These have been a rough few month for the Village Hall as we’ve been plagued with setbacks, but we’re still here and still smiling!!  We’ve had a leaky roof and subsequent internal damage, lost all emails, our website went down, we had a leak in the toilets, we were knocked back from a funding application for a toilet refurbishment, we’ve had problems with our floor, the people supplying the part to fit the lift have been furloughed and consequently there’s been no progress, and to top it all, we’ve had trouble with anti-social behaviour.  Obviously, we’ve dealt with everything as best we can, but it’s all been a worrying and an expensive journey, although we must say thanks to East Durham Rural Corridor AAP who helped with funding for the roof repair and damage.

Unfortunately for the foreseeable future we will no longer have Slimming World at the Village Hall. This is a blow to the people who use this service and to the Village Hall. The reason is down to the lack of consultants to hold the classes. We hope that they may return and will be most welcome.

We’ve also had some sad news regarding two of our Reading Room volunteers.  Dorothy, who helped on a Tuesday very sadly passed away after a short illness.  She will be dearly missed by us all as she always was so helpful and kind; and Pat, who helped every Friday, has decided to retire, so we wish her good health and happiness always and can’t thank her enough for all of the help she has given us over the years

On a more positive note our 2019 accounts were signed off by the Auditor during Lockdown and are ready to be submitted to the Charities Commission once we’ve had our Annual General Meeting, which is still to be arranged (please keep looking out on our facebook page, website and noticeboards for further details)

A massive thank you to all of our volunteers

We were able to deliver our Bags of Cheer on two separate occasions to some of our regular users and residents identified by our volunteers just to help make them smile.  We sent out 300 in June and another 300 in August, just in time for VJ Day.

The response and feedback we have received has been amazing, truly heart-warming and so positive and overwhelming; and our volunteers, who all worked so hard to get them all together and delivered, can’t thank you all enough for your lovely feedback; and the Management Committee can’t thank our volunteers enough for helping to make it all happen.

We must especially say thank you to Carol, Carole, Alan, Christine, Margaret, Lee, Hannah, Rhys, Scott, Emily, Brad, Connor, Nicola, Karen, Karen, Darren, Linda and Edith, all of whom helped bring a smile to people’s faces.  Thanks must go also to East Durham Rural Corridor AAP for granting us the funding to be able to make this take place

Our Volunteer Reading Room Service

Our volunteers have also worked with Coxhoe Little Library, Coxhoe Cares and Coxhoe Parish Council to help support the local community where identified, and our volunteers have also manned the Reading Room every Tuesday and Thursday to offer a book service, all of which we will continue to offer as long as it’s needed

Keep looking out for updates

We’ll let everyone know when we are reopening and what activities have started back as soon as we can.  In the meantime if you would like to speak with us or think we can help you with anything then please call us on 0191 377 0344 or email us admin@coxhoevillagehall.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.