The Village Halls Podcast
A podcast for anyone involved in the running of Britain's 10,000 village, church and community and anyone interested in the vital community services they provide.
The Village Halls Podcast
Celebrating Community Champions
Awards are nice; impact is better. This special edition celebrates three village halls that turned practical ideas into lasting change, from digital access and inclusive design to heritage rescue and hot meals delivered with a welfare check.
If you run a hall or care about one, you’ll walk away with practical, repeatable ideas: make booking effortless, design for dignity, diversify income, and build programmes that connect generations. Enjoy the stories, borrow the tactics, and help your hall become the heart and soul of your place. Subscribe, share with your committee, and leave a review with the idea you’ll try first.
Hello, my name is Mark Smith, and welcome to the Village Halls Podcast, sponsored by Allied Westminster, the UK's largest specialist provider of Village Hall insurance and the home of VillageGuard. Welcome to this special edition of the Village Halls Podcast, celebrating the winners of this year's Village Halls Inspiration Awards. In this episode, we are bringing you conversations with all three winning halls, each one recognized for the incredible work they are doing to support their communities. You'll hear from our third place winner first, followed by our second, and we'll finish with our overall winner. This is my first year being involved with the Village Halls Inspiration Awards, and I want to say what a genuine privilege it has been. So hearing these stories firsthand and seeing the impact village halls have made across the UK has been both humbling and inspiring. These awards exist to shine a light on village halls that are going above and beyond, whether that's through digital transformation, restoring historic buildings, tackling food poverty, or creating safe, welcoming spaces for all ages. A huge thank you to Alley Westminster and Ecclesiastical for helping make these awards possible and for their continued support of village halls across the UK. So let's get started with our first conversation. Third place winner, Nunny Village Hall. So Nunny impressed the judges with their move to modern online bookings, their free Wi-Fi and digital accessibility, and their inspiring commitment to becoming a dementia-friendly venue. So today we'll hear directly from Sally Robertson about the changes they've made and the difference it's already having in their community. So welcome to the podcast, Sally.
SPEAKER_04:Hello.
SPEAKER_07:And we're also joined by Lindsay Campbell from Allied Westminster. Welcome, Lindsay.
SPEAKER_05:Hello, thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, you're very welcome. So, first of all, Sally, a huge congratulations on coming third in the Village Hall's Inspiration Wars. So, how did it feel when you found out we you'd won?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we haven't delighted. My my husband's on the committee as well, and um we were both looking at the emails, waiting to see if anything came in, and uh he I think he spotted it first, but we were really pleased, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:So I suppose I've never visited for listeners who have never visited Nunny. Can you give us a quick picture of Nunny and how the hall sits in the heart of the community?
SPEAKER_04:So we're just off the edge of the Mendic Hills in Somerset, and we are a village of about 900 people, and is sort of um a long village with right down in the centre, we've got uh a motored castle, a Norman church, a spa, a pub, and a playing field, and the village hall is um just nestled next to the village, next to the playing field and the allotments.
SPEAKER_07:Ah, so you've got all the important things.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Part of your entry was it was about your your move to online booking. And that was obviously a huge shift. So what what made you decide to to move to online bookings?
SPEAKER_04:So that was just before I joined the kids committee, but I was aware of it all because my husband used to come home from meetings and tell me what was going on. Um what we had was uh a previous committee who'd worked so hard and got the hall up to an amazing standard, but it was basically a couple who just put so much of their time in, and uh the lady took all the bookings over the phone and sort of kept a paper copy, and it was just very reliant on one person. Um and we realized, and they were they were looking to sort of step back a bit, and we just said nobody can take this over. Um, and we needed to stream streamline not just the booking, but also like the the generating the invoice and and also the transparency of it all, um, the transparency of the money coming in and making it easier to do the end of um end of year accounts and things like that. So um one person in particular took on uh sort of the running of that and uh he he sort of sorted out any tweaks and things, but it's been brilliant. We looked at other halls locally to see which online bookings they did, and all all the others were doing it, and um, other than the a cut with a couple of negative feedbacks from the people that we used to ringing up and speaking to somebody. Um, but mostly it's and uh it's been a huge success, and we've had more bookings. I think our bookings are up by about 20%, um, just because people can look and see. What we were saying is that the generation that we were hoping to you know get more of a a younger demographic using the hall don't tend to make phone calls. I mean, my kids, yeah, my kids don't make phone calls. If they got answered the phone, it's like it's an emergency. I mean, I worry because they're my in case of emergency, and if they see a number come up like they are gonna answer it. So, um, so it it was definitely better, and we've had lots of children's parties, you know, two, three-year-olds where obviously their parents are only late 20s, early 30s, and I think they're using that system much better.
SPEAKER_07:Well, um yeah, you brought that up now, so I'm gonna go off on a tangent here. Uh I saw a photograph on your Instagram account, which is also a a new thing for yourselves. But do you have like a like a road system for kids so they can drive around the hall on a road?
SPEAKER_04:That's the people that the parents hire. So there's we've we can sit bounty castles. Right. And and um, and that was a couple of children have had, you know, they're just like little cars, it looked like a road thing, and they they they they bring it in.
SPEAKER_07:See, I wonder if they do this for adults, because that's the type of thing I've definitely turned up. Yeah, definitely. So I did notice on your uh your bookings page well on your website, uh, you are booked up so far ahead, and I've never seen that many bookings on a hall before. That's that's it's pretty impressive. So what was it like? Was it was it quite sparse the bookings before? Because just now when I looked at it, there's like just bookings not pretty much non-stop until April.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so we um we had our regulars, which were sort of tap, contemporary dance, um Pilates. They they were always week in, week out, and have been for several years. Um, and then there's a a toddler group, and they were like you know, regularly every Wednesday, but we have picked up through the online booking. Um we have a booking now because we weekends were quite sparse. We had you know, we had the clubs and things, but the weekends would just be maybe other committees that were perhaps holding like the flower show or um you know maybe an event, a fundraising event. The school use it for their nativity. So there'd be those sort of regular things, but um the weekends tend to be spare. So we've now got uh a block booking on Sundays um for a church that come in and they they they saw it through the um through through the online booking. And then just this week, and this I am delighted, we've had our first dementia group booking.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, that's really good, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And and they're they're booked up for indefinitely. He's we take six months ahead booking, um just so that we know that you know we're then not sort of stuck uh with if say something else needed to come through or knowing about the invoicing, that's all fine.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um and and what's been really good is is our regular bookings, um, so like the church on Sunday and the one we've just taken for dementia, there's the odd thing that comes up annually that we need to honour because our our constitution is that we are primarily for the service of the villagers.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So um if you know the there are several things, there's an open gardens, there's a flower show, there's um like the kids' things with the the the church, the the things the school use, we still want to honour those year in, year out, even though they are occasional bookings. So what we've done with the people that want to book it up, we've given them a little bit of a discount, but they agree actually on those odd occasions in the year, they don't take that Sunday or they don't take that Monday just to allow for the for the people that have been using it year in, year out, and that our village things. So it's been really nice because it's getting a uh a dialogue going and people being aware of other people's commitments, and it's worked really well.
