Anyone passing through Winchelsea Beach in the last few months can’t have failed to notice the building work going on at the Community Hall. The hall was originally built in 1981, and extended twice into its present form in 1982 and 1984. The facilities were definitely showing signs of their age, as the ladies of the committee were often reminding us. Sadly many of the people who contributed their time and effort in originally funding and building the hall are no longer with us, and we owe them a large debt of gratitude.
For those who are interested, the history of the hall and how it came into being is covered in a chapter of Michael Savilles’ excellent book A Changing Shore, which details the history of Winchelsea Beach and its struggle with the elements and the authorities.
For some time the WBCA committee has been aware that we needed to keep up with the times and provide a full access disabled toilet, with proper wheelchair access and ramps. Many discussions took place on the design of the new extension, and those who are familiar with committees will not be surprised to learn that it was the smaller details which took up much of the time. Eventually, and after a false start, we decided on a design.
We did not want to have to close the hall completely whilst the building work was going on, which might have resulted in losing some of our regular bookings, and we were able to select a contractor and a design which allowed us to do this.
The new extension incorporates the full access toilet which also has a baby change facility built in. We have an increasing number of young families using the hall and we hope that this will encourage them to come along. The other side of the new space will allow us to have a decent cloakroom area. The clean lines of the extension have only served to show up the exterior decoration of the hall, and I have no doubt that it will not be long before we will have some internal pressure to remedy this.
All this of course comes at a cost, and we are fortunate in receiving support from Rother District Council, the Winchelsea Parochial Church Council (PCC), and Icklesham Parish Council. The rather sad closing and sale of St Richards Church had allowed the PCC to contribute to a large part of the cost, for which we thank them, and we hope that this will be a fitting use of those funds.
The hall should be back into full use in April, and we will still strive to offer excellent value for money to all our hirers
The official opening ceremony will be on June 21.
Image Credits: G Foot .