Ringmer Village Hall
Community Improvements at the Heart of the Village.
Contact: Pam Bowmaker, chair of fundraising. 01273813625 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
For forthcoming events, see Extension Appeal
For the revised project, see Extension Appeal Background
To see a chart showing the apportionment of construction cost based on quantity surveyor estimates in March 2011, click here.
17 January 2012
We had a lovely time at our 'Souper Saturday', thanks to everyone who came along & supported us – including donations £130 was raised. We will do it again, but not every Saturday!
Congratulations & many thanks to Tony Heath and his family who organised the Christmas Quiz. Once again there was tremendous support and £381.50 went into our funds. The 500 club also contributes at least £400 a month. January's winners were J Sullivan; J Hart & S Kay. The grand total now stands at £91, 500.
The next fundraiser is on Saturday February 11th – 'The 2nd Quiz and Puds Evening', for those who didn't come last year puddings are served in the interval. Tickets are on sale now at £6 from Pam Bowmaker 01273 813625 or Middletons. You need Teams of 4 but we can usually make up a team or two if you haven't a team but want to take part. Planning is well under way for our Village Fete on May 19th. I'm looking for donations of prizes for the raffles as well as offers of help and volunteers to run some of the fundraising games. Please contact me by e mail or phone if you are able to help. Our January update with the latest on the appeal is being distributed around the village; do look out for it & please support us whenever you can.
January 2012
Happy New Year from the appeal committee & thanks for the wonderful support you gave to us in 2011. At the year end the fundraising total had reached £90,538! The Baptist Church recently donated £300, the proceeds from their Gospel Choir concert and our two events in December, 'Pampered Chef' & 'Coffee & Mince Pies' (pies donated by the Jack &Jill Bakery), raised £410. The Village Hall charity cards, showing old photos of the Village Hall raised £150. This is all good news and with the results from a number of grant applications coming in 2012 we will know by mid-year just how much of Phase 1 in our building programme we can achieve. Therefore, your support is going to be even more important leading up to and including the Village Fete on May 19th.
There were 7 prizes in December's 500 Club Draw; our 3 regular prizes, 1 of £200 & 2 of £25 as well as our 4 Christmas bonus prizes each of.£50. Winners were Mr Staunton; V Smith; I Askew; M McPherson; M Nichol; B Bonner & M Pattenden.October 2011
The 500 Club has reached 131 members. This means that the first prize each month is now £200 with a further two prizes of £25.
Thanks to everyone who supported the book sale and coffee morning on 29th October.
Please do join the 500club. £6000 has now been raised – the first prize each month is still £184 with 2 of £23. There are 4 extra prizes of £50 each in December. To be eligible you must have joined by the end of November.
Many thanks also for the further £350 given to the fund in memory of Salvatore Marrone making a total of £731; a fitting lasting tribute to him.
If you would prefer to support a charity at Christmas rather than give presents do think of the Village Hall – we are a registered charity. We will be selling a Christmas card/voucher saying you have made a donation to the Village Hall Appeal instead of a present; that you can use for friends and family. Vouchers are £5, £10 or £20.
E-mail me or contact Liz Owen or Bren Bonner if you would like to buy some.
September 2011
The 500 club is still going strong as another £446 was added to the appeal fund from the September draw. Mr T Pigott won the first prize & the 2 other winners very generously asked for their prizes to be put back into the fund. We still have 129 members & a first prize of £184. This is really encouraging as although some people chose not to renew after the first year so others have come forward & so kept up the membership. In total £5632 has now been donated to the Appeal Fund from the 500 club. Thank you to all the members. Now is a very good time to join if you want to have a chance of winning one of the 4 extra prizes of £50 in December as our Christmas bonus. You need to have joined by the end of November to take part in the draw.
Many thanks go to Joan Lilley & other residents & friends of Delves House who raised £100 for the appeal at their coffee morning on the 24th of September. Congratulations to Brenda Perchard & her company of musicians for the lovely Variety Concert they put on at short notice when serious illness forced the cancellation of their planned concert with the Brighton & Hove Orchestra. The audience was very generous & £390 was donated to our funds.
In September’s Church & Village News our Vicar, Will Pratt talked about the sudden deaths of Danielle Price & Salvatore Marrone. Danielle was a valuable supporter of the Village Hall Appeal. She was responsible for involving the students from the college in our fete & being a tremendous help by driving the minibus & helping with moving tables & chairs to & from the RCC. I’m really delighted that she won one a pair of tickets in our Glyndebourne Raffle & had a super time there.