SPEAKER_07:That's really good. So, have you seen an increase with younger people booking the hall or do you do things with the hall within the community?
SPEAKER_04:Um, so yeah, we've got we've got um look children's parties mostly are big increase on the booking one. Um and uh we've just getting our second table tennis table, and we want to make sure that's widely known because I mean what a brilliant way would be just to hire the hall for an hour, which for villagers is only going to be£13. And you could entertain four or six teenagers for an hour for£13 playing table tennis. So we're gonna attempt to hold a couple of table tennis things ourselves just to let them know that is out there, and then that will hopefully generate because what we need to do, there's only six of us, three still work full-time, um, and we don't have the manpower and the time to be holding events ourselves, but it's just um just getting the word out, and then you know what it won't take long to do that, and then the other thing we we want to do as well is we used to have a film night and we we paid into a company where you could hire films, and that sort of ran its course after COVID. Um, but we're looking at starting that again, and with the idea of actually having some children's films where they can, maybe in half term, where they can just dress up and be noisy and jump about, and we we will run that as well. Um, because it's like getting they're getting the younger ones in to become invested in the hall so that you know when we're all too old to do it, we've got another generation of volunteers coming through to take the hall.
SPEAKER_07:That's definitely, yeah. Right, so uh Lindsay, so Allied Westminster, they've supported these awards uh for many years and have provided a significant share of the prize fund. So, why is it important to you as an organization to support village halls like Nunny, especially those investing in inclusion and modernisation?
SPEAKER_05:Um, well, obviously at Allied Westminster, we work with village halls every single day across the country, so we know how important they are to rural communities. Um they're not just buildings, they're places where people connect, where volunteers spend their time creating a welcoming and safe space for the community. Um, and you know, the clues kind of in the names, the inspiration awards. Um it's all about shining, shining light on on the work that the volunteers and committee members do, and and uh hopefully other halls learning from that, sharing their stories and kind of sparking that we could be doing that too moment for other halls by hearing the stories. Uh, and that's why we're so keen to encourage um modernization and inclusion and long-term sustainability, and it is halls like Nunny's that showcase why that's so important um to to to uh do these things and make these changes, and you know, you're investing in in the future of your hall, like you said, with uh with the kids, they're they're one day gonna grow up and hopefully want to give back to to to what you gave them. And um, yeah, I think that's why it's so important for for us to to share that. We're we work with village halls every day, we see it, we know it. Uh so yeah, it's important.
SPEAKER_07:That's very well put. So one of the biggest things I think that all the judges thought was the uh the dementia. The the part about dementia was I had no idea how much of a a big deal it was that the village hall was accessible in certain types of ways. So I I won't pretend to understand any of it, but in your entry um you you mentioned that I mean a small example was the the type of floor or like the the the the pattern on the floor that matters to someone who has dementia. And you've actually your I suppose your goal is to to create a dementia-friendly hall, which is the first time uh I've ever heard of that, which is uh it amazing. But if you can tell us a little bit more about that, that would be just I I would be fascinated to hear more about that.
SPEAKER_04:So um some of this came from personal experience. My my father and my mother have dementia, but my father has had it longer, and if we went anywhere, um I'd have to see if the toilet was accessible, and then after a couple of failed outings where it says the toilet was accessible, and you get there and actually it's not, you can't get two people in there, or the wheelchair's got to go in backwards, or you know, and then it's it got me thinking about you know, actually, can he go in there on his own? Well, no, because the layout's not right, or he's not gonna see something. And um, I started looking at it, and we had to and we had to read for them the men's toilets because they were in a bad state.
SPEAKER_09:Right.
SPEAKER_04:So I had a quick look round, and it's such simple, simple things to do. So um, you know, we had white urinals against white tiles. Somebody with dementia won't see that, their their vision and their depth is uh deteriorate. So we put black tiles behind the urinals, so you've now got white against black. They were literally, you know, six sticky black tiles from a cheap place, and and that's actually meant that somebody can see the urinal.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um, and then the the cube if the cubicle doors are the same colour as the exit door, then somebody can end up you know not being able to get out of the toilet because they're opening all the doors. So we have the exit door painted in a different colour now with a sign that says exit. It's all really low-cost stuff.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um, we've had in in in the accessible toilet, we we have a mirror and um I have ready to do, it's still a work in progress, but you just put a blind over the mirror so that they don't think there's a stranger in the toilet with them.
SPEAKER_09:Oh, right, right.
SPEAKER_04:So, you know, it's just a little cheap blind that you pull down, and if somebody wants to use a mirror, they just pull the blind up. Um but the floor, the floor is important because if you had um you know a coloured threshold, or you go from we are going from like a wooden floor to a tiled floor, um, that can be perceived as being a hole or a step, um, and they can't see the um the depth, or you know, so actually having it all the same colour, and it doesn't have to be exactly the same colour, it's the and I forget what is called, UV something, which is actually like the the colour depth of the of of the colour.
SPEAKER_09:Right, right.
SPEAKER_04:So we had we have a lovely wooden floor in the main hall. So what we've done is we were having, and the last bit goes down next week, so it's all looks wood all the way through. So there's no there's no thresholds at the doors, and it's all basically the same colour. So somebody's not gonna accidentally fall over because they think they're gonna step into a hole or over there. And that's been a bit more expensive, but still not big money. The one that's gonna cost a lot more money is the lighting. So outside, you don't want any glaring areas or any dark patches, you need a nice steady light and a level area, and we're gonna have to fundraise and try and get grants because replacing outside lights is quite expensive.
SPEAKER_09:Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But we're committed to doing it. And I was speaking to the Alzheimer's Society the day before yesterday, our county one, and she was delighted. She just said, We don't have any other village halls in Somerset that do this, and she was running away with it saying, Oh, yeah, we can get you onto the website and through to the dementia connections and things like that. So, um then the group who've booked in um are a group who work with between six and twelve adults doing um wildlife and gardening and things like that, and they actually want to be really involved in the community and they're gonna do some of our gardening, they create like back back boxes and wildlife areas, and we have a garden in the village, and they're gonna work on that and hopefully do something with the allotments as well that are nearby. So I'm so pleased it is any group, but that group particularly, because I think they're gonna give way more to the village than you know we're getting back in in that bit of rent, and they're also gonna give us feedback on what is and isn't working as a dementia space so we can make any tweaks.
SPEAKER_07:So that's really interesting. So I suppose everything you've said there now makes total sense. So Welder, you've explained it perfectly to me. But how how do you find out this information to start with? How can you how do you know where to start? So if another village hall says that's really good, the tile it totally makes sense, a camouflage urinal. How how do other village halls find out what else they can do?
SPEAKER_04:I I Googled it.
SPEAKER_07:Well, you googled the hall, excellent.
