July 2017
Midhurst & Petworth Observer: Hats off to Redford Village Hall fundraisers
FUNDRAISING EVENT July 2017
A successful fundraising event was held on Friday 7th July in the newly refurbished Redford Village Hall. The ‘Mad Hatters wine tasting’ evening brought together some 70 people with local connections and raised £816. Cheese and wine was offered, with some 6 different tasting wines supplied by Majestic and tuition provided by their staff. The occasion was a social event to use the community building that has undergone a major facelift this spring. It helped fundraising for the Village Hall that still requires some internal finishing work.
Tribute was paid to the fundraising to date that has raised some £87,000 for re-roofing, insulation and to replace doors and windows. Much of the funding has been obtained from grant applications to charities such as the Grange Community Association in Midhurst.
The event coincided with an announcement from The Monument Trust, a Sainsbury family charitable endowment with a close association to community initiatives around Woolbeding. The Trust has awarded £17,500 to the Hall for replacement of the external cedar wood cladding and construction of a timber entrance porch. It is anticipated that Phase 2 of the building renovation project will be completed within the next year.
January 2017
Midhurst & Petworth Observer: Facelift for Redford Village Hall after three years fundraising
REDFORD NEWS Sept 2016
Built in 1958, Redford Village Hall has always been the venue for fetes and fairs, concerts and parties which have involved the whole community, as well as private functions of all manner, classes, lectures, meetings and of course it is used as our polling station! The hall itself – and its equipment is available for the whole community to make use of.
Regular maintenance is undertaken to keep the building fit for purpose, but inevitably as time passes the work becomes more demanding as the maintenance jobs grow. It was a number of years ago that a leaky roof was identified and patched. Subsequently, the electrics needed attention. Windows have been patched and filled, doors have been re-hung.
It was obvious that the process was becoming more and more demanding. Some initial research was carried out. Was it feasible to replace the roof without compromising the internal appearance, which after all gives the hall its character. Behind the scenes a small number of people have spent hours and hours researching materials, options, prices and processes. They have discussed and negotiated with the planners and builders and organised some fantastic events that involve the community to raise money. Behind all this has been the all-important grant-chasing!
This fund-raising process has been a long, 3 year process: a hard-fought trail undertaken by this same small group of people who feel that the hall plays an important part in our small, far-flung community, that it always has done, and if it can be maintained and improved, it will probably continue to be used as a social centre for the area in the future.
The income from the monthly market is a really important aspect of the running cost of the hall and enables all other income to go directly to the refurbishment fund.
There has been much discussion about refurbishment vs new-build. Those who have known and used the hall for many years are very attached to the building. Many, who hire the hall again and again, love it because it is different and provides character and ‘homeliness’. Those who visit the market regularly come because they enjoy the venue as much as the event itself! Time and again it is this elderly building that draws people to our village.
Tempting though a new build is, realistically we have to draw a line somewhere. If we followed this route we would have to reapply for planning permission that we might not be granted second time around. In taking that route we might well be killing the golden goose – it is after all the original hall, as it exists, that people like.
We have £77,000 in the bank and we would need as much again to complete a new build.
The monies are made up from many years of local fund-raising: Fantastic events like Joe Stilgoe, Claire Teale, Wine tasting Evenings, Quizzes, lectures and supper evenings which are fun as well as lucrative, along with, often unexpected, donations from many local people. Regular income from rental of the building and the equipment, and a number of generous grants made by various local and national bodies have swelled the funds considerably. The grant-giving bodies demand regular up-dates and reporting on how the money is spent so the administration and accounting it onerous. There is a limited time in which this money has to be used. It also has to be used for the purpose it has been given for – so much of the money might have to be returned if we decided to go down the new-build route rather than refurbishment.
It is very important that there are funds to cover the anticipated work. As such a small community we don’t want to get involved with loans – or worse still debt - so fundraising is continuing with a number of events coming up. I do hope you will support this venture.
SO…..work on the new roof will begin soon, much needed insulation will be added along with replacement windows on the south side of the building. We hope to do this with minimum disruption to the market routine and will keep you all informed.
Of course there is more that needs to be done – ALL the windows and doors need to be replaced, the electrics could be upgraded as could the toilets. Money for redecoration and new carpet must be kept back; and wouldn’t it be fantastic to have some new, more comfortable chairs – and storage for them and the tables too?
If you would like to contribute to the refurbishment donations can be sent to:
If you’d like to help with the management of the project PLEASE DO! Contact RVH committee chairman Kate Hearle, kate@tigerhill.co.uk.
To keep costs down there are bound to be ‘jobs for the community’, especially towards to end – redecoration, cleaning, putting things back!
If you have a few minutes to spare take a look at the Village Hall Website.
For booking enquiries contact Lisa Butlin: 01428 741435 or 07976 665393 or email lisabutlin40@gmail.com.
