The Village Halls Podcast

Losing someone close to you is never easy.  However, when people come together to celebrate their life and remember them fondly it can help to ease some of the pain. Last year, the village hall in Croft-on-Tees became the centre-point of an event to remember a much loved member of their community who had sadly passed away far too early in life. One of the group who brought the entire village together was Richard Coates, who tells the sad but inspirational story of what happened.

Sadly, some village halls are no longer the big attraction they once were. So how can things be turned around? Andrew Ayers is a committee member at Irby & Bratoft Village Hall, where in the space of just a few years, the hall and village community have been thoroughly revitalised. Andrew openly discussed what he believes is the secret to any successful community hub...

Time is running out for the chance to win £1,000 for your village, church or community hall. The Wonderful Villages Awards programme recognises the incredible contribution village halls and other rural community buildings make across five categories. For this episode we briefly take you through these different categories and how to enter. This is a fantastic opportunity for your hall to gain recognition, share your achievements and stories and, of course, receive some funds to keep it all going. Good luck everyone!

Are you worried by news that rural crime is on the increase? Security expert (and heatwave dog-sitter) Dave Reynolds from RiskSTOP,  looks at whether things really are getting worse out there. Plus... the kind of things you can do to keep your community building a lot more safe and secure. Think like a burglar folks!

You may not realise it, but there are well over 1,000 mysterious objects hidden near village halls across the country, with lots of people looking for them. For this episode, Jackie O'Halloran talks about the treasure hunting activity known as geocaching and why she started hiding them around halls in the UK. Is there one near you?  

Putting on a live performance or an artistic event is a great way for village and community halls to draw people in. But where do you find the talent? Thankfully, there is help out there and for this episode we're joined by Holly Lombardo and Stephie Jessop from the National Rural Touring Forum,  who explain how halls in rural communities can put on unique and wonderful events that cannot be matched by the big city venues.

One way of tackling climate change is for us all to switch to more sustainable forms of transport. Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasingly popular, but they need a widespread charging infrastructure if they’re ever going to become truly mainstream. For this episode, Dr Darren Handley, Head of Infrastucture Grants at the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles at the Department for Transport, talks about how the switch to EVs is progressing. Darren also explains what grants are available for village and community halls to support this change by bringing charging points to rural communities.

We all need someone we can turn to for a bit of advice and support every now and then, and village halls are no exception. Our guest for this episode is Janet Clark, one of a network of village halls advisors across the country.  Janet explains the kind of support that's available to those running community buildings and chats about some of the big challenges village halls are currently facing.

Village halls up and down the country have been organising events to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. So for this episode, we visited Chorleywood War Memorial Hall for a special Afternoon Tea Party, which entertained the locals and raised money to support an influx of Ukrainian refugees. As well as meeting and chatting with several residents, we spoke to a Ukrainian family sheltering here in the UK and there was some great entertainment too, from the Chorleywood Orchestra and the Chiltern Choir. Here’s what we encountered on our little trip out…

Keeping up with what's going on around us is really important and we often need someone who is keen to pass on useful local news and information. Doug Allen, a trustee of Topcliffe and Asenby Village Hall, talks about the different ways he keeps his community informed about anything from 'royal scarecrows' to 'despicable criminal activity'...