**Second Annual Report of the Trustees,  Holtby Village Hall Management Committee, Charity Number 1190336. Year Ending 31 March 2022.** 

## **1. Objects and Activities** 

The object of the Holtby Village Hall Management Committee (HVHMC) is to provide social and recreational amenities for the villagers of Holtby and any adjacent villages within a radius of 2.5 miles of Holtby through the provision of a publicly available building for community activities known as Holtby Village Hall. 

## **2. Achievements and Performance** 

The above object is achieved by the upkeep and maintenance and hiring of the Hall, which is a wooden building near the centre of the village, available for hire to any person or organisation at charges determined by the charity trustees. The charges comprise: 

a standing charge for hire; or 

a reduced charge for hire where agreed, for residents of the village of Holtby and its outlying properties. 

March 2022 sees the Hall in a very different situation from where we were at the last AGM. Covid restrictions were relaxed in mid-2021 as the success of the vaccination programme became apparent. The guidance provided by the Charity Commission on public benefit was relevant in the Trustees’ decision to re-open the Hall for use with the September 2021 Holtby Trader, and since then its use has expanded steadily. There has also been a series of improvements and alterations to the building and its surroundings, which it is planned to continue in the coming year. 

Since re-opening last September, the Hall has hosted regular meetings of the Holtby Trader and the Snooker Group, and occasional use for Yoga classes, Parish Council meetings, and a wake. We have also expressed to City of York Council our availability as a polling station for elections, and under the terms of our new sub-lease from the Holtby PCC will be expecting to host occasional church functions such as the Harvest Supper. 

Improvements carried out during the year have been the replacement of the outside door to the storeroom and improvement of access to it for emergency exit purposes, installing sleepers along the front boundary to create a flower bed adjacent to the footpath, installation of a lamp standard to provide better external lighting, refreshment of the interior paintwork, and repainting of the external cladding. Eight new (long) tables have been bought and a new set of small tables have just arrived. These are all foldable and are more easily carried than the old ones. We are also in the process of fitting new (replacement) windows and main door to the main room in the Hall. 

Some jobs remain unfinished, including the kitchen ceiling, new door locks to the WC’s, applying cladding to the upper parts of the end gables and installing covers to the joints of the external cladding panels. 

Future renovations proposed include new chairs and possibly an audio visual system for films, internet streaming and illustration of talks and classes. 

Next year will mark the centenary of the Hall’s opening, so I hope we will be able to celebrate that achievement in a fitting way. 

There have been no changes to the Trustees or the Constitution of the HVHMC during the reporting period. 



## **3. Other Information – History of the Hall.** 

The first mention of what is now the Holtby Village Hall is in the minutes of the Holtby Parochial Church Council meeting on 9[th] March 1922, when the then Vicar of Holtby, Rev Arthur Whitaker reported that ‘ the sum of £40 was invested in Funding Stock earmarked for the erection of a Parish Room, and that the interest on the same had been used to augment Church Funds’. 

The Borthwick Institute at York University holds a Faculty, signed on 26 July 1922, which ‘seeks objections as to why a moveable Parish Hall of wood on a brick foundation should not be erected by the PCC on a piece of land formerly a ruinous blacksmith’s shop in accordance with Plans A and B filed in the registry of the Consistory Court of York and permission granted to Rev Arthur Lionel Whitaker the Rector of Holtby aforesaid’. 

The phraseology was used because misgivings had been expressed that the Rector would be liable for the cost of repairs to the room, and that the next incumbent might not wish to continue such an arrangement. The Lord Chancellor's assent, however, was duly given. 

The first reported use of the new building was in 1923, when ‘the Annual Vestry and Parochial Electors’ meetings were held in conjunction on Tuesday, April 3[rd] in the Parish Room’. 

The administration of the Parish Room was carried out, initially, by four committees, headed by an Executive Committee and including a Social Committee, as sub-tenants of the property leased to the PCC. The minutes of the various committees show some of the uses of the Hall in its early days, including  whist drives, dances, and as a library – newspapers were bought every day and were available for reading by members of the Parish Room. 

An extension at the rear was added much later to provide a kitchen, storeroom and WC’s. 

The name of the building has changed over time, from Holtby Parish Room to Holtby Institute and now it is known as Holtby Village Hall. Finance has always been provided by lettings, supplemented by fund raising events – there have never been any paid employees, and only recently have grants been sought from locally-based charitable trusts. The funding situation has often verged on the parlous, at one time in the 1930’s the bank balance stood at £1-5s-10d. 

Over the years, too, mains supplies of electricity, gas and water have been added, and there have been periodic updates to the interior décor, the most recent of these having been in 1992, when the gas supply was also installed, and 2016 when the interior of the main hall was updated. 

Prior to the Covid pandemic, the Hall was the venue for exercise classes, a ladies’ snooker group, a monthly Fair Trade and local crafts market, childrens’ parties, Golden Wedding parties, the annual Harvest Supper, as well as being used as the Polling Station for national and local elections and being nominated as an emergency centre for any disaster which might occur locally. We altered the Hall inside and out to meet the OFSTED requirements for hosting the ‘Sticky Fingers’ pre-school group during 2016-2017 before they moved to purpose-built premises in the nearby village of Stockton on the Forest. 

Recently the hall has benefitted from grants from the Communities office in City of York Council to refurbish the kitchen in 2019 and to make alterations to meet safety requirements, where possible, during the Covid lockdowns. 

An overhaul of the roof and wooden exterior cladding, doors and windows is planned for 2021/2022, subject to the progress of the current Covid pandemic and availability of the necessary tradesmen and materials. 



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Appendix A. Independent Examinerfs Report
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