SPEAKER_04:And there's two, I think there's two universities. I think Durham was one, and maybe Aberdeen, I can't remember off the top of my head, who'd who had done studies and um and they just have it listed. And then the other thing I was looking when we were looking at doing the toilets, I I needed to get a raised toilet seat, and I knew it probably had to be a different colour. And I literally just googled raised red toilet seats, and just lots of information came up. And there's whole companies out there that do um, you know, not just bathroom stuff, but anything for adapted living, and and they were giving lists of what you do and don't need. Yeah, it was easy to find actually.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_07:Well, what I'll need to do, I'll need to do some Googling. Uh other sections are unavailable, but I'll do some Googling and find out and put some links onto the page here. Because I think that's yeah, I think it's that's something it really is. That's yeah, hopefully other people are inspired by what you've done there because that's excellent. It really is excellent.
SPEAKER_04:Um we were working out that you know, just even if you have a family party with the rates of dementia sort of almost exponentially increasing, there will be, you know, in a multi-generational party, there will be at least one or two people there who are suffering from dementia. So it's not has hasn't got to be just dementia groups, it's just making it easier for everybody. Um, and we have a warm space once a month, um, which is uh during the winter time, which is to help with rural isolation, and they sort of do soup and rolls and just chat and make sure everybody's okay. Um, you know, and those people, some of those have limited mobilities, regardless of whether there's any cognitive decline or not. Um, and and just that just generally helps having clear signing and you know stuff like that is is better. But what we have realized as well by meeting some of the dementia criteria, we're actually sort of ticking the same boxes for anybody with any neurodivergence because we're going to create a little quiet room, cupboard more, but room where you can just sit down and be quiet. Well, that's great for anybody that just needs to get out of a noisy party, regardless of what your reasons are. So hopefully that will help anybody that you know that's either just got a headache or have some night neurodivergence that can't cope with hours of busyness.
SPEAKER_07:Excellent. Well, I hope everyone's taking notes here. Those are some really good ideas. I never thought about the the the a space for people just to get out the noise. Um I think it's more important now. It's been I think it's been Um highlighted since COVID, I think people coming back out of isolation and realizing that uh you know you need that time uh to get away from things. That's really good. One of the things I do want to ask you about, because it is a you know it's something that I do, is how would you score free Wi-Fi? That's uh what what did you do to get that from your local provider?
SPEAKER_04:Well, was the previous committee and it's been there quite a while. I'm I'm having to think now. Um I think it was when um a new Wi-Fi provider came into the village and there was um they're having to dig up roads and things. I believe they negotiated it with those people then.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, excellent. That's good to notice also if you it's definitely worth getting because I suppose if you're becoming a hub, especially well, if you're the the warm hub in the area, it's nice to have Wi-Fi as well so people can go there and uh you've got the access. Uh it's really good.
SPEAKER_04:Like, yeah, because we're it is it's down in the in the in the like the bottom of the village, so it's a bit of a dead spot, so you you can't get signal, so it's really useful to have it.
SPEAKER_07:Um right, right. Yeah, I've never been well if I'm ever done your way, I'll definitely be paying a visit. Uh because I was looking at the castle with a moat. I was like, that's very cool. I thought that was cartoons that had that. But no, it's genuine thing, so it looks like a really nice place where you where you live.
SPEAKER_04:And it's it's quite good but now because also with with the sound system we have and using the Wi-Fi, you can literally just play the music off your phone.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Just it's uh it's really easy to to get any sort of music going, and people just and you know, anyone under under 40 is gonna go, oh yeah, yeah, I have to get the phone and click it through, and there it is done. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:I I also did see in your your um your entry that you have heating that you can turn on when there's a booking as well.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we've done that quite recently, just the remote, remote control. So uh beginning like Sunday evening, my husband just goes through the calendar and um programs the heating for what's on that week.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, it's excellent that. That's such it's such a good uh it's a logical way to go because no one wants to go down to a hall beforehand or at least you can heat it up before you go in the hall rather than to go there, you know, wander about for 15-20 minutes, wait for it to get warm, then you can do what you need to do.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean it's saving us money, but it's also like the regular people like the the the Pilates and that love it because like I say they walk into a warm room.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah. Well that's fantastic. Well, I I've got to say it's been a real privilege to speak to you. It's the the dementia thing is really it it it stood out uh the entries. Uh so I just thank you so much for coming on to the podcast. It's it's it's it's so greatly appreciated.
SPEAKER_04:Uh well thank you for recognizing us. I want to spend the money many ways, but we are we are gonna try and create the little quiet space for people.
SPEAKER_07:Well, that's good. Well see when you see once you do do that, if you get back to me, because I would love to hear more about that, because uh it's uh it is something that I made an animation once about that type of thing. Uh and it's it's been interesting to me since since then. Uh so I would like to hear more about that. So uh I'm sure there's a podcast there.
SPEAKER_04:It's going to double up as the baby change, because our baby change is in the ladies' toilet, and the the toddler group have quite a few dads that come.
SPEAKER_07:Right, right.
SPEAKER_04:So that's an issue for them.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um, so we need to get the baby change out of the ladies' toilet, so that'll hopefully be in the quiet room as well.
SPEAKER_07:That's good. I hope everyone takes note of that because there's been many a time where I've had to go into the ladies' room to to change, or I once changed my child in uh on a like a shelf above the above the toilet cistern, because there was nowhere to put them. So well done for doing that. That's really it's really good to hear that. Um taking care of the dads. Excellent. Right. Well, thank you very much for joining us, Sally. And Lindsay as well. Thank you very much uh as well.
SPEAKER_05:Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER_07:Amazing to chat with Sally there. So next up we have our second place winner, Alt Bay Hall. Welcome to part two of our special awards podcast. In this segment, we're turning our attention to Alt Bay Hall, which earned second place in this year's Village Halls Inspiration Awards and received£1,500 towards our continuing work. Alt Bay stood out to the judges for the remarkable community-led revival. After the hall was forced to close in 2018 due to structural issues, local people refused to let it be lost. Instead, they launched Alt Bay Hall Revival, a four-year effort of fundraising, volunteer labour, heritage restoration, and sheer determination. Thanks to them, this much-loved wartime building, once the heart of a defence-based community in later generations of local families, has been brought back to life and is once again serving the people of Loch Yu. Today we're joined by Pauline Butler from Alt Bay Hall. Welcome to the podcast, Pauline.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks very much for inviting me along and giving me the opportunity to explain more about our project.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, you're very welcome. And we can also welcome back our regular guest, Gavin Mitchell from Allied Westminster. Welcome once again, Gavin.
SPEAKER_08:Hello, Mark. It's nice to be back. Thank you.
SPEAKER_07:So, first of all, a huge congratulations, Pauline, on coming second in the Village Hall's Inspiration Award. So, how did it feel when you first heard the news?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we're delighted, really. In fact, I found it for myself on your uh Facebook on the Facebook page a couple of days after the announcement was made. Um, but I have to say, I don't think I would have put in the uh entry had I not thought we at least had a very good cause uh to offer. Um we we know that what our local people have done has been absolutely phenomenal in in saving Old Bay Hall. There were the doomsayers to start with who said we hadn't got a hope, and that just made us more determined. Um, but what I think is particularly significant is that because we're you know north of Scotland, very rural, quite cut off in many ways from the so-called civilization, we tend to forget how good we can be at some of the things we do. So it was just brilliant that we had this UK-wide recognition to celebrate.
