Published on 26 Oct 2016 | Topics: #community
A full modification of the Christ Church Hall has been approved and supported by its users and the general public.
The Christ Church Hall in Great Ayton provides a great service to its community and beyond and has been a fond aquaintance to many over the years.
The Hall originally opened its doors in the 1920's followed by its companion the Coffee Lounge being opened by Princess Margaret in 1971.
Since then only a few more major changes have been carried out, other than general maintenance, the latest issues being the roof of the Coffee Lounge, which suffered storm damage over the Christmas period 2015, where the roof bellowed up allowing more leakage from rain water, and the subsidence issue around the serving hatch in the Coffee Lounge. The general consensus from the Hall Committee and Hall users is that the Hall needs a complete renovation programme.
The Hall Committee applied to the Heritage Lottery 'Awards for All' scheme in hope of being granted funds to carry-out a 'Feasibility Study' to assess the damage to the building work and drains and to commission an architect to provide several different options in regards to redesigning the facilities in the Hall with respects to the requirements of the Hall Committee and its users. The Hall was granted £10,000.00 from the 'Awards for All' scheme and the aforementioned works were carried out which resulted in repair of the subsidence around the Coffee Lounge serving hatch and work to external drains. A local architect was commissioned from Stokesley named 'DkS Architects' whom provided four different options. The options varied from basic facility upgrades to a complete demolition and rebuild.
The Hall Committee agreed unanimously on one option which was to upgrade all facilities which would include updated and modified toilet and kitchen facilities and to extend the current building footprint to include a new downstairs meeting room.
The Hall Committee have since decided to take this one step further by applying to the National Lottery for a grant to complete this work. Part of the application requires the committee to show that there is a need for this work to be done. A presentation meeting was held to all to inform everyone about the proposals and ask for opinions on various aspects of the such. Invitations were sent out to all Hall users and to other groups and individuals who didn't use the Hall at present, the Hall Committee also welcomed individuals on the night. A short questionnaire was distributed along with the invitations and was also made available at the back of Christ Church. The forum meeting was extremely successful giving opportunity for everyone to voice their ideas and opinions and it was general consensus that the Hall Committee should move forward with their application with full support.
Since the forum meeting a stage one application has been submitted which has been acknowledged by the Heritage Lottery and is currently awaiting an official response. Should the stage one application be successful the Hall Committee will then be required to submit a second, more detailed application.