Hurst Green village hall hosting celebration of £300,000 revamp

Niall Macfarlane, Barbara Herd, Margaret Carrington, Des Harwood and Peter Butterfield have overseen a fundraising campaign to bring the village’s War Memorial Hall in Avenue Road into the 21st Century.

The four-year project funded through grant aid and the parishioners’ fundraising efforts has seen the roof retiled, ground-source heating installed, kitchen re-equipped, a classy new bar fitted, the hall redecorated, including new oak panelling, and the toilets upgraded.

A chair-lift has been added to enable disabled access to the upstairs Jubilee Room, which has also been redecorated, and the hall has new double-glazed windows, upgraded electrics and refurbished changing rooms for the village’s football club.

Niall Macfarlane, chairperson of the village hall committee, said: “We held a consultation exercise with the parishioners to work out what was the best plan for the hall.

“We put forward all sorts of ideas – even the possibility of demolishing the hall and rebuilding elsewhere but there were a lot of obstacles to this, not least opposition from many parishioners.

“Finally, it was decided to refurbish the hall to make it fit for purpose again. The biggest issue was the heating – in winter it was really cold and draughty – but the roof was the most pressing problem. The concrete tiles were deteriorating and leaking in places so we decided that it should be the

priority and we made it phase one.

“The heating was phase two, which, I am pleased to say, has been fantastically successful and the hall, although rather large, is now warm and cosy whatever the weather outside.

“Initially, when we roughly costed the plans and informed the parishioners that we were looking at raising £300,000, there were many who said it could not be done. Well, thanks to our two sterling grants gurus, Barbara Herd and Margaret Carrington, who have put in a staggering amount of work to source grant funding, we have done it.”

The hall was self-built by the villagers back in the fifties and sixties to honour parishioners who fought in the war, and was beginning to show its age.

Grants for the work have come from: The Big Lottery; Garfield Weston; The BA Carbon Fund; Bernard Sunley; Ribble Valley Borough Council; The Harold and Alice Bridges Trust; The Craven Trust; The Duchy of Lancaster; ACRE/Defra; Lancashire Environment Fund; Awards For All; Skelton Charity, Liverpool; The Foyle Foundation; and Affordable Mobility, Clitheroe.

Local folk have also pitched in with fundraising through bingo sessions, donating raffle prizes and holding functions, such as open gardens, a safari supper, a wine and music festival and a special Hurst Green’s Got Talent variety show showcasing villagers’ talents.

“We wanted to mark the end of the project with a thank-you to the community who have supported us so well,” said Niall.

“The Memorial Hall is now one of the premier community venues in East Lancashire. We already have some loyal customers, including the Hindu Association from Preston, and we are ready to market the hall to everyone to enjoy the facilities.”

The event will be held on a first-come-first-served basis. More details will be announced later.