SPEAKER_07:Excellent. Yeah, so when you say rural, could could you paint a picture of Alt Bay in the in the community?
SPEAKER_01:Right. Well, Oak Bay is further north in Scotland than Sky, but not quite as far north as Allah, if that helps at all. Um the the village itself, Oak Bay, is uh has about 300 residents and it's spread along the shores of Loch Hugh. Uh, it's part of Westeros, North West Highlands of Scotland, and Loch Hue itself is a sea loch which opens into the Minch, which separates the mainland from the Hebrides, and that in itself is part of the Atlantic Ocean. So it's very coastal, and the village itself actually spreads and spreads and spreads along two peninsulas. The other village, which is part of our area, the area served by the hall, is called Lade, and that has a hundred or so inhabitants, but essentially it's a whole series of crofting settlements along the shores of Loch U and Little Loch Broom, and always in the past served by the sea. People didn't travel through the mountains to get to where they wanted to go in the rest of the UK. There's one main loop road now which joins the Olapool to Inverness Road. Inverness is the capital of the highlands, but it's uh a two-hour drive away, 85 miles. Um, but it's never feels particularly remote, I guess, because we have most of the things we need here, unless you want more increasingly banks, because that's becoming a problem. I'm just about to close our nearest bank. Um, but if you want Marks and Spencer's or a hospital, that's quite significant. You have to go to Inverness. Nearest railway station is 50 miles away, that's the Inverness de Carla Blockhaus line, which only has about three trains a day, I think it is.
SPEAKER_09:Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's not particularly helpful for not very useful times. Um, if we want to get to Inverness, other than driving, it's uh one a bus that leaves at half past seven in the morning and gets up back at half past seven at night once a day. So, in that way, you know, we have to be very self-sufficient, very self-contained, and do things for ourselves. We don't need spade others to do it, but yeah.
SPEAKER_07:So you said the the the Ot B Hall can it covers more than Alt B then is more villages along that coast that can it serves.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, that's right. Um technically, when it was gifted to the community, it was Old Bay and area. Area was fairly undefined. What we nowadays say it's the area served by Old Bay Community Council, but it's it's a coastal strip, um, probably 15, 16 miles north to south, but very sort of very narrow.
SPEAKER_07:All right, right. So, what what was the structural issue with the hall? What was it that made you have to think, all right, either close it down or rebuild?
SPEAKER_01:Um basically, I mean I perhaps I should describe the building slightly to start with. It's what we would probably say is a Nissen hut. It's actually a very superior Nissen hut, which was called a Romney building. It was built during the early years of the Second World War, probably 1940 or 41, we don't have an exact date, um, as the local naffy and cinema for the military who were based in Lochue during the Second World War. And it was a quick build, it has an arced corrugated iron roof, it's a concrete block walls, it's got metal critical-like windows, and the problem was that the metals, the steel supports which were holding up the roof, were corroding because our climate, as those of us who live here know, is pretty damp. And uh so the then hall committee had a structural survey undertaken, and the uh engineer they brought in deemed that the steel supports were failing, and unless they were replaced or substantially strengthened, the building was dangerous. And that was what the then hall committee in 2018 told Highland Council was that the building, the main building, was dangerous and that it wasn't safe for the public, so we were forced to close it down. Attached to part of the building, there is actually a two-story brick-built block, which is where the toilets and the kitchens and a second function room, which we now call the Crow's Nest, is based. That was okay still, although pretty dilapidated, it has to be said. Um, there have been plans for quite a long time to have a new hall built in Old Bay. The land had been identified. There were um a couple of efforts, shall we say, at um designs. They'd started to get some funding for planning purposes, you know, for sort of scoping out a project, but it hadn't got very far by 2018. And then, of course, the pandemic put an end to any suggestions of doing anything really.
SPEAKER_07:Um so the whole committee just decided that that, or did they put it out to a vote to say like we should just close it down completely and demolish it?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I wasn't part of the whole committee at that stage. I I was involved elsewhere in uh quite significant building, heritage building developments in Gaelloff. But the then hall committee, I think, um essentially, I won't say ran out of energy, that's a bit unkind, but they couldn't see the way forward financially. The pandemic brought an end to it, and so what they decided to do was to have a public meeting, an AGM essentially, which they hadn't had for a while, and their recommendation was that the um trust which had been set up in 1960, the community trust to run the hall should be dissolved, and that the land should be sold for building site or whatever. They never got that far. And because the hall had been part of the public by the community, the memories, we keep talking about the memories here, you know, it had been part of everybody's everyday life since the Second World War period. And there was just such outrage and despair that when three of us said, Well, okay, we'll have a look and see if it really is that desperate, whether there's any hope of keeping it going, when we offered that, um, we just were inundated with offers of help and support. Um, anything you want us to do, let us know. And no, we can't get rid of our hall, it just means so much to us.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah. Gavin, you you must see this quite a lot in in village halls. Maybe tired old committees that you know that want to take the easier route.
SPEAKER_08:Absolutely. I mean, this is a this is a common problem right across the uh the country, and I think this is what this is why Altbey stood out for us. Um we keep saying it, the the clues in the inspiration awards, the clues in the name, and and and what what's happened at Altbey Hall and uh and what you've done up there, uh Pauline is is is remarkable, it's extraordinary. And uh you've effectively brought the hall back from virtual extinction back to being a thriving, a thriving hub for the community. And it's such an important part of community life and rural community life. And as you say, the memories, the generations, the you know, the the dances, community hub, it is the heart of the community, and without that, uh a community can be very soulless. Um and I think uh you know people in urban environments per perhaps don't quite appreciate this the significance of community and village halls. They really are the beating heart of rural communities.
SPEAKER_01:I think, in a way, the pandemic did us a favour, and there aren't many people who can say that. Because everything came to a halt during the pandemic, even the um activities which have been carrying on. We have two um two church halls in the village, which are much smaller. So there were some groups that could keep going, there were some places you could still meet, but the big space, and most importantly for us, the space that the school could use, um, because it doesn't have any hall or facilities of its own for anything indoor and active, and the fact that the youngsters had nowhere to go and the church halls didn't meet their needs, uh, was just so critical. And my two colleagues, who were the, you know, the three of us offered to be trustees to see how it goes how we could take things forward. But my two colleagues were both parents. Um, one still had children at school, one um whose children had recently left and were students, but they just remembered how all through the youngster school days the hall had been where they had pantomimes, had their Christmas concerts, um, when when it was wet outside and they couldn't use the local, you know, the local football field stroke recreation field um for activities. It was just the space. And one of the very first things we did when we set up Old Bay Hall Revival as a project was just get a website going um where people could put their memories. And I did actually quote from one or two of the memories in in the um application I put in for the for the award, because that really was the driving point all along, and that's proved to be the case. Um, the very first event we had when we reopened the big hall, the main hall, was a VE Day commemoration lunch. It just happened to be early May that we were able to reopen. And all across the country, people were saying, let's commemorate the anniversary of VE Day. And we had 10 days to get an event on, and it was the local Poppy Scotland group that did it. And you just could not believe how delighted people were, mainly older people, but not only, families came along as well, to actually walk into the hall and say, see, tables there and food there and music there, and just to get have the place alive again. And you know, and the support has just been tremendous all the way through.
