that has benefited.

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