At Salvi’s funeral his family asked for donations to be given The Village Hall Appeal and they wish to thank everyone who made a donation. So far £381 has been contributed. This is very generous & will be a lasting tribute to him.
Our grateful thanks & warm thoughts go out to these two families.
As we have now raised £87500, by using some of our reserves we can now say we have £100,000 to match fund for grant applications. We have several applications underway but will not know the outcome for 3 moths or so but hopefully we should be able to start building some time in 2012.
Our main fundraiser in November is the Book sale & coffee morning on the 29th. This is instead of the Auction of Promises that has had to be postponed. Please drop off books from 8.30 am. The sale will be from 9.30 – 12.00. Do please come & thank you for your continuing support.
July 2011
Ringmer Hub, a display of 40 different clubs and societies active in Ringmer, raised £461 for the Extension Appeal
Summer 2011 Update
The Trustees of Ringmer Village Hall Charity have met to consider the outcome of a survey run by the Parish Council. The objective of the survey is to help the Parish Council gauge the residents’ views concerning a grant to help pay for improvements to the Hall.
The survey was conducted on the same day as the District Election and resulted in a majority ‘no’ opinion. Of the 3,761 voters on the electoral roll only 1,047 expressed an opinion with the split of votes being 606 against, and 441 in favour.
Clearly the outcome of the survey is a disappointment to the Trustees especially as the availability of major grants from other sources has been explored without success. It appears that opportunities for external grants are unlikely to improve in the current financial climate.
The Trustees will now review the original design to see how changes can be made so that improvements can be phased over a number of years and as budgets allow. Whilst the review and any subsequent redesign is underway, fund-raising will continue. There is still a need to raise additional money to enable the priority changes to be made. The funds already raised are held in an account that pays the best level of interest available to the Charity. To ensure the highest interest rate, the funds in this account will not be available for use until April 2012.
Feedback from the survey suggests that there are concerns on the cost of the scheme rather than on the improvements the Trustees are hoping to achieve.
The actual estimated cost of constructing an extension and modifications to the other rooms is £387,000. However it is worth noting that in addition to this cost, the following allowances had to be made: VAT £92,000 - despite the Hall being a community facility run by a Charity. Fees £60,000 - the professional fees are unavoidable due to the extent of the work and the need to meet the requirements of a building with ‘public’ access. Contingency allowance £45,000 - the contingency allowance is essential when working on older buildings as there are always unforeseen problems.
Many of you will have already seen the entire statement from Alan West. We were saddened that so few expressed a view (only 27.8%) with 16.1% of the electorate saying ‘no’.
Since then, the trustees on their part have been very busy reviewing the options. Some work will occur in 2012 as always intended, possibly to include providing facilities for the disabled & to improve the small hall. Bigger works will have to wait a little longer until more money is raised. However the good news is that the level of good will in the village towards the Appeal seems to have increased. We are so encouraged by this. The Fete was a great success and seemed to be enjoyed by everyone. £6,700 was raised. A huge thank-you to everyone who took part in so many different ways. This has been followed by very generous donations and events with the result that £2400 has been raised in June. Thanks also for the encouraging phone calls!
The overall total raised now exceeds £85,000. We are still seeking grants and have at last had some optimistic responses to our enquiries. It is vital that we are able to convince grant holders that we are serious and can match-fund their offers – one immediate application asks us to have raised £100,000 before we can apply for a similar amount. On present performance & with your support that is now a real possibility.
Village Fete 2011
Thank you to everyone who came along to our Fete last Saturday and all the participants and sponsors who together helped to make it such a success and a wonderful village event. We were extremely lucky with the weather, the blue sky and sunshine arrived about an hour before the fun began. 50 classic cars processed through the village to be in place for the Ringmer Primary children to start us off by dancing around the Maypole, followed by Empire dancers and then the adults with Step dancing. They were interspersed in the arena by the LBG brass band and the final event was the local derby Tug of War between teams from the Anchor Inn and the winners, The Green Man. We had many more stalls & activities than last year & once again the cream teas were in great demand as were the ice creams. The beer tent did a roaring trade and a lot of fun was had by all. Live music and a wonderful Hog Roast finished off the evening.
The magnificent sum of £6600 was raised for our appeal. Thank you all!