SPEAKER_07:It's pretty good, that's good that it's more memories being made rather than just closing them off a day. Yeah, you have to keep that, you have to keep it going.
SPEAKER_01:So that's so it was a the building on the past memories, we couldn't let those go. Yeah, you could have had a new building and it would have been nice and smart and hunky-dory and energy efficient. Um, you can't keep heat inside a corrugated home state.
SPEAKER_07:That's very true. That's very true.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so so our new heating system only works if there are people in the place, but it's very efficient when they're there. That's uh yeah, so so it was that. And you know, we and the first fundraising event we had was a was a Cayley. Uh Old Bay Hall was always known for its Cayleys, its dances. So we had a midsummer Cayley um again arranged at fairly short notice, with the local group um playing voluntarily for free, who were the ones who did the last the last Cayleys that we'd held. And that's what it's been like all the way through. People have wanted to re-engage.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, and I see you you're uh on your website, you're selling like hoodies and shirts to help raise money. I think that's a it's such a obviously it's not to pay for the whole hall, but I think all these little things um are brilliant.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and the um and they were sponsored. We didn't have to uh you know the t it's t-shirts, in fact, it's t-shirts and taped bags at the minute. Um, but we we created ourselves a logo, we created ourselves this sort of obey hall revival um as our theme, which I think was quite important. And the people who actually run the website and do a lot of the fundraising organization were brought up here but no longer live here. One lives in Glasgow, one lives in Stirling, and they do it from afar, thank goodness for the internet. So all our website and Facebook page is done by somebody who spent her whole childhood here and went moved away to work, but she comes back, her family are still here. Yeah, um, the the great ideas for the fundraising of wedding teas and talent shows and so on are done by somebody who comes up regularly, but her family's still here, but she doesn't live for herself any longer. And you know, they've been away for 15-20 years, these folk. And yet they've been.
SPEAKER_08:Well, I think um yeah, that's a bit that's a very, very interesting point, Pauline, and it's something that um that we see in various um village communities around the country, and and and you've you've hit the nail on the head with the internet, is is the fact that you know, with with um younger people moving away from the villages, then they can still connect back to the village and the village community and even engage with the uh the village community. And I think that uh quite often the village hall um you know committee members and associate members can be people who were brought up who knew the community and have maybe moved away but still want to engage and uh and help with the community. I think that's a very very crucial point. And the website is lovely. And Mark, you're I assume you're putting a link to the website on the podcast. It's a lovely website, Pauline. And um I would encourage very much encourage people to to have a look at the website. It's um it speaks from the heart and it gives it gives a good feel for the place and the history, and um yeah, you can you can see the love uh in the community for the hall and um why it's so important.
SPEAKER_01:And the Facebook page as well. We do try very hard to keep it relevant to us. We don't we don't put on lots of external adverts. Yes, do it is our Story and it's is our events mainly that we try to promote.
SPEAKER_07:I think it goes to show that I think when you grow up in a rural community and you leave because you ha you know, because there's no jobs, you go do exploring or whatever around the world, your heart's always back there, and I think that's what the people that are doing your website, you know, like it must have been a great community to grow up in if they want to still give their time to that community. Uh I think it goes to show that these rural places are you know they do have a place in our hearts. So you're well done for them for doing that.
SPEAKER_01:I obviously I'm not local, um I came up here 20 or 20 or so years ago, but yeah. And most of the time until 2021, really, I was actually more involved with um the place I was working at, which was in View Garden, and with Gerloch, where I was um involved in the development of a new museum on the old cold in the old Cold War bunker that had become uh Highland Council's Roads building. So the gritter lorries and the dustbin stories were were based there, and we've made it into a a museum that uh actually was won uh won a big award in 2020. Um but that that experience, I had that experience of going for grant funding and helping to manage a big heritage-based project with a very, very strong community base. Again, Gaellock Museum meant a lot to everybody locally, and it's really that which I offered to to Old Bay. I can see the hall from my house, you know, I got it's just down the road, it's uh a few hundred yards down the road. I can see it, and I can see the school. We're very close to the school, and and I, you know, I really sense that community um networking, really.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I you know, I was so cross, I was so angry when they wanted to say they wanted to pull it down. You can't pull down that building, you can't do that. Um, and that was really why I got involved. But I also, you know, have I'm not local, I can't pretend to be local, um, but I I have experience that was able to be given to the locals, and I think that's it's good you turned that anger into drive, you know, to get it done.
SPEAKER_07:So it's maybe it's a good thing they were threatening to shut it down because it gave you the drive to want to do it.
SPEAKER_01:I think if we had been at the idea of doing a repair project, it would never ever have had that same impetus.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08:Well, you may not be local, um, but you're very much part of the community.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, thank you. I won't say any more.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, so that's fantastic. Uh so I just want to say thanks very much for your time for coming on the podcast. But once again, I'm sure from yourself, Gav, congratulations. Yes, you're coming in a second. It really is. Yeah, um, yeah. It's there was a a lot of entries as well, but it's it's uh it was amazing to read everything. But yeah, from yourself, well huge congratulations.
SPEAKER_02:Are you allowed to say how many entries there were?
SPEAKER_07:Uh there was 171. Right, one so yeah, it's it's interesting to I could uh it equaled to 22 and a half hours because I converted it to speech so I could listen to all the entries in the car. In 22 and a half hours, that's what it equaled to. Um it was amazing. There was so many amazing entries. And I think what you will do in the future, you'll hear more about those entries because there's so many good things in there. It's it was it's very oh it was it was a real nightmare to pick top three ever because everyone had their own um amazing points. But yeah, there'll be I think there'll be a few podcasts over the coming year talking about some of those other entries because all of them were very good.
SPEAKER_08:I mean there were no losers in the sense that everyone had a great story. And um you know it it's tough when we have to we have to choose three uh three winners and there are so many good entries. But I know Mark we've spoken about the fact that um there are so many great stories in some of the entries that we need to revisit some of them and oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, no no no shortage of ideas for the podcast, probably for the next five years. We've got plenty of content. Excellent. So was it well thanks for your time, uh Pauline and Gavin as well. Thanks for coming back on the show. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you for the opportunity to spread our story. It's uh been great to be able to do it. Thank you.
SPEAKER_07:And finally, our winner, Fishburne Community Centre. Personally, I think this could be a podcast on its own, so hopefully, we can arrange something in the future. I really hope you enjoy this conversation. Fishburns stood out to the judges for their huge, sustained commitment to meeting the needs of their community. Over the past eight years, they've transformed their buildings, expanded their facilities, and developed an impressive programme of projects supporting every age group from warm hubs to lunch clubs to youth services, exercise groups, art classes, and social activities that reduce isolation and improve well-being. Their recently launched Fishburn Food Crew project is already making a real difference for children and families living with food poverty. Today we're joined by Jane and Daniel from Fishburne Community Centre. Welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_06:Hello. Thank you, Mark. It's good to be here.
