Village Hall and community building trustees across Essex will be dedicating events being held in their halls to National Village Halls Week over the coming week.
Village Halls Week, which kicks off on Tuesday 22 January, was created last year by national charity Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) and their 38 member organisations including the Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE).
The purpose of the week is to say a huge thank you to all the volunteers who invest their time into village halls and community buildings, creating vital community spaces in rural areas.
Many Essex village hall committees are planning their own events during the week including events being held at Goldhanger Village Hall (Maldon District) who are holding a Burns Night on Saturday 26th January; Peldon & Wigborough’s Community Hall (Colchester District) holding their Pantomine 'Snow White and the Several Dwarves' from Thursday 24th Jan to Saturday 26th January; and Galleywood Heritage Centre (Chelmsford District) holding a Heritage Room open day with archives to view, coffee and cake!
The launch event will be held in Cambridgeshire with other events including performances from Ian McMillan, renowned poet and broadcaster and Steve Antony, children’s author and illustrator. Kate Fox, stand-up poet has also written a poem about village halls, commissioned by the NRTF. The list grows as Lord Gardiner of Kimble visits Suffolk, representing the support of Defra for the campaign.
There are 10,000 village halls and other community buildings in England’s rural communities, of which over 250 can be found in Essex. With rural areas seeing diminishing services and social facilities village halls play a key huge part in bringing communities together and tackling social isolation.
Essex Village Halls are making a difference! Celebrate your Village Hall with a smile!
