The History of our Building & Community Support
The original Highwood Village Hall was constructed circa 1950, prior to this it was an army hut.
It was a successful entity for over 50 years and served the community well, but by the year 2000, despite a regular maintenance regime, there were significant problems with the fabric of the building. In April 2001 the Trustees were forced to close the hall after an electrical inspection showed it could no longer be safely used.
The Committee prior to 2004 had tried to secure funding to repair the existing hall, but were rejected on the basis that the building was approaching the end of its life and such expenditure could not be justified in terms of value for money. A structural engineer’s report was commissioned in July 2004 and concluded “it is our opinion that it would be beneficial if any monies proposed for this work would be more beneficially used in the procurement of a new structure”.
In May 2004 questionnaires were sent to every household in the parish and the results formed the Highwood Parish Plan. It statistically evidenced that accessible facilities are essential for communities; especially dispersed rural communities where residents can be isolated and socially deprived. It reinforced that the lack of community spirit was of real concern, and that increased urbanisation was not respecting the rural environment. 91% of respondents backed the rebuilding of the new Village Hall and felt this facility would do most to improve services and opportunities for residents.
From 2005 the aim of the Highwood Village Hall Committee was to build Highwood a new Village Hall. The local community, led by Highwood Village Hall Committee, mobilised a 6 year plan of action to raise funds to build a new village hall.
By breaking the project into milestones, funding was raised to have the old hall demolished, architect plans submitted and approved, professional feasibility and project development studies commissioned and the construction put out to tender.
Local residents supported the construction project not only with fundraising and donations, but in 2008 pledged to take ACTION in their own homes to save energy and CO2 to support the Village Hall’s environmental ethos.
In November 2009 at a Village Hall musical fundraiser a “We Support The Highwood Village Hall” petition and obtained over 150 signatures. Summer fetes were held where the community could share ideas, vote on favourite designs and volunteer to support the project.
Children from Highwood Primary School supported the project with drawings depicting what they would like to do in a new village hall and what they liked/disliked about living in Highwood.
The children, community, Ford Motor Company, City and County Councillors came together to plant the hedgerow. In 2011 the school made the wonderful artwork that hangs in the main hall space of the Village Hall.
Highwood Parish Council supported the Village Hall in November 2009 with a grant secured via a Public Works Loan Bond.
Our local County Cllr. John Aldridge and Borough Cllr. Nicolette Chambers supported the project with letters of support.
Students from Writtle School of Design supported the project by spending over six months designing plans for the environmental community garden as part of their course work. At the same time the Village Hall Committee worked with the students to demonstrate the various issues involved in a community construction project. The concept of a community orchard was chosen by residents during the community consultation of 2009. One of the original ideas was for badminton to be played at the hall and this would have been achieved had the hall been built with higher roof but this was rejected by the committee at the time of the build out of respect to the residents either side of the hall.
Construction started late August 2010 and the new Highwood Village Hall was declared open by Graham Gooch OBE DL on the 16th July 2011.
The Grand Opening was supported by Lord Petre, Rt. Hon Sir Alan Haselhurst MP, Cllr Rodney Bass, Chairman of Essex County Council, The Deputy Mayor and Mayoress of Chelmsford Borough Council, representatives from key grant providers / financial sponsors and over 300 supporters from the local community.
The Village Hall would not have been built without the support and perseverance of Committee Members, Highwood’s residents, our grant funding partners, professional bodies and friends. Thank you all !
| Grant / Funding Provider | Pre-Construction | Construction | TOTAL |
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Grant from Highwood Parish Council | 0.00 | 200,000.00 | 200,000.00 |
| Biffaward | 0.00 | 45,000.00 | 45,000.00 |
| Essex County Council Community Initiatives | 21,694.00 | 18,274.50 | 39,969.00 |
| Low Carbon Buildings Programme Phase 2 | 0.00 | 37,220.00 | 37,220.00 |
| BRE Community Sustainable Energy programme | 3,525.00 | 27,000.00 | 30,525.00 |
| Essex County Council Making the Links | 0.00 | 30,000.00 | 30,000.00 |
| EDF Energy Green Fund | 0.00 | 30,000.00 | 30,000.00 |
| Essex Environment Trust | 0.00 | 25,000.00 | 25,000.00 |
| Big Lottery Community Buildings | 19,100.00 | 0.00 | 19,100.00 |
| Betty Carr Memorial Fund | 0.00 | 12,433.00 | 12,433.00 |
| Eve Goddard Memorial Fund | 0.00 | 10,000.00 | 10,000.00 |
| Tom Amos Charity | 0.00 | 5,000.00 | 5,000.00 |
| Garfield Weston Foundation | 0.00 | 5,000.00 | 5,000.00 |
| Chelmsford Borough Council – Grant Aid | 3,500.00 | 1,000.00 | 4,500.00 |
| Essex County Council Millennium Fund – E C F | 0.00 | 3,000.00 | 3,000.00 |
| The Bernard Sunley Foundation | 0.00 | 2,000.00 | 2,000.00 |
| V-Festival (Maztec) | 0.00 | 2,000.00 | 2,000.00 |
| Augustine Courtauld Award | 0.00 | 1,000.00 | 1,000.00 |
| Graeme Blaik | 0.00 | 1,000.00 | 1,000.00 |
| Charles S French | 0.00 | 1,000.00 | 1,000.00 |
| Walter Farthing Trust | 0.00 | 1,000.00 | 1,000.00 |
| TOTAL FUNDING | 47,819.00 | 456,927.50 | 504,747.00 |
Pre-Construction costs included the demolition and clearance of the old village hall, the purchase of a container with planning permission fees, architect fee for plans with elevations for village hall planning permission, professional feasibility reports, project development study for renewables and professional tender reports.
The grants listed above represent the successful applications only! Over 1,000 voluntary hours were spent by the Executive Committee completing grant applications, producing business plans, executive summaries, newsletters, posters, meeting with professional bodies, attending conferences, exhibitions, gaining professional advice, writing letters, generating PR, giving presentations and liaising with stakeholders etc.
A community project such as this requires a vast amount of voluntary support. Special thanks must made to all those who served on the Village Hall Committee during some, or all of the period from 2005 – 2011. In alphabetic order Lesley Bridgman, Paul Bridgman, David Cameron, Martin Goddard, Richard Johnston, John Kent, Ron Lewis, Katherine Murphy, Iris Oddy, Anthony Pipkin, Petra Pipkin, Graham Seller, Graham Spearman, Janet Young and Michael Young.
In addition to the above, the project also received:-
- Material donations from:- *Oddy Fencing *Highwood Parish Council, *Amaryllis Environmental Services and *Anthony Pipkin.
- Professional Service donations – * Edmund Carr LLP
- Additional financial donations towards equipment to furnish the new village hall – *Firstead Properties (Ray Bone & Pravin Ghumaria)