Village hall series #83 -Otterham, St Juliot Traditional Cache
Village hall series #83 -Otterham, St Juliot
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This cache is part of a series of caches which are placed at or near village halls and community centres. This is a series which other cachers can add to and expand into other geographical areas. See the bookmark list for all the caches in the series.
The previous Hall was an old military building, re-erected by local people in the early 1950s on land that was given for the purpose. An extension was added in the 1980s to provide a further small room and bar area. Construction of the building was of steel with timber A frames; the exterior walls were of corrugated metal, the roof was felted on boards and the whole building sat on wooden pilings. In the early 2000s revenue from hirers was all being spent on repairs to the fabric of the building, and with the inevitable deterioration of the wooden pilings as well as the interior fittings, walls and roof, the building was no longer viable. The heating system was inefficient, wasteful and therefore expensive; and the kitchen did not meet the required standards. The decision was taken that a new building was required and an application for Lottery funding was made, but was not successful. Some serious fund-raising was then embarked upon and eventually some £85,000 was raised after some five or six years. It was obvious, though, that fund-raising alone would never be sufficient for the new building, the costs for which were only going in one direction, so another attempt at obtaining Lottery funding was made with an application to the Big Lottery "Reaching Communities" programme. After a lot more work, and a huge effort, Hall Secretary Val Gill received the good news on 23rd February 2012 that the latest application had been accepted and the bid could proceed through to stage two of the application. Then on 19th September 2012 came the news that the stage two application was successful and the Committee was now through to the final, and most onerous, stage three of the application.On 18th June 2013 came the announcement from the Big Lottery that everyone had been waiting for - a grant of £418,379 to build a new Hall had been awarded. The building of the new Hall commenced on 10th March 2014 and by mid-September 2014 work had reached the stage at which the old Hall could be demolished, something that was completed by mid-October, after which the space it occupied became the car park for the new Hall. In November 2014 the work was sufficiently advanced for the new Hall to be open for business, though with some work still remaining.
If you would like to expand the Village Hall Series by placing a cache of your own please contact GeoJaxx on villagehallseries@gmail.com to request a number and to add the cache to the bookmark list.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Onfr bs cbfg