bvhManager – Bonsall Village Hall

17 June 202217 June 2022

Bonsall Village Hall celebrates after receiving £89,960 in National Lottery funding

The village hall management committee and Trustees are delighted to announce that we have been awarded £89,960 in funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK. We want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been involved with helping us put this bid together over the past year. This includes those of you who gave your time to advise us, provide us personal testimonials and encourage us throughout the process.

Bonsall Village Hall will use their funding to improve the access to the entrance of the village hall. This will involve resurfacing the access ramp, making the entrance accessible for wheelchair users and pushchairs and making repairs to the Victorian front porch area. Funds will also be used to improve the look of frontage, make the path surfaces smooth and non-slip as well as creating better lighting onto the walkways.

This new National Lottery funding will support all our regular users such as the Art Group, Yoga Groups, Luncheon Club as well as all those who use the village hall for other events. We anticipate that the improvements will make the village hall more accessible to more people and we look forward to welcoming you. Once the works are completed in Autumn 2022, we are planning to start a programme of regular events such as arts and live music.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. The National Lottery Community Fund distributes a share of this to projects to support people and communities to prosper and thrive. During the pandemic, in 2020 alone, The National Lottery Community Fund distributed almost £1 billion to charities and community organisations across the UK.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk.

Sandra Harris, who led the grant application said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, this grant means that we will be able to welcome more people to the village hall to enjoy the facilities and events that happen in our vibrant and friendly village. We are thrilled to have been awarded this money and it will make a big difference to people’s lives.” We have arranged a community meeting in the village hall, on July 29^th and we welcome anyone to come along to see our plans in detail, speak to us and also meet with the contractor we have appointed. We will be providing regular updates about the works and how they are progressing here on our website. The website will also indicate when the hall will be closed to bookings and when it will reopen again on the “What’s On” page https://bonsallvillagehall.org.uk/events/.

28 March 202127 September 2022

Grants we have applied for

These are the grants the village hall has applied for with the most recent at the top.

Grant or fund of money	Amount awarded	Date	Status
Community Leadership Scheme ( Irene Ratcliffe) – seed funding for planning application/architect	£500	Sept 2020	Won
Ernest Bailey Charity 79890 – seed funding for design works	£150	Nov 2020	Won
Local Projects Fund ( Councillors Purdy and Pawley) – seed funding for planning/architect	£500	Oct 2020	Won
Better Derbyshire Dales Fund – disabled ramp and building works	£4051	Mar 2020	Won
5 WAYS TO WELLBEING SMALL GRANTS SCHEME – for broadband connection	£722	31.3.21	Declined
5 WAYS TO WELLBEING SMALL GRANTS SCHEME – to improve bathroom hygiene products	£527	31.3.21	Declined
Severn Trent community fund – to improve access to the entrance	£9989	22.3.21	Declined
Duke of Devonshire charitable trust – disabled ramp and building works	£2500	Mar 2021	Won
Bonsall Parish Council – for broadband connection	£722	May 2021	Won
National Lottery – disabled ramp and building works	£89960	May 2022	Won
Ernest Bailey – baby changing table	£50	Dec 2021	Partial award
Derbyshire Dales COVID support grant	£2096	May 2021	Awarded
DDDC Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant	£2667	Mar 2022	Awarded
Derbyshire small grants programme for energy audit	£600	Aug 2022	tbc
Local Projects Fund DDDC (Gary Purdy) for purchase of additional tables	£300	Sept 2022	Partial Award

28 March 202128 March 2021

Mutterings article – April 2021

Newly painted upstairs

The management committee thought it would be a good time to give the Bonsall community an update on what we have been doing to improve the Village Hall, over the Covid year. This time last year we tried to send out a survey to everyone to ask what you thought needed improving at the village so that you might use it more. Initially stopped in our tracks by the first lockdown, we did manage to email some surveys out to groups and received a few responses. You indicated several improvements, and this is what we have been working on putting into action. The full survey report is available on our new village hall website.

We have been very busy, and the hall has had a significant “makeover” where we have deep cleaned the downstairs floor and polished it, painted all the walls and woodwork including the kitchen and toilets. New curtains have been hung and the ladies toilet has had a revamp. We have purchased ‘nearly new’ chairs and tables that look very smart and are looking at providing an internet connection for the hall. Brightening up the main village hall window with seasonal decorations started at Christmas and we now have a Spring theme if you want to pop up and have a look!

Springtime window display

We are in the process of improving the bar area and the top floor will soon have improved lighting and more plug sockets and as we move into warmer weather, we will be planting upcycled containers as well as making the rear courtyard more attractive to sit out in. There are many people to thank who have volunteered their time to make the improvements but especially Steve Elliot and Mark Sobey. We are very lucky that we have so many kind-hearted individuals who are willing to give up time to help us out.

There are major plans afoot to improve the access to the hall for anyone who has trouble using the ramp and especially the very top part, which is steeper than the rest. We hope this will improve access as well as repairing the porch, which is doing its best to leave the main hall. Whilst it is not possible to completely redesign the entire ramp and entrance because the hall sits up high and it is so close to the road, we have had planning consent to make a number of changes such as, resurfacing the ramp and moving the hand rail to allow use of the full width of the existing path, redesigning the entrance to make it more disabled and pram-friendly and adding metal railings on the top of the wall to match those at the cafe. The plans will be displayed in the village hall and we will be putting these up on the website too.

Spruced up downstairs

The costs for the improved access and repair to the porch are significant and in the tens of thousands and so the committee are applying for grants to help fund the changes. So far, we have received £2500 from the Duke of Devonshire’s charitable trust and some monies from the local council held funds. There are several other grants submitted that we have not yet heard from and so, we hope once we are able to open, following official guidelines, we can put on some fun and sociable fund-raising events. We will keep you updated on grants we have applied for and successes or otherwise.

We now have our own website and although it remains a work-in-progress, we are very proud of it. Again, this has been developed by one of our volunteers, so we have not had to bear the typical costs. Additional pages that will be added will be a calendar to see the availability of the hall and instructions on how to make a booking. If you wish to look https://bonsallvillagehall.org.uk/ is the website address.

Running the village hall in the 21st century means we have had to update our policies and procedures to ensure safety of users and that it is managed to the highest possible standards.

Now all we need to do is to show off our hard work to you all! As soon as we are permitted, we will be open for the public. We are guided by ACRE, (Action with communities in Rural England) and we may be able to have some socially distanced bookings from mid-May, following risk assessments. We hope to open more fully on 21st June, but this timeline may change. Once restrictions are lifted, we will have an Open Day and would love to see you to have a cup of tea, cake and chat, look at what we have been doing and what we still hope to do. Not every village has a community space, and we would love to see the village hall being used more, maybe be you have ideas that would encourage people to use it! If so, please come and tell us or drop us a note via the website.

Please drop in on the Open day, we will be making that date known nearer the time.

Hazel Baldwin on behalf of Bonsall Village Hall Committee.