SPEAKER_07:And we're also joined by Gavin Mitchell from Allied Westminster. Welcome, Gavin. Hello there, Mark. So, first of all, a huge congratulations on being recognised in the Village Hall's Inspiration Awards. So, how did it feel when you first heard that you've been chosen as winners?
SPEAKER_06:Thank you. We were I actually read the email twice because when I when it first came, I thought it was a scam email of of some sort. And then when I reread it, I we were just blown away. Yeah, to be to be out of the whole country is a huge, huge achievement for the centre.
SPEAKER_07:That's amazing. It's strange you said that I'm sure someone else said that as well. Yes, they did. We're setting a trend here, Mark.
SPEAKER_06:What about it possibly being a scam?
SPEAKER_07:Well, I'm glad you I'm glad you believed us. That's that's very good. So so I'm supposed to people who have not heard of Fishburne or have ever visited, could you give us a sense of Fishburne itself and why the community centre is such an important part of village life?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, so Fishburn's a it's a tiny little village, population of about 2,000. Um, that's soon to be expanded because we're getting some new houses. And it was a former mining village, like a lot of the villages in this area, it was the pit that was the main employer, and it also had Winterton Hospital, which was um a mental health asylum. That was a huge employer in the area. So once them two facilities closed, Fishburne still had the cork works for a few years after that, but that closed as well. And that was a lot of the employment was gone in the area, like a lot of pit areas in pit villages in this area. So the community centre will be it'll be a hundred years old in 2028. So it was a it was a former miners' welfare hall.
SPEAKER_07:And have you got any plans for the centenary of the hall?
SPEAKER_06:Oh yes, yes, lots. Yeah, so we want to do we want to do it uh like a whole community day, similar to what we did. So we did a community day on VE Day this year, which involved ourselves and it was uh kids from the local primary, because we have a pro a primary school, Fishburn Primary. They came up to some of our social Tuesday activities and they made um VE day stones with the older people come, um, and they just painted them, and the older people were telling them about what you know, what the poppies and and just stories about when they were younger for those who'd who'd been around when the war was on. And then after that, we had a whole community day, so we worked with the parish council, and we had we had food on and things like that, but we also had a dog show, we had a tug of war, um, there was just a it was just a great day. We had bounty castles for the kids, all of the youth club kids got involved and ran little stalls of their own, so it was just great.
SPEAKER_00:We had a singer on who did a lot of 1940s style songs and things, and we have quite a lot of um young people that come to youth club that'll volunteer on those community days, they love it, um which I think it's quite rare, and it's lovely to say because it they want to be part of it, they want to be helping the community, they want to spend time with people from the community, and I it it's lovely to say it I think one of the things that stood out was how community focused you are, and that's inside the the centre and out because I don't think I'd ever heard of this before, but you you do kind of like meals out as well, yes.
SPEAKER_07:So it's not just that you can come in and get meals, you get you actually like a like a dine-in-down-out service, yes, which I've never heard of before. Could you tell us a little bit about how you manage that?
SPEAKER_06:So we have um we received funding to build a commercial kitchen and also to put a new bar in. There was always a bar, but it was quite a small one. So Lynn Watson, who was the previous manager who's now retired, secured funding to get a new kitchen in and things. Prior to that, the meals were all cooped in this very small kitchen. But as the need grew, so we we always get requests from other villages which are only half a mile away, a mile away, asking for meal delivery services, but we didn't have the capacity to do that. Yeah, so now we've got the funding. So three days a week Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you can dine in and and like meet up with us and the others and things, or you can have a delivery. So we deliver to Fishburne, Sedgefield, which is one way, and one of the Trimdons, which is Trimden Village, that's the closest one to us, the other way. We would love to expand that further, but at the moment we would need to secure more funding and things and get another delivery driver. So the meals are all cooked fresh on the morning. The girls come in at eight o'clock. They they develop the menu, and it's so it's things like. So I'm looking at the menu now. For example, today it's mints and dumplings with vegetables, and then there'll be a pudding as well, which will usually be it change, it changes every week, every day it changes. It'll be something like jam rolly poly or treacle sponge and custard, so it's it's traditional meals, but we do lasagna and curry and things like that, and they can come in and eat for six pounds, that's for the meal and the pudding, or they can have a delivery for a small delivery charge, and the delivery charge is 50p to Fishburn or a pound to either Trimden or Sedgefield. But it just helps it so a lot of people are especially a lot of elderly people, can't they are housebound, they can't get out of the house. Yeah, really handy for their family to know that in the middle of the day they're going to have a hot meal delivered, and Alison, who's the delivery driver, it gives her the opportunity to do a quick welfare check if nobody answers the door, she can alert other people, so it's just it's a it's a bit of security for the families as well, because everybody's busy, everybody works, um, and I think it's a bit peace of mind for them that they know somebody is gonna go, give their loved ones a meal, and pop it in for them, and then yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:For some, um Alison can be the only person they say that there, yeah. Um, which is a huge thing when you're isolated to start with in a small village, um, yeah, that's just reassurance that you know that person's gonna call, and it's even if it's for a 10-minute hello, how you doing, yeah, Janita.
SPEAKER_07:What was it that brought all this on? What was a catalyst to think, oh, this is what we need to do to help our village?
SPEAKER_06:So it was originally developed by Lynn, who was the previous centre manager, who um had just just from request, because we do spend a lot of time with the with the local community, with the community are fabulous, and the centre is really the hub of the village for all ages. So people had requested it, it had been something that Lynn had noticed that people you know could do with a meal in the middle of the day. Yeah, it's quite um it's quite a deprived area in terms of there isn't a lot of money about, so eat there isn't anywhere else in the village to eat out. There is no other so there's a there's a cafe, but it's not a sit-down meal, sort of a cafe, right? So it was somewhere where they could have a reasonably priced meal, where it's it's really cheap meal, they can connect with other people if they want to, if they want to come in, but it also gave the opportunity. So we take co-op surplus food, so the local co-ops in Sedgefield, Fishburne, and Trimden. Alison, who delivers the meals, also collects the surplus food from there, and it comes into the centre and it goes on the stage and it's available for anybody to take free. Um, wherever's left over, I'll go, it'll be recycled down the allotment, so it'll go into compost, or it'll go for chicken feed. So there's no waste, so nothing gets thrown away. But what Alison also does is if she knows somebody's particularly struggling when she's delivering food, she'll take bags of co-op food with her. So it might be that there's an apple pie or something like that, or something, or some fresh fruit, or something, she'll drop that off at the same time she drops the meal off. Yeah, or there'll be bunches of flowers. Some of the ladies like a nice bunch of flowers, she'll drop them off as well.
SPEAKER_00:And I think it's a good kind of excuse sometimes for people to come into the centre. So it might be a bit daunting at first, never being in, feeling a bit, oh, I wonder what they do in there. But knowing that there's meals on, it's an excuse to call in, and then we find that they'll come, they'll eat in, but then they'll engage in other activities. Um so it's a very positive to get people even through the door.