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LBG Brass Band |
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Face Painting |
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| Tea Tent | Lucky Dip |
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| Coconut Shy | Step Dancing |
We were blessed with wonderful weather for the second year; what a difference this makes! Following on from the arrival of the classic cars we started with dancing around the Maypole and finished with the tug of war between teams from the Anchor Inn and The Green Man. The LGB Brass Band added to this lovely village occasion and concluded their performance with ‘Sussex by the Sea’. Then in the evening, to round off the day we had a Hog Roast and Live Folk and Blues music.
Apart from all the people who put in so much hard work on stalls and activities we were very fortunate to have some significant sponsors and supporters. These include:
AVS fencing; Andy Cooper; Bob Peters; Earnest Doe; Guss Christie; The Green Man; Harveys Brewery; Heart of the South Racing; Middletons; Ringmer Community College; Ringmer Cricket Club; Ringmer Scouts; St John Ambulance.
Alan West and his team for setting up and dismantling the whole Fete.
Neil Morgan and team for the Beer Tent.
Jean Drynan & the Drama group who ran the Tea tent.
Loft & Barbara Longhurst for the 50 wonderful classic cars and the live music for the evening event.
Chester Funnell for the PA system.
As well as the above many other local businesses, organisations & individuals gave very generous sponsorship as well as prizes for the raffle, helping to raise £1600.
Prize winners:
The Raffle:
£200 cash: J LLoyd
Free gliding lesson at ‘Ringmer Gliding Centre’: G Parr
4 meals – ‘The Green Man’:D Wibon
£50 cash: G Ranger
Russel Hobbs Kettle & Toaster set: M Robinson
Turtle Beach X11 stereo gaming headset – returned for future raffle
Family ticket for ‘Bentley Wildfowl & Motor Museum’: Matthews
Royal Doulton crystal bowl: S Noone
2 Sunday roasts – ‘The Anchor’: D Swann
£25 off meals – ‘The Cock’ :M Cannadine
Planted Patio pot from ‘Markos’: D Ovenden
Hanging Basket from ‘Goldcliff Nurseries’: J Curtis
Verseo Cosmetics case and cosmetics: A Smalley
The Exclusive Draw: D Price and C Newitt.
Guess the Weight of the Cake: (3lbs 6.5 oz) Jane Craig
Find the £50 note: A Trent.
Finally, a wonderful day was had by all and we all had a great feeling of pride in belonging to the village of Ringmer. Thank you all for being a part of it. Look out for next year’s date!
Extension Update 2/11
Over £900 was given in donations following the winter update delivered to all Ringmer households; in addition 15 more people joined the 500 club – With the huge £1000 donated from St Mary’s as the topped up proceeds from the Variety Show our overall funds raised now exceed £71,600. Thank you! Winners for the February 500 club draw were L Ellis, R & L Cairns & A. Green & £370 went into the appeal fund.
Winter Update 2011
A happy New Year to all Ringmer residents and your families!
We can’t thank you enough, all of you who have given us such tremendous support in so many ways including helping to raise almost £69.000 towards the £450,000 needed to make the improvements to the Village Hall complex. Our plans are to better meet the needs of the village. Currently we have to turn bookings away as we lack sufficient suitable space and we must make the premises fully accessible as well as to improve our energy efficiency and provide an IT rich Library.
As there isn’t a community centre in Ringmer, our Village Hall serves this purpose – it is truly at the heart of the village. There has been a public building on the site since the 1600s. The Village Hall complex is ‘owned’ by the village and run by the Trustees who are all volunteers from the village. They have formed a number of committees for the management of the Village Hall. All the groups who use the hall as their base are charged hire fees as is the Parish council. Almost all of the regular groups have held special events to raise funds for the building appeal or have given donations. Added to this, the donations we have received from individuals as well as from our 500 club have meant that almost £28000 was raised last year. Clearly we want to better that this year. As well as organising fundraising events we are also applying to lots of organisations for grants, As yet we haven’t had any success but are continuing to try. One we had set our sights on is the new lottery funding designed for community capital projects - sadly, Ringmer is not eligible to apply. Applications appear to be restricted to urban areas. We will keep trying – any fundraising ideas please contact us.
Extension Update 12/10
A special thanks to all those brave souls who ventured out in the blizzard on the 18th December, Saturday morning and joined us for coffee and mince pies. It was a wonderful atmosphere and £190 was raised for the appeal. Many thanks to all the helpers and to Jack & Jill Bakery for donating the mince pies – they were delicious. This was our last collective event of the year and with only Tony Heath’s quiz donation to come in our Grand total stands at a magnificent £68,634 and in 2010 £27,889 was raised. Thank you.
Please do help if you can. Any fundraising ideas and offers, please contact me.
