High Ongar Village Hall
High Ongar Village Hall
The new Village Hall at High Ongar was officially opened on Saturday 7th June by the recent Chairman of Essex County Council, Gerard McEwen, with his wife, Mrs Maggie McEwen, who is the local District Councillor.
The opening event saw the culmination of the efforts of the Management Team, not least Peter Trevelyan, Chairman of the Management Committee for the past 10 years, who has magnificently steered the plan from thought, to paper, to concrete foundations! “The original project started with an application to the Lottery in 2000 which was declined. We were amazed to be awarded £250,000 from WREN, and along with our own funding, this has seen our new hall completed within a year. Everybody who has seen the facilities has commented that it is a great asset to the village.”
Following an unsuccessful application to the Big Lottery, they applied to the 2005 Waste Recycling Group Village Hall and Community Centre Challenge. High Ongar was successful in reaching the finals, and was astounded to receive their £250,000 Grant at an awards ceremony at the House of Commons in May 2006.
Since that time they have completed the sale of their old village hall, which was used to fund the majority of the remainder, along with some funding from a new housing development, and own fundraising of over £23,000. Work started in May 2007, and the new hall has been used by the local community for the last few weeks.
Peter Cox, Managing Director of WREN said: “It never ceases to amaze me how far communities groups can stretch modest budgets to deliver a very useful and valuable community asset. High Ongar were worthy winners of our 2006 Challenge and we are delighted to see that they have now realised their aims with this fantastic new community resource.”
The opening event was lucky to have been squeezed into the busy hall function diary – it is now booked for a number of weekend functions throughout the summer. (Indeed – even a new booking was taken at the opening event itself!!)
WREN funding of £250,000 ensured that the project was commenced, completed and admired by all.
(Photographs courtesy Malcolm Watson and Sarah Gosling)
At the initial building stage
At completion
