Lottery boost for village hall
By Jo Deeks on Thursday, 7th October 1999.
VILLAGERS at Castle Camps can wave goodbye to the old Nissen hut which has served as their village hall for 30 years, after receiving a massive £194,800 Lottery grant for a new one.
Celebrations were mounting in the village, which has a population of only 500 but received the largest single grant out of five totaling £610,539 awarded in Cambridgeshire by the National Lottery Charities Board.
Richard Moore, chairman of the Village Hall Committee, said they had been reasonably optimistic about their chances after a visit to the existing hall by the Charities Board. They hope to start work on their £280,000 new hall by February and have it in use by this time next year.
The existing hall is an old Nissen hut which sits on railway sleepers and was acquired for the village from Duxford airfield in 1968 by long-standing parish councillor Eleanor Bowers.
Mr Moore said the building was second-hand when it arrived and although it had done sterling service was falling apart and sinking into the ground beneath it. The village would have had no chance of building a new hall without the Lottery grant and the existing one would not have survived more than another five years at the most.
"We are absolutely delighted and very excited. This is our first application and for it to go through at the first try is more than we dared hope for. It would never have happened if it was not for the Lottery grant."
The Village Hall Committee has raised £11,000 from a trust fund and other activities and has been promised £50,000 from South Cambridgeshire District Council and £20,000 by Castle Camps parish council.
Celebrations were mounting in the village, which has a population of only 500 but received the largest single grant out of five totaling £610,539 awarded in Cambridgeshire by the National Lottery Charities Board.
Richard Moore, chairman of the Village Hall Committee, said they had been reasonably optimistic about their chances after a visit to the existing hall by the Charities Board. They hope to start work on their £280,000 new hall by February and have it in use by this time next year.
The existing hall is an old Nissen hut which sits on railway sleepers and was acquired for the village from Duxford airfield in 1968 by long-standing parish councillor Eleanor Bowers.
Mr Moore said the building was second-hand when it arrived and although it had done sterling service was falling apart and sinking into the ground beneath it. The village would have had no chance of building a new hall without the Lottery grant and the existing one would not have survived more than another five years at the most.
"We are absolutely delighted and very excited. This is our first application and for it to go through at the first try is more than we dared hope for. It would never have happened if it was not for the Lottery grant."
The Village Hall Committee has raised £11,000 from a trust fund and other activities and has been promised £50,000 from South Cambridgeshire District Council and £20,000 by Castle Camps parish council.
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