SPEAKER_06:And it's it's not just elderly people that have the meals delivered, so we also deliver to a few workplaces. Um, we recently secured um the the contract to deliver meals to there's a new nursery opened in the village, so preschool nursery, so we do all of the nursery kids' dinners.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, that's really you've got your workout.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it's a busy place, yeah, but it's a lovely place, and it has it's got a fantastic group of staff, they are just wonderful, all of them, and it also has a really good group of volunteers who give up endless amounts of time. Um, for example, it's our community Christmas dinner this Sunday, so we've got 125 people coming for dinner and it's all cooked fresh on the morning. So the Saturday is what we call Spud Bashion Day, where we're all sitting peeling veg and things like that, and that's all the volunteers and the staff that'll come in and give the time up to do it, and then on the Sunday, the volunteers and the staff who aren't busy in the kitchen or on the bar will serve the meals, and some of our younger volunteers from the youth club also come and do that.
SPEAKER_07:Right.
SPEAKER_06:So it's it's it's a good way, things like that. We think, especially with the younger members from the youth club, it's a good way to get the two connected, so all ages of the community coming together.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah. That's outstanding, it really is. So uh Gavin, if I can bring you in just now. So obviously, this is a really good example of how a hall can become the difference between uh like a child going hungry or not, or between a young person feeling vulnerable or supported. From your experience because you you support thousands of halls, how widespread is the level of of need today and and what does it say about the role village halls can play in protecting and uplifting communities like Fishburn?
SPEAKER_08:Well Mark, sadly, I think what we see in Fishburne reflects um uh a growing national picture. Uh the Food Foundation, which is a respected UK charity that tracks food insecurity and uh children's nutrition, reports that around 1515% of UK households with children are now experiencing food insecurity, and many communities are increasingly dependent on warm spaces as we're having affordable meals. That's very much the case, that uh Fishburn. Um and safe uh youth provision. In rural communities, village halls are often the only trusted spaces left to meet these needs. Uh I think Fishburn demonstrates just how vital the role can be. Um, as I understand it, I think it's 19 community projects, is that right?
SPEAKER_06:Yes, we currently have 19 activities. We and in the turn of the year January, we've booked in. So we've we've been asking the community when they come in what sort of free courses would you like to do? Is the because especially around technology and kids' smartphones, kids are usually better than the parents that are using technology, and although that is good, it also brings up a whole load of problems. A lot of parents don't know how to protect the children online. There's a lot of websites that think people think they're safe and they're not. So we've set up some digital skills awareness courses, and we've also got a deaf awareness course booked in. Um, one of the young people that comes to youth club is profoundly deaf, and that would it's for staff and it's for anybody in the local community. Um, we've got some first aid courses coming up, and we're wanting to start a men's social club. Because women, we've what we find is women are really easy to engage with, they'll come to lots of different clubs, they'll mix with each other. Men can be much more difficult to engage with, but they but men's mental health is a real priority because he has one of the highest suicide rates in Europe, if not the highest suicide rate in Europe. So we'd like to start working with the kids from being young and right up into adulthood by setting up some new activities. They'll they'll likely be called social Tuesdays, but it's going to be more around, so it's going to mix in a bit with men's mental health, but it's more focusing on we're trying to tie them all together. So we have a craft club that is all actually ladies at the moment, it's open to anybody, but it's all ladies that come. What we'd like to do is maybe set up a men's group where they can do some woodwork, maybe make bird boxes. The ladies could then paint them, and then the kids could then go and take them over to what we call the fir trees, which is the old pit heaps, um, which is it's quite a nature area. Now it's had a lot of work done in it. So it's just we're just trying to bring everybody together so they've all got a little part to play, and it just connects.
SPEAKER_08:I think that do you know that's that's exactly the thing that. Appeal to us. It's all generations, it's all aspects of your community. It's not just a case of people coming to the village hall. It's the village hall. It's you going out to the people. And I think that's precisely why you were first place as far as we were concerned, in terms of being a winner, because you're showing exactly how a village hall can genuinely change the life outcomes for the people you serve. All generations and and all aspects of those generations, as you say, even mental health, isolation, and all the rest of it. So I would I would say that you know you're you're a lot more than just the beating heart of the uh of the village. You know, you're the heart and soul of the of the community. And you're reaching out to neighbouring communities, which is commendable.
SPEAKER_06:Yes, yes. So we do so that most of the villages around here will have a village hall of some sort. A lot of them struggle with youth provision, and we do get it, we get a lot of younger kids come from the outlying villages as well, and they'll come to the youth centre over there. So we've been really, really lucky, and we've secured some funding from better youth spaces, and and it's it's letting it's enabling us to refurbish the youth club inside. It's nothing fantastic, it's a new gym floor because the gym floor is was probably put down before the wheel was invented. Um, it's quite old. So a new gym floor, and it's going to get some decoration and uh new electrics because the electrics are due to be changed as well. On the back of that, we've also applied for because Danielle had the idea that with the Fishburn Food Crew, so the kids, Danielle and the youth club staff have the the kids are looking at they've done the plate, you know, the healthy plate where you draw the circle and you portion off what's what they've done a menu with them, so the kids have been picking what they would like to eat. One of them was a seafood boil. Seafood boil, yeah.
SPEAKER_09:Right, right.
SPEAKER_06:Which wasn't really in the budget, maybe it's a few crapsticks, but the seafood pockets are out of the budget. But they're trying to, so they're getting them so they have a certain amount of money, budget for what they would like, what can they use as an alternative if they can't afford it? Then Kelly, who's one of the kooks in the centre, is also one of the youth workers, so she's doing them in small groups because to do 30 quids a night in the kitchen would be uh a bit hectic. So they're doing them in small groups, but then they're all eating the food. So when the the youth club staff were talking about it, they thought the next natural progression on from that would be to have a youth club garden where they can grow things, so it's it's it's like a ground to plate. So we have a large field attached to the youth club, which is literally a couple of steps away from this building, um, and we're gonna portion a little part of that off for them to have a vegetable plot so that they can learn about growing their own vegetables, harvesting them, and then they can bring them into the youth club and the centre kitchens, and where any surplus can go on the stage for the community. So I think we think that a lot of school work now. We have a fantastic Junior School and a fantastic community um community college at Sedgefield, but what I found was when my kids were growing up, everything now is very academic and there isn't as much taught about basic life skills. So cookery, arts and craft, sport are seen in a way as soft options rather than the academic maths, English, science options. Yes, and I think not not every child is academic, but they still have a huge skill set what they could use to do other things. So that's the sort of thing we're trying to do in youth club. And Danielle's got a perfect example of one of the the youth club girls that's come up through Lucy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so um she's been coming to youth club since she was a junior, around seven. She's 18 now, um so she came all the way through our junior sessions, which go up to yeah, six of primary school. Um then she came to seniors, which starts from yeah, seven um up over. When she got to around about 13, she was given the opportunity to volunteer, which she absolutely loved the idea of, and she she thrived in it. Um three nights a week coming and volunteering a time in the sessions. She really struggled academically at school, um, had a lot of exam anxiety, um, put a lot a lot of pressure on herself, started missing quite a bit of school because of it. Um so we worked with her and we reissue her and said, just try your best. Meanwhile, all this was going on, she was still volunteering at home. She did, she finished school, she didn't come away with the qualifications that she wanted or felt that she needed for the next stages. Um, so I suggested we look at maybe an MVQ level two in youth work because she was obviously showing a keen interest. So she started that at the beginning of the year, and as of November, she she completed that and achieved it, which was amazing. She then gained a placement in a um childcare provision, and she's there doing an apprenticeship five days a week while still volunteering, and then she's just recently taken on um some extra hours in the community centre helping in the kitchen. So from a girl that thought, I don't know what I'm gonna do, college isn't for me. Um that's it, I don't know. She she's busy six days a week, like a work fantastic, and well, she's just building for a future, and it it it's she's an inspiration for the other kids that say her three nights a week, really.