We have had a very big disappointment with our fundraising as we had hoped for a large grant from the Big Lottery who are just releasing funds for Community building projects – unfortunately Ringmer is not eligible. We have made some other grant applications but without success as yet, and we will make more. Any ideas will be gratefully received. We will keep trying.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Extension Update 11/10
Many thanks to Ringmer Primary School's HSA for their donation of £46.82 collected at their recent firework display.
Extension Update 10/10
Bridge Drive
Many thanks to members of the Bridge Club for their very generous donation of £690 following their grand Bridge Drive.
The Big Ringmer Coffee Weekend
The various Coffee Mornings throughout the village raised a wonderful £900.Well done!
1940s Big Band Swing Night
The Big band Night on the 18th was a tremendous success and very enjoyable. Our thanks to the organisers and the musicians who raised £828.95.
Ringmer Ramblers walk
Ringmer Ramblers held their fundraising walk on Saturday 11th September and despite a very wet afternoon raised £67. Margaret Fletcher kindly provided refreshments half way round. Our grateful thanks to all who took part.
Extension Update 09/10
Waitrose in Lewes
The tokens which were placed in the Ringmer Village Hall Extension Community Box at Waitrose have raised £326. Thank you. As you can see on the Appeal Progress Thermometer, we have now raised £59,427, 30% of the total we need to raise.
Extension Update 08/10
Coffee Morning
Despite the rain there was a good turn out to the coffee morning held at the Village Hall on Saturday 21st August. £322 was raised. A huge thank you to all who braved the weather and for the many donations of home baked cakes, pies and raffle prizes. Thanks also for all the hard work of the helpers.
Village Fete
This year's Village Fete raised the grand total of £5000. Many thanks all the many people who helped raise such a magnificent sum. Next year the fete will be held on Saturday 21st May. Please make a note of it your diaries now.
Extension Update 06/10
Here are the results of the Grand Draw which was held at the Village Fete.
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Prizes | Winners |
| 1. | 2 tickets to the Glyndebourne Festival in Guss Christie’s Private Box. | Mrs Schofield |
| 2. | £200 | Mrs Grynyer |
| 3. |
Free Gliding Lesson at Sussex Gliding Centre, Ringmer |
Mrs Gough |
| 4. | £50 | L. Knight |
| 5. | Family ticket to Bentley Wild Fowl Park & Motor Museum | A & M Dobson |
| 6. | Sunday roast Lunch for 2 at 'The Anchor Inn', Ringmer | C. Russell |
| 7. | Sunday roast Lunch for 2 at 'The Green Man', Ringmer | B. Bonner |
| 8. | £25 off meals at The Cock Inn, Ringmer |
S. Chrismas |
| 9. | Filled Patio Planter from Marco’s Fruit, Vegetables & Flower shop, Ringmer | M. Jordan |
| 10. | Filled Hanging Basket from Goldclff Nurseries, Ringmer | Mrs Atkinson |
| 11. | £10 voucher from ‘Creature Comforts’ Ringmer | D Beaumont |
| 12. | Bottle of Wine from ‘The Ship Inn’, Uckfield Road, Ringmer | Mr Woollons |
Licence no:LN/2010/00059. Tickets sold 2080. After costs, total raised £1736.
Extension Update 05/10
The Village Fete on the Green was held in glorious sunshine on the hottest day of the year so far. A gentle breeze kept everyone feeling comfortable. Here are a few pictures of the day.
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| Pencil Portrait | Coconut Shy |
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| Classic Car Display | Skittles |
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| Hog Roast | Evening Entertainment |
Details of the amount raised will given as soon as possible.
Extension Update 07/09
A cheque for £1,000 has been presented by Ringmer Baptist Church to the Chairman of Ringmer Village Hall Management Committee. This money, along with £850 from the recent ‘Garden Safari' weekend, will go towards the planned development of Ringmer Village Hall in 2011/12.
A radical rethink of how the amenities are used has resulted in an extension design by architects Turner & Hoskins going forward to Lewes District Council for planning permission.
The plans include a new library, larger in size than the present, it will provide an enhanced service to the community utilising the latest information technology. There will be better facilities for the disabled with the addition of a new toilet and chair lift between the two main halls. A new meeting room and enlargement of another will enable the Parish Council office to be relocated to provide a better environment for Councillors and residents. Finally there will be more storage for equipment.
‘Green' initiatives are planned to reduce the impact on the environment and to minimise running costs. Plans and a model of the proposed development are on display in the Village Hall.
For further information contact
Alan West
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
01273 812585
19/1/2012