Village Hall upgrade Thanks to a generous grant of £2,500 from the GARFIELD WESTON FOUNDATION we now have sufficient funds to tackle the outside of the hall, particularly the lower (black) section of cladding. This is failing and needs renewing and we propose to use a non-perishable compund which looks just like wood but doesn't rot. We are awaiting a date from Paul our builder and the work can start as soon as free time is available. We may be looking for volunteers to help us with some of the non-technical work, such as de-nailing the studwork and cutting up the waste timber ready for removal from site.

Festive Lunch This was very successful and raised over £400 to be shared between St Mary's Church and the Village Hall. Our thanks to all who contributed food and raffle prizes and to everyone who supported the event.

Telephone box update Caynham Parish Council have agreed to adopt the telephone box and provide the necessary insurance. We still need to decide what the box will be used for, but this decision is not urgent. Please continue to provide suggestions or support for earlier ideas, remembering that any necessary funding and organisation will need to be provided locally.

Broadband It emerged from the presentation by Connecting Shropshire that tenders have been invited to cover most of those properties currently receiving under 30 Mb/s and a decision will be made in March 2017. The technology to be used (eg wire or wireless) has not been specified nor has the coverage of properties been guaranteed - some are already supposed to be earmarked for previous tenders. There is therefore a danger of cherry picking by contractors but we will need to wait for March to assess this. Work is likely to continue until 2020. In the meantime, if your internet connection is slow and/or unreliable it might be helpful to keep a log of performance. You can download free software to do this for you (eg www.testmy.net/auto or others via Google). This will provide evidence of poor performance to present to your ISP or Connecting Shropshire.

October 2016

In September we submitted our "End of Project" Report to the Big Lottery, confirming that their grant had been spent in accordance with our Bid and their helpful variations.

The Report included the fact that there was an unspent surplus of just over £400. Within days we received a reply from the Big Lottery accepting our Report and it was later confirmed that we could keep the surplus towards our ongoing project work. This was very good news indeed.

Having reached a point in the project where we had completed all the work possible within our available funds, and having notified this to all those who had given us grants, the committee felt able to consider what further work needs to be done.

A list was drawn up and includes replacing the exterior wooden cladding, fascia boards, and the rear windows, and the interior heating, ventilation and hand drying facilities in the toilets, and some new equipment in the kitchen. We were then able to submit this wish-list to Garfield Weston, who had invited us to review our initial bid to them once we had progressed our original objectives. We should have a reply by about the end of October, hopefully funding some or all of the items we had listed. Time will tell whether our bid is successful.

We are currently making a small change to our terms of hire, (coming in line with many other village halls), that in future hirers must take away any rubbish as there are no longer any waste bins at the hall.

August 2016

Refurbishment project:--

Well, this month saw the conclusion of Phase 1 of the work on the hall, funded to date by our various benefactors. We are immensely grateful to each of the organisations that contributed. We were particularly pleased to be able to send off the "End of Project" form to the Big Lottery, who reserve the right to make an inspection visit or request more-detailed documentation.

We are in consultation with Severn Trent Water community volunteer scheme, and depending on the type of work they are able to undertake it may be possible to paint the top half of the cladding white, to bring the building back to black and white which we are sure it is meant to be. We await their reply.

There is more work to be done, predominantly on the exterior, as we hope to renew the black cladding and replace all the rear windows. During our inspection of the work when looking for quotes we realised that it would be wise to renew the fascia boards at each end, which requires scaffolding and joinery, and a temporary re-location of the electricity supply point on the western end fascia board.

So ... ever onwards and upwards - we are now due to prepare grant funding bids incorporating the exterior cladding, painting,windows, and the ventilation and hygiene work in the toilets and kitchen.

Events:-The Summer Lunch had to be cancelled. We had chosen the date some time ago, but it fell on a Bank Holiday weekend, when family visits and other commitments led to a fall in anticipated numbers. Reluctantly, we drew stumps. With other events coming up soon, it unlikely that we can ressurect it.

It was good to see the cyclists using the village hall as a pit stop - not sure of the exact numbers that went through but we did hear 350 mentioned! A sunny day, and a welcome break, as was obvious from the photos we took.

Thanks to the organisers for leaving the hall clean and tidy - you are welcome back any time!

Since then we have dealt with a water leak and Chairman David has broken his arm ........otherwise it's been a doddle!

July 2016

Now the initial "push" to complete the first stage of refurbishment has been completed, (what a busy time it has been - many thanks to Paul Jones and Adam for all they have done) we can pause for a moment to reflect on what still needs to be done and where the finance will come from.

We have achieved a huge amount, and the most urgent needs have been successfully catered for - we have an enlarged floor space, a new electronic door and access ramp, and our electricity panel has been completely overhauled, most of it replaced, and everything tested to modern standards.

