Knowstone Village Hall report May - September 2024

Knowstone Village Hall report May-September 2024

The Hall Committee has continued working hard organising events and keeping the Hall in good functioning order. Sadly, we have lost two trustees; Phil Dey (moved out of the village) and Cath Whatcott. We thank both Phil and Cath for their contributions to the Parish Hall. We will be looking to find new Trustees to fill the vacancies.

Events

• Coffee mornings have continued monthly and been well attended by locals and people from surrounding parishes. We have been commended by our excellent cakes baked by various trustees and parishioners
• Big Breakfast was again a great success in May raising over £300 for the Hall. A big thank you for our cook extraordinaire Kim Newton for master minding the event and to Claire Cave from Ford Farm who provided the fabulous Mangalitsa pork sausages and helped.
• We were hoping to organise a Parish Council supported Community Afternoon tea for the parishioners, but sadly had to cancel due to lack of interest. Similarly the Chlli Cook Off Competition and Social events had not enough interest to run. Maybe the mid-summertime was not the right time.
• Ceilidh with the Oggle Band was another great success. For the first time we ran a licenced bar which proved very popular resulting in net profit of £296. We also invested in a card reader to offer more payment options.
• Autumn Fayre and Craft Show was a great display of local creativity, cookery skills and produce. Scarecrow competition was back again and we had another crop of fabulous entries. The event along with the Tea Room service resulted in over £400 for Hall accounts. We also received an offer of a £100 donation from the Tiverton Agricultural Association for keeping the tradition of local produce shows alive.
• Parish Church Harvest Supper was again supported by the Hall team. We contributed to the food items, helped setup & decoration, serve the food and clear out afterwards. A very pleasant evening.
• Killer Skittles started again and this time we also offered a licenced bar. More Skittles to follow over autumn/winter months.
• Coffee Morning & Children’s science Party was a new event suggested by Kate Swanzy from Little Kidland. Kate kindly liaised with the Science Party provider and helped with the event on the day. We had 11 children attending and they all had a wonderful time learning. Coffee morning was also well attended and the Committee rooms was full up with lots of chatter.

Projects

Over the summer months we have applied for several grants from the Batsworthy Fund. These are: New kitchen, new light weight staging and a new shed. They are all in progress to be evaluated, however the Fund organisation seems to be having staffing problems so no decisions have been made.

Regular Hall Users

The Hall continues to be used for a variety of regular activities organised by parishioners. These include weekly Pilates and Yoga, Craft & Chat.