Blindcrake Village Hall

HISTORY

Blindcrake Village Hall was converted from a row of cottages in the late 19^th century by the Vicar of Isel, Reverend William Hutchinson Sharpe. It was vested in the Church of England Diocese for the use of the community in 1897.

A Lease and Trust Deed was agreed in 1988 and the Management Committee became a registered charity in September 1993. We converted to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on 20^th January 2017 and secured a new fifty year lease in June 2018.

TRUSTEES

The Charity Trustees form the Village Hall Management Committee. Our CIO constitution allows for up to six elected Trustees, up to nine appointed from user groups, and up to three co-opted by the Charity Trustees. Trustees are elected by parish residents at our Annual General Meeting each May and new elected Trustees will always be welcome. Any user groups or organisations operating in the Parish who wish to nominate a Trustee to the Committee should contact the Chairman.

We currently have the following Trustees:

Neil Pilling (Chair)
Ros Berry (Treasurer)
Cathy Keough
Graeme Forrester
Craig Oliver

The Management Committee is also keen to welcome new co-opted Trustees onto the Committee, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you are interested.

Link to Charity constitution

REFURBISHMENT

Heating Project Update

The Hall is a valuable asset for the Blindcrake Parish community but the heating system is old, unreliable and costly to run.

We will replace the Village Hall heating with a modern renewables-based system – a Heat Pump - as well as improving the insulation of the windows, doors, walls and main-hall floor. This will enable us to provide a warm, comfortable environment for community events, with heating which is controllable and affordable. We will use solar panels to generate electricity which will reduce heating cost. Batteries will store electricity from solar energy and provide a day or more of electricity in the event of power cut. This means we would have a warm space for the community with internet access, even when we have a power cut!

Costs are agreed with a chosen contractor and we have planning permission. We have raised £100,000 so far with fantastic support from: Tallentire Windfarm, Bayfield Windfarm, Electricity North West, Blindcrake Parish Charity and our own village hall funds.

We are still in need of an additional £15,000 to enable us to complete the project. We’d be grateful for any ideas of other sources of money or indeed for any donations, of whatever amount. Please discuss ideas or donations with Craig at Blindcrake Hall.

We hope to start works around September which would mean the hall being out of action for a period, but we’ll keep you updated as plans firm up.

Your Village Hall Committee

NB We also plan improvements to make the rear garden area accessible from the main hall and to transform it into an inviting outside space but this will wait until we have raised additional funds.