We still intend to replace the exterior black wooden cladding, and replace the windows at the rear, but new finance will need to be found. We also feel that the fascia boards at both ends of the hall need replacing, two small windows by the new door need replacing, and the architrave around the window where the bins are stored also need replacing.An initial appraisal of the cost is in the region of £5,000. We are looking for grant funding for this, plus still more for the ventilation and dryers in the toilets and kitchen. We have in mind to approach several grant funding bodies which favour this kind of community grant, but there is bound to be a delay while the bids are prepared, submitted and considered.

The recent Ceilidh was a brilliant evening, and great to see so many people enjoying themselves. Thanks to everyone who pulled together to make this evening the success it was. The event was held to celebrate the 90th Birthday of H.M.Queen Elizabeth, as a Community event, organised and supported by a cross-section of villagers who deserve thanks from all who came along. It also made a profit, which was donated to the Village Hall Refurbishment Fund. Perhaps we should think about holding another one ......?

We owe many thanks to Caynham Parish Council which recently approved arrangements for the grass on the verge outside the hall, and on the Millenium Gren opposite, to be cut on a regular basis by their contractor. This has greatly improved the overall appearance of the hall and surrounds. Grass cutting at the hall itself is being undertaken by the committee members, but we are only a few, so if anyone can spare a couple of hours every couple of weeks to help us out with this, they would be very welcome.

Finally (as always the commercial)we are still hoping to attract new members to the committee - we meet once a month (approx) - and organise the events. If you are interested please contact David our Chairman, whose email contact is caynhamvillagehall@gmail.com.

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APRIL 2016

Another milestone achieved - the path to the new door has been sloped up just before you reach the building and it levels off as you walk towards the new door. This is now the main entrance into the hall and it has no steps - just a nice smooth walk-in as we had always hoped for!

We had an open evening on 14th which was a useful try-out of the new entrance - MOST people found and pushed the door-opener pad successfully - practice will make perfect we hope! We have a number of items for sale including a folding table-tennis table, some laptops, a couple of cameras etc, (see the Village Newsletter for a full list) and reasonable offers are welcome!

As a result of the removal of the stage and proscenium arch there is some work to be done on the electrics - we're looking for Quotes for the work and hope that now we have achieved the work they authorised, the Big Lottery will allow us to fund this extra work from the surplus money from their grant.

We still have more work to do, such as renewing the exterior black wooden cladding and replacing the rear windows, improving the ventilation and hand dryers in the loos, and possibly some alterations to the heaters - although now the hall is so much better insulated they do seem to cope better. The ceiling fans are designed to drive the warm air back down, so if you put the heaters on, put the ceiling fans on, too.

Now the activity from the major works has died down, things are getting back to normal for us - but we'd still like to have more members on the committee. If you'd like to come along please get in touch with David or Terry or any committee member. And anyway, do come along to the AGM on May 23rd - at 7.30pm. We'd love to see you!

MARCH 2016

Well, here we are a quarter of the way into the new year and what a difference it has made to the village hall!

Our grant from the Big Lottery's Awards For All (England) was officially announced in November 2015, which meant we could go ahead and get the refurbishment organised. Work had to start within three months of the award, and we made the start date 16th January 2016.

Paul Jones (from Caynham firm "Premier Building Services") moved into the hall and took down the arch over the stage, then took out the stage itself. This left the back wall accessible, and his next job was to take off the old green melamine skin and lay a windproof membrane over the exposed timber frame. At the same time he made a carefully measured reinforced opening for the new door. Once that was achieved he fixed plasterboard to the timber frame then applied a coat of finishing plaster and - wow! Suddenly the hall was looking good.

Then, at last, what we had long been waiting for - the old wooden floor was ripped up, and 100mm Kingspan insulation was fitted tightly between the exposed floor joists to make the floor warmer and draught-free. The next task was to lay a new sub-floor of 22mm interlocking caber flooring over the insulation and finally lay a commercial-grade vinyl top surface with a wood effect finish.

The panelling on the long wall and the gable wall near the entrance steps were then painted with an acrylic paint, in a lighter colour than the old green and fawn, so that the hall looks much lighter.

The electronic door arrived bang on schedule, and was fitted and mechanised in one day, so that by the end of the evening we had a working door operated by modern (wi-fi) push pads. A light touch on the pad and the door swings open silently and smoothly - the idea being that when approaching from the outside, the door is open by the time you reach it. This will be particularly helpful for wheelchair users and people with walking frames and baby buggies.

There's still a bit to be done - for a start we have to slope the path up to the level of the new door, (Paul is due to do this any time now) and there a few bits of electrical work to finish off and some cable to set in trunking, but we are getting there.

