Horsley Village Hall

Job completed – in 3,973 days!

Back in December 2013, the three remaining Village Hall committee members – Brian and Audrey Dudley and Margaret Gregory decided it was time to retire. The Hall roof was leaking badly and there was asbestos in the Hall and there were many difficulties The Hall needed rebuilding. There was a balance of just £1300 in the bank.

Did the Village want a new hall? A public meeting was held and gave a unanimous ‘yes’! A new Committee was formed and the journey to a new Hall began. It was soon clear we would need a huge £350,000 to build a new hall. After the usual planning issues, bat surveys, coal surveys and many more things ,we got planning permission.

In the meantime, the fundraising gathered pace – we sold a piece of land for a house, £80,000 was obtained in small grants and £50,000 was raised locally – thank to the hard and continuous work of the committee. There were setbacks – the National Lottery deemed our postcode did not fit their profile for help.

But exhaustion was creeping in, and we needed help! The Parish Council came to the rescue,helping us obtain a 25 year loan from the Public Works Loan Board of £75,000.

The building work began and culminated in an opening of the Hall by the Mayor of Amber Valley BC and Andy Twigge from Radio Derby on 28 July 2019.

Since then, the Hall has gone from strength to strength and last year there were 600 bookings including regular events, use by Horsley School and many parties from around the area.

In the meantime, apart from the 6 monthly repayments on the 25-year loan, we have been able to make one off payments from the many successful fundraising events.

Yesterday was a landmark day – we paid off the remaining £4,000 balance and the hall is now fully paid.

So, a huge thanks to all who have served at some point on the committee during the journey and particularly to those who were there back in 2013 – the workload has been considerable!

Congratulations to everybody who has played their part in bringing finance in to enable this! A red-letter day for Horsley!

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