With Grateful Thanks!

FUNDING SUCCESS

HURRAH!!! Many Many thanks to all the organisations that have donated to us and granted us money to achieve a better community space.

As a longer term campaign we are still working towards a new roof and now have over £30k set aside for this. We are actively looking for grants to support the new roof which is expected to cost c£80k -£100k.

July 2026 Amazing news. Thank you so much Norwich Freemen's Charity - who have granted us £11,835.57 - this allows us to install a projector and electric screen - for future cinema, screenings, presentations and more. Black out curtains on the stage sides allow us to host theatre, puppet theatre and clubbercize (dance exercise in the dark - with neon clothing) and more - and additional lighting in the hall for use during performances and when ambient lighting is needed.  We will be announcing every change as it happens.

June 2026 We received the great news that R C Snellings  Trust have given us £1000 to support our Community Events - which are in turn fundraising to help raise the money needed for a new roof, and other items. This £1000 is going towards purchasing a PA system, banners, advertising, flyers, high-viz jackets and other items that support community events. Thank you so much R C Snellings Trust.

June 2026 We received the wonderful news we have been awarded £3000 by the Geoffrey Watling to help towards providing better access to the facilities. We need to raise a total of £13k for a new stair lift, and want to put in place new go pak trolleys and under stage trolleys which would store the tables and chairs. Allowing users to move these around far more easily and for disabled users to access the stage and community room. We are now aiming to raise the remaining money needed to get this project full funded. Thank you so much Geoffrey Watling Trust.

May 2026 Keep it Going Grant - by Norfolk Community Foundation awarded us £297 for our Arts & Crafts Community Club - which offers weekly FREE sessions in the Community Room at the Margaret Harker Hall. We are building this club up from scratch and this grant allows us to buy new resources for the club, as well as supporting 15 weeks of running it. Thank you so much Norfolk Community Foundation.

May 2026 We were very happy to receive a grant from Love Norfolk Grant by Norfolk Community Foundation for just over £4000 to spend on black out blinds for the main hall, which will allow us to host new activities such as cinema, puppet theatre, clubbercize (disco dancing for exercise, wearing neon in the pitch black !), and will support the activities already taking place that could benefit from a darkened room such as theatre, Gardening Club lectures etc. It will also provide funding for new signage. This will significantly improve comfort for all hall users.

The same grant is also paying for a new sunblind, which will help the huge south facing kitchen window - making is cooler for all hall users and curtains for the Community room which will keep the room cosy during the winter months, and hopefully cooler when closed during hot weather.  A large washable rug will allow groups to sit on the floor too.  Thank you so much Norfolk Community Foundation.

 

NEWLY PAINTED HALL - inside hall, kitchen, landing, stage sides, entrance hall, storage room, and side entrance!

Thank you so much to the huge team involved with sanding and re-painting the Village Hall internally. It had to be done within the school holidays which gave a time pressure which kept us all focussed!!  Thank you for W H Decorating Services of Acle who worked tirelessly on all the high ceilings, fiddly bits and did all the sanding of the thick black gloss paint around the hall - while keeping cheerful!

Thank you to the Community Payback teams who visited 5 days and transformed the space painting woodwork and walls too in the smaller rooms and especially team supervisor Keith who raised the level of expectation to very high for all of us on our finished work! . Thank you for cleaning up our beautiful old wall plaques and to everyone for spending extra effort ensuring a really high standard across all your work.

Thank you again to Volunteers who contributed in a whole range of ways - Maria Plastow, Cliff Plastow, Phil Humphrey, David Humphrey, Henry Humphrey, and our fantastic treasurer Beth Perretta who has kept up with the flurry of purchases of materials which has kept us working at speed!

NEW COMMUNITY ROOM - ex Committee Room

Grateful thanks to all involved in transforming our tired old committee room into a beautiful, warm new Community Room.

Thank you to Barry Murphy for refurbishing this table from the old trestle tables kept for occasional events. After being lovingly smoothed it is a beautiful, characterful rustic table full of charm and ready for future community group use, as well as committee meetings.  Thanks also to Caroline Stocks for sewing metres of bunting in the hall's new sage, cream and biscuit colouring.

Thank you to Brundall Men's Shed for all the help with upcycling the wooden chairs to give us 10 lovely comfortable chairs in our Community Room.

Thank you for Blofield Tennis Club for the support provided by your member(s) in reviewing our archiving and recognising the value of the Hall's heritage in this way. 

Many many thanks to Maria Plastow, Volunteer and Bookings & Committee Secretary. Maria puts in lots of hours meeting new hirers, sorting issues, and is part of the Maintenance and Fundraising Sub-Committees.  This is Maria in action transforming the back room with a new lick of paint and declutter. We literally couldn't run without her.  Thank you Cliff Plaistow for all your efforts around the hall, drilling, cable tidying, old paint removing, picture putting upping and the myriad of other things you have turned your hand to recently.  We are very grateful for all the support you give us!

NEW MAINTENANCE ROOM - ex Old Boiler Room

Thank you so much Blofield Parish Council for the £5000 large grant you awarded us in 2025/6 - this has enabled us to create a new Maintenance Room by returning this Old Boiler Room back into a safe, usable space which supports us being able to tackle and fix maintenance issues ourselves, as well as store signage and all the necessary gumpf needed for running an active village hall.

Thank you so much to Councillor Andrew Proctor for your £550 grant donated via the Norfolk Community Fund which contributed to the Maintenance Room too.

NEW DONATIONS

In February 2026 - Thank you so much to Mr A Prabhu for their incredible donation of £4000 towards the Charity's work.

Thank you so much to the Woodland Trust who have donated 120 saplings to us, to be received in November 2026. We intend to plant these as a hedgerow on the north side of the site, hopefully in part to replace the existing worn railings, as part of a Community Day. (Watch this space for dates and further happenings!)

Thank you so much to the Royal Scottish Country Dancing Society - Norwich who raised a fantastic donation of £140 towards our Roof & Maintenance Fund in March 2026.

FUNDRAISING MONEY RAISED

November 2025 - Fundraiser Ceildih - Thank you so much for everyone who attended, donated, took part in the raffle. Thank you to the team of folks who helped make this happen including Valerie Baker, Maria Plastow, Sarah Dhesi and Dez Bruce . It raised in total £1013 for our Roof & Maintenance Fund.

Children's Christmas Party - £30 raised - thank you to everyone who attended

Eyes Down - Rural Touring Theatre provided by Creative Arts East in March 2026 raised a total of £222.64  towards our New Roof & Maintenance Fund. Thank you so much everyone who attended!!