The work on the stage area and the new door, plus the cost of the work to raise the path, will have taken most of the grant from Awards for All (England). The cost of taking up the old floor, insulating it, and laying the 22mm caber sub-floor came from our own funds. But the costs of purchasing the vinyl click floor, and the cost of actually laying it, were met from generous grants from Wesley's (the Methodist Church in Ludlow) and Caynham Parish Council, and Severn Trent Water Ltd.

The hall now has a super new floor and an electronic entrance, looks lighter, and more spacious, and is quicker to heat up and keep warm during bookings. We could not have done it without the financial backing mentioned above, for which we are profoundly grateful.

We have dozens (probably hundreds) of photos of the work as it progressed but to see how it looks at the moment please have a look at the photos on our "Inside the Hall" page" (just click HERE).

We are still waiting for the results of two grants bids,and if successful we can replace the back windows and the wooden exterior black cladding, which are both pretty ancient now and need updating.

Thanks for looking,

Village Hall Committee.

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SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2015

This has been a busy time and our blog for the two months is best viewed as one.

Village hall security. The lock on the VH front door has now been changed and new keys have been issued. If you have a key to the old lock please drop it through Terry's letter-box.

Bad news and Good news. The Bad news is that the committee were informed by Severn Trent Water Ltd staff who were engaged in leak detection in the area that there was a leak of about a gallon a minute under the village hall stage near our stop valve. Picture our consternation and dismay! Was there a huge amount of muddy sludge under our hall floor?

To cut a long story short we reacted quickly to engage a contractor, and MANY THANKS to Premier Building Services (Paul Jones you are a star!) a new trench was dug from the boundary to the hall and a new blue "poly-pipe" main supply was laid under the building to connect to our existing pipework. All this was done in just a few days and the hall was open again in time for the Harvest Supper. Unfortunately this event accrued a bill of nearly £900 including VAT, which we paid promptly.

The "Good" news (if you could call it that) is that the leak was found to be actually inside the STW boundary box situated in the road just outside the gate, and not on VH property.We have since written to STW requesting that they pay the bill. On Friday 23rd October an Inspector from STW visited the site with Terry A to check out the situation, and we await STW response.

At our meeting in September we started planning our joint Festive Lunch for Sunday December 13th, for which we join with Caynham Parochial Church Council to produce. Our provisional menu is :- Starter: Pigeon breast and pear, with vegetarian Soup as an alternative, (VH to provide); Mains:- Pheasant casserole; (PCC to provide); Desserts: An assortment of puddings (VH & PCC + hopefully donations from supporters).

Grant funding for our proposed improvement program.

Our fundraising efforts for the village hall improvements are continuing. Since our initial applications on 28th July we have submitted two further applications, one to the Gannett Foundation and one to the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation. There is always a "waiting time" before the results are known, somethimes as much as three months, (after which the result can be "No"!) so to avoid losing time between applications it is wise to seek alternative sources and this we are doing.

We are very pleased to hear that the Parish Council intend to confirm their donation / willingness to purchase to the value of £600 ex VAT. Their support is much appreciated.

Our next committee meeting is on Monday 16th November. Future meetings - The committee decided that there is no need to meet every month as we now do, because much of our business can be conducted by email. It was decided that we will not meet in December this year.

The "BIG BREAKFAST" on 13th September was a success again this year, many thanks to all those who came along to support us, and thanks also to those who took on the cooking, table service and manning the kitchen - especially Gillian and John Bissell.

AUGUST 2015

Our largest single expense recently was the new fridge at £139.99.

July's Summer Lunch produced a welcome income of £608.62, to be shared equally between the Hall and St Mary's PCC. Thanks to everyone who supported this event, which we hope to repeat next year.

We received notification that our bid for grant funding to "AWARDS FOR ALL ENGLAND" is being processed. Of course we don't know yet if we shall be successful, but we hope to know something fairly soon.

The committee has applied to Caynham Parish Council for a grant of £600 towards the cost of our proposed refurbishment, and at our committee meeting on 17th August the Parish Council Chair reported that our request has been noted. The Parish Council will meet in October and we may hear something from them at that time.

The batteries in our smoke and heat detectors were changed this month, except for the one located on the ceiling above the stage which needs a long ladder to reach it.

The committee is considering whether it is possible for us to reduce the number of our VH Committee meetings. It was agreed that much of the routine business could be transacted by e-mail, and we shall look again at this at our next meeting.

The update of our village web site is almost complete now, and we are looking at allocating space for "sponsored" items, much as the old-style village newsletter used to contain.

We are still looking for a suitable site to locate the new notice board.

Planning for the BIG BREAKFAST on 13th September was finalised. Come along and help eat everything in sight!

We are combining our efforts once again with St Mary's PCC to hold the Caynham Shoot on Sunday 6th September at Brimfield. Extra help with this event is always welcome - Ray Bufton the Shoot's organiser needs volunteers to help set up and act as scorers etc. And afterwards to clear up the clays from the field. How about helping next year?