Woolton Hill Church hall re-opens after £425,000 refurbishment

Woolton Hill Church hall was officially re-opened at the weekend by North West Hampshire MP Sir George Young after a £425,000 facelift.

The refurbishment included new children’s, adult and disabled toilets, a new kitchen, entrance, and two new meeting rooms, a new hall floor, new lighting ,under floor heating and new storage areas.

The project, which cost £425,267, was possible following major grants from Veolia Environmental Trust (£100,000), Hampshire County Council’s Community Buildings Capital Fund (£83,000), Greenham Common Trust (£82,513) and £81,342 in various awards from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s Section 106 grants.

Following the ribbon cutting the building was blessed by the new Bishop of Basingstoke, the Reverend Canon David Williams.

The scheme was divided into three building phases to be delivered as funding became available.  But sufficient money had been raised and all the building work was completed on 12^th September 2014.

In her speech to guests and local residents The Reverend Christine Dale of St Thomas Church, Woolton Hill, thanked the generosity of the four major donors.

“The project has been very fortunate to be awarded major grants from four different funding bodies. Without these contributions we would not have been able to go ahead with the project so we are all extremely grateful. It has also benefited from a generous allocation of £11,350 from the estate of one of our church members, Phyllis Dodd, which was designated specifically for the refurbishment of the kitchen,” she added.

The Hall refurbiushment was driven from an idea by local resident John Angle and made possible with support by Nick Harcourt the church hall chairman and Mike Palmer who was asked to manage the fundraising for the project.

The Church Hall contributed £28,000 and donations of £16,188 were received from the Woolton Hill Pre-School, £5,000 from the Englefield Trust, £2,500 from the Bedhampton Charitable Trust and £1,000 from The Gerald Palmer Eling Trust.

A large part of the funding was raised through Greenham Common Trust’s fundraising website www.fndmeagrant.org which also attracted £2,513 in public donations which the Trust match funded. Gift Aid payments which can be claimed through findmeagrant of £628.25 were also raised.

£80,000 of the funding from GCT was given as part of its Community Buildings Improvement Programme which has so far benefitted nearly 100 organisations with funding paid or committed totalling £3.1m.

Photograph credit: Thanks to Jim Hannington for permission to use the photograph.