SPEAKER_07:It's really is amazing how you've you've adapted to your community. It's it's I suppose there's no you know, there's no standard template to what it is to be uh a community centre or a local village hall. You have to adapt to your community, and I think you've done that tremendously, and I think that's why you're winners. I think there's I don't need to reiterate anything, I think it's pretty clear why you guys were won this year's Inspiration Awards. It really is incredible. So uh congratulations once again. It's it really I mean I could talk about that. There's so many questions in my head, but I thought I know this is part of a bigger podcast, but I think I would like to come back to you uh one day with all of the other questions I've got in my head because it's it really is amazing. It really is.
SPEAKER_00:And I think until you get recognized or like you you receive an award like this, you don't stop and think about the things that go on because it's just your day-to-day, isn't it? And it's just yeah, and I think it's made us look and think, and like be really proud of the community. Yeah, yeah, really, really proud of the community.
SPEAKER_08:Not just you guys. I mean, the whole point of this award is to inspire other village halls across rural communities, the length and breadth of the country. And a lot of village halls are struggling for ideas. You know, a lot of village halls share the same problems, and if we if we share solutions and inspiration, this is really what these awards are about. I think what thank you very much. I think what you're doing is very inspir, very, very inspiring.
SPEAKER_06:I think what we would say was because I think a lot of village halls are predominantly used by the older generations, and I think for us, we try to work youth's very, very important to me, and Danielle's the youth club lead. So I think what we do is we work together to make it the community, means the whole of the community, it doesn't matter what skills you have, what background you're from, what ethnicity you are, the community is it means everybody, and I think it to bring everybody together, um it where they can meet other cultures, other people, other religions, children of all ages. Because I think sometimes youth get a pretty bad reputation, and I think a lot of it was actually on the news last night that the government have recognised the lack of youth spaces. Um, it was I was watching it on the news last night, and that they're gonna start investing in youth spaces because they've recognised that the closure of them all has had such a detrimental effect. The kids are they're wandering about the streets, they're getting involved in alcohol, they are prime targets in small villages like this for county lines gangs. And I think because they don't have a space a safe space to go to, what where it's enjoyable because in the youth club they can play pool, there's arts and crafts, there's a there's a room with an X Xboxers in, there's the gym where they can play football, or they can just sit and talk to the staff. So that the youth club staff were saying that what they've found is when the kids uh at the Fishburn Food Crew, when they're having the meal, what they've found is they're coming and sitting at the table, they're not on the phones, they're not on an Xbox game, they're just sitting and chatting.
SPEAKER_00:And I think are they a prime location for that safe space because they're so recognized by the community often, aren't they? And they the place that people automatically think, oh, where where would I be able to go for help? Where would I be able to go for support? So you've already got that, so it's just about building on it.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it's just keeping it all like that. Yeah, I think in a lot of communities, especially when new people move in, there's little pockets of people, and I think when you put an activity on, like last weekend, we had um our very first breakfast with Mrs. Claws. So and it was a family event, like most of our events are family events. Our New Year's Eve party is a family event, it's for adults and children. Um, and and it was it was full, the hall was full, there was a hundred and odd families there enjoying the breakfast with Mrs. Claus. There was a little disco on, and I think for even for parents who maybe's maybe they're on maternity leave, the mum's on maternity leave, having the ability to connect with other people with a similar age in an environment where they can get to know each other's just it's just good. It's good for you, it's good for your mental health, it's good for the kids, it's good for the community.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, well, thank goodness for thank goodness for village halls. Because if village horse weren't there, yeah, we'd be in real problems, we'd have problems. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you very, very much. You're very welcome.
SPEAKER_09:You'll have to come and visit us.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, I think we should.
SPEAKER_07:I think you should. Oh, yeah. You said you're you got you got a pub, you've got a bar inside, haven't you?
SPEAKER_06:Is that we've got a bar, yes. I shouldn't give you a clip of the stuff. Oh, there we go.
SPEAKER_07:That has to be sold.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah, we do. Yes, so we have a bar because to because obviously the hall's very expensive to run a year. Yes, um, and and that's just the maintenance of the building. So all of our staff receive funding for wages, so none of the staff take money from the centre. Yeah, whatever we generate is just plowed back into the building because it's an old building and it takes a lot to keep it afloat. The electricity and gas, the utility bills are a fortune. So the bar, the idea behind the bar was because we do private functions, so it generates some income that we can then plow back into the centre. Yeah, but yeah, but yeah, you'll have to come and have a look.
SPEAKER_07:Oh de I definitely, I think that, yeah, definitely. Excellent. Well, thanks again for your time uh this morning. Yourselves and Gavin as well. I really appreciate that. So, yeah, I think uh I can't wait for people to listen to this. I think that it'll it'll do exactly what we set out to do, and that was to to create that inspiration uh amongst other village halls. And uh hope you'll have a listen to the podcast and you'll you'll hear ideas as well from uh some of the other winners because it's it's it's so good to share these uh ideas.
SPEAKER_06:It's good to hear you what's working well, and and maybe is what they wouldn't do again, what they would do again as well.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah. Excellent. So well, thank you very much. Uh yeah. Congratulations once again. Thank you.
SPEAKER_08:Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_07:Now that brings us to the end of this special Village Halls Inspiration Awards episode, and also the final episode of the Village Halls podcast for 2025. So a huge congratulations to all three winning halls, and sincere thanks to the volunteers, trustees, and supporters who make this work possible every day. Also, I'd like to add a wee thank you to everyone that entered. I mentioned on the podcast that it was twenty-two hours worth of text. I enjoyed listening to every minute, so thank you. It's been a real joy to be involved in the podcast this year and a privilege to help share these stories. So a huge thank you to Allied Westminster, Ecclesiastical, and Hallmaster for the continued support of the podcast. Without you, we couldn't have the podcast or the awards. We'll be back next year with more conversations and more inspiration from village halls across the UK. Thank you very much for listening. Many thanks to our headline sponsor and specialist insurance provider, Allied Westminster, for making our podcast possible, and whose services you can discover more about at villageguard.com. And to online booking system provider Hallmaster, who also sponsor our podcast and can be found at hallmaster.co.uk. You've been listening to the Village Halls Podcast, a unique listening community for Britain's village, community, and church halls, and anyone interested in the vital community services they provide. We'll be back again soon with another episode. For more information, please visit the Village Halls Podcast.com, where you'll also find links to our social media pages. Thanks again for listening in, and until the next time, goodbye for now.
