Blog Spot

31 Aug 2024

Our Roundup for 2023

Thanks to everyone who supported us this year. Here’s our roundup of some the works that have been accomplished in 2023.

Merry Christmas to all our customers and we look forward to being with you all again next year.

We are Volunteers

This Hall is run by Volunteers in the Community for our Community. We are available some of the time. If you wish to make an enquiry about the hall please send us a text or an email and we will endeavor to contact you within three working days. Or if you wish to make a booking please use our online booking system.

For Bookings contact

Helen England - Bookings Manager on

07307 692889

email: bookings@ashingdonmemorialhall.uk

Ready for our Coronation Party

Coronation Plaque presented to Ashingdon Primary School

On Friday 12th May, David Catchpole - Vice Chairman of our hall and Chairman of Ashingdon Parish Council, with Lin Green - Our Chair Lady visited Ashingdon Primary School to present to them a plaque to commemorate the Coronation of our New King. We hope that this small gift to the school will help them remember such an auspicious occasion.

Plaque Presentation

30 Dec 2023

Strictly Lines Fundraiser

Our Chairlady Lin was at the hall on 30th December and offered a wiggle and a giggle to help us exercise off some of the festive goodies. She managed to raise £227 at this event and this will help us provide some much needed renovations to the hall. Thank you very much to all that came. 🩷

Hall Fundraiser

The Kitchen Reopens

The Committee have been working hard to reopen the kitchen to give our hirers more elbow room to provide party food and drinks for their events. Though the Kitchen still looks tired we have been applying for grants, some successful some not, to help us bring this facility back to the community. These grants, as explained in our AGM, are paying for the refurbishment of the kitchen so that we do not touch our capital should something that urgently needs repairing arise. The kitchen now meets health and hygiene standards for the hires we offer at the moment. Going forward after the refurbishment in August we will be offering the kitchen as a separate hirable space as a:-

teaching space,
community gathering to cook meals together in times of need,
large event food preparation
to provide refreshments to the neighbouring play area
an evening coffee shop for teenagers in the Room of Requirement

Watch this space for an invitation to our open day to celebrate with you!

Grants have been received from the Coop and the RCCE so far. A huge thank you to them!

See our blog spot to see how we did it.

The Kitchen is Open again!

Pixie and Periwinkle

Christmas Craft Fair

I have to pop a quick comment on here to say what a wonderful day of laughter and camaraderie we had with our stall holders. The atmosphere in the hall was merry and light. We all had so much fun. Take a look here to see more and the photos of the day.

doors being realigned

Kitchen behind the scenes

Over the course of a few weekend some volunteers came into the hall to add various pieces that were needed to bring the kitchen up health and hygiene standards. We were inspected by the Health and Hygiene Officer from Rochford District Council. The volunteers cleared and cleaned, adjusted and replaced, painted and varnished various areas to pass.

This is a temporary measure so that the kitchen could be reopened. Though the committee decided after so much interest was received that the kitchen, that looked so battered and tired, would be more welcoming if it had a face lift. This will be happening in August complete with the purchase of some new equipment and some electrical work.

I will blog the Kitchen's progress on this website.

Stainless Steel Splashback installed

Doors adjusted and protectors added

Deep Cleaning

7 Nov 2023

Even though we have not been in the hall, we have still been working hard on trying to find ways to move forward. Two of our committee members attended online training with ACRE to ensure that the hall is being run within the Charity Commissions guidelines, to make sure the books are being filled out correctly and to work towards making sure that the hall is serving the community well.

A team of committee members have been working on a Grant to try and raise funds to replace the windows, doors and roof. You may have seen some drone activity around the hall. These volunteers offered us the free use of their Drones to capture the poor state the roof is in. We are very grateful to them both.

Currently, like a tag team, committee members have been checking the hall has been safe during the inclement weather.

The same team are in full flow at the moment preparing the once called committee room into a room for all the community to use, be it a Chess Club, Cafe, Crochet Circle, Coffee Natter Group, A Teenager’s Evening Coffee Shop or Prenatal Mums gathering for a support group. The grant hopefully will pay for some new windows and a rear outside door. It is currently being stripped of the old wood chip paper and will get a lovely fresh coat of paint. What we’re struggling with is a name for it, it has, for the moment been playfully named ‘The Room of Requirement’

We look forward to seeing you all soon and we will be inviting the community to come and meet us and see what we’ve been up to.

22 Mar 2023

Supporting our Community with a Funeral Service

We were very honoured to be able to support some members of our community at a very difficult time in their lives.

On 22nd March, due to the back log of funerals in our area, we welcomed a humanist funeral ceremony into the hall. The family chose a Woodside Burial after the ceremony and returned to our hall afterwards for the wake.

Our Chairlady and Bookings Manager were on hand the whole day to orchestrate proceedings with Stibbards Funeral Directors for the funeral and Seasons in Thyme for the Wake.

If we can help any of our community in this way while there is such a backlog please get in touch and we would be happy to help.

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