REDFORD NEWS May 2016
Everything always seems so much better when the sun starts to shine and there has been some positive news for the Village Hall this month. Planning permission was granted at the end of 2015 and at the last committee meeting it was confirmed that now the tenders for the work are in, there is enough money to carry out the roof renovation phase of the project. This is a relief after many months of fund raising, alongside applying for grants from public bodies and private trusts, eight of which have been successful to date. The replacement windows with new double-glazed units, which are as near a match to the originals as it is possible to get, and the addition of wall insulation and new wiring will complete the energy-saving changes. This is all very exciting and satisfying too. There is still some work to be done on the figures before it is decided whether to carry out the work in phases or to continue the fund raising regime and do the whole project in one go. Whatever the decision is the committee want to create as little disruption as possible to the hall, which is in regular use.
Redford Village Hall now has it’s own web-site thanks to Marion Hansford who has been working on it before she returns to India in May: www.redfordvillagehall.com. The Committee are delighted with it and hope that it will be used not just locally but far and wide. Marion has been able to track the number of ‘hits’ on the previous site, linked to the Parish Council website, and was amazed at the level of national interest but also at the number of foreign visits!
Most people who pass through Redford on a regular basis will have noticed the banners fluttering in the breeze at the Old Post Office, signalling that Rob & Anna Rhoman (Atelier Rhoman) are open for business. A blackboard outside encourages us to go inside and have a look too.
The future of the Parish Council for Woolbeding with Redford will be discussed at the AGM later this month. As in many small rural Parishes there is a limited pool of people to draw on. Many residents have taken a turn in the past, some are returners – like Roger Lovett who has taken up office again after a break of a number of years, and other Councillors are looking to take a break themselves. Anne Reynolds, who was clerk for a number of years before she took over as Chairman five years ago, has decided to stand down after a very demanding tenure. There are some concerns about the future of the Parish Council and this will be explained at the AGM. It is a fact of life that everyone is very busy these days but it is hoped that there will be people amongst the community who will step up to take part in what is a very important layer of Local Government. Far from being a sleepy backwater the PC of Woolbeding with Redford has been positively over-run, with planning applications in particular, during the past five or more years. It has fought hard – and so far successfully – to represent the whole community and to protect this beautiful, and to date, unspoiled corner of the National Park. It would indeed be very sad if it could not be maintained after so much hard work. Hopefully there will be new takers at the AGM on 23rd May in the Village Hall.
We have the Royal Birthday Celebrations to look forward to on 11th June when the whole Parish has been invited to join a hog roast picnic-style lunch on the village green. I’m sure that like the rest of the country we are hoping that the sun will shine on the celebrations that day!
July 2016
Midhurst & Petworth Observer: Funding boost for Redford Village Hall renovation project
REDFORD NEWS FEB 2016
No official news from Redford this month, though your editor (Val Porter) does know that there was an immensley successful event in the Village Hall when the Joe Stilgoe Trio played to a packed house and raised more than £1000 for the Hall. There has also been more success on the grant front, this time from The Grange Community Association of Midhurst.
The much loved Redford Saturday MArket took Winter break in January but the next one is on Saturday 6th February. And finally, there are plans afoot to celebrate The Queen's 90th birthday on June 11th this year, with a hog roast. The event is being organised by Woolbeding with Redford Parish Council and should be a great community event. Hopefully the weather will be kind and everyone will be able to enjoy being outside!
December 2015
Midhurst & Petworth Observer: Boost for Redford Village Hall funds
REDFORD NEWS Dec 2015
Great news for Redford Village Hall this month – planning permission for a number of major improvements has been granted and now the process of seeking tenders from local building companies can get underway.
The Village Hall in Redford was built back in the 1959 with money raised by donations from the local community who then built it themselves too. What a talented lot they were! The new hall became the centre of local life. For many years, before most people had televisions and cars, parties, sales and fetes (very grand fetes by the look of early photographs, with Tannoy systems, races and fairground attractions), whist drives and even regular amateur dramatic productions took place there on a regular basis. All helped to raise funds to maintain and cover the running costs, whilst providing everyone with entertainment, fun and social opportunities.
Times have changed of course but there is still a desire to keep the hall as a local amenity so the decision was taken to up-grade the premises. This required a great deal of soul-searching – nothing is cheap these days and at first the best option seemed to be to knock it down and start again! However, it very quickly became clear that Redford Village Hall is popular because it is different, even old-fashioned some might say, so any ‘modernisation’ has to be very carefully planned and discretely carried out so that the character and atmosphere that everyone loves can be retained.
The management team believe that they can achieve this by re-roofing and adding insulation whilst retaining the internal pitched roof and rafters, insulating the walls too and replacing old and rotten window-frames and doors with appropriate double-glazed units. The visual appearance should be only subtly different, but the impact should be a much warmer building that is much more efficient to run.
Fund-raising has been the focus of the Committee for a number of years. The regular markets are social events as well as great shopping opportunities and a terrific regular income. The coffers continue to swell with the proceeds of events such as the quiz and wine-tasting evening in the Summer and the now annual Jazz evening. Alongside the regular bookings for clubs and meeting and parties, all of which prove the continuing popularity of the hall, a great deal of hard work has gone into successfully seeking grants from a number of local sources including the local Parish Council. This, added to the fund-raising efforts of the community has meant that the Target of £50,000 is within sight!!