Join the celebrations for the role of our village halls over past century

VILLAGE Halls Week 2021 will recognise the contribution England’s 10,000-plus halls have made to rural communities since the 1920s.

The national campaign week is set to take place from January 25 to 29 and will feature online events, videos, podcasts and blogs showcasing the history of village halls and their benefits for rural communities.

The initiative is being championed locally by Rural Action Derbyshire (RAD), a charity that provides support and advice to more than 250 village halls across the county.

Helena Stubbs, RAD’s village halls adviser said: “For 100 years village halls have been a really important part of village life in Derbyshire. Like many small business, the pandemic has affected them significantly. However, they are hard-working and resilient and with our support they will be ready to reopen as soon as

Government regulations allow. We hope that halls will continue to be an important local hub and we call on everyone to use their local facility.”

Managed by volunteers, England’s 10,000-plus village and community halls support a diverse range of community activities from exercise classes to coffee mornings and are routinely hired out for private parties and weddings. Some host community shops and post offices.

In a survey undertaken by national charity Action with Communities in Rural England (Acre) last year, it was found that 60% of village halls provide the only meeting space in the local community. An estimated 50,000 people are reliant on the use of village halls to make a living.

Acre spokesman Phillip Vincent said: “The lockdown means we are having to doing things differently for Village Halls Week 2021. This will be an online affair but there’s still good opportunity for village halls to get involved and join us in celebrating all the work they do.

“We’ve published a programme that invites people to join online events, share stories on social media and sign a ‘doomsday book’ which will be a record of village halls in their centenary year.”

More information is available from ACRE’s website.