Burditch Hall Wootton

Who we are

Wootton Community and Sports Trust is a new charity that has formed to manage and run the Burditch Hall and Playing Fields in Wootton-by-Woodstock in Oxfordshire.

The charity trustees are Rachel Jones, Nat Mitchell-Boorne, Melanie Waldron, Rachel Budge, Mark Chesterman, Andy Warner, Graham Lawrence, Ian Hemmingway and James Gray. 

We are supported by a really brilliant group of volunteers and helpers of all ages who are really enthusiastic about this project. 

Please watch our short video to see all the hard work so far.

Our plans

The hall has been closed since December 2021 and the village has been without a facility that supports sport for all ages since then. 

We would like to reopen the hall and make it a welcoming and inclusive community hub for sports in Wootton. 

There is a lot of work to do before we can open the hall. We have made a start on repainting the interior, installing a hard floor, reinstating the bar, and refreshing the interior furnishing. We are reusing/upcycling the existing chairs and tables and making good the existing fixings where possible.

Next steps

We need to replace the toilets, fix the leaky roof and broken guttering, and paint and repair the outside of the building. We need to replace the damaged external doors and some of the windows need replacing as they are rotten. We would like to refresh the kitchen and changing rooms to make sure everyone who uses the hall has a clean and safe space to enjoy while they take part in sports and community activities.

In the immediate term we have outstanding invoices to pay, for fittings like the floor and shutters. We would like to install internet services so that WiFi will be available at the hall. We also need to replace the mower for the playing field.

We have been so grateful for everyone's hard work so far - people from all generations have been so generous with their time, effort and donations, thank you. We are so looking forward to sharing this community facility with you all for many years to come and we can't wait to welcome you all to enjoy sports together as a whole village. The football season will be starting again soon and we hope you will join us as we open the hall throughout the autumn. 

The Bridge Bar

We have decided to give the newly refurbished bar a new name - The Bridge Bar - that represents our vision for it within the community - somewhere everyone can come and feel welcome and connected. 

The bar will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and run by volunteers, we really hope to see you there!

What else will be on offer?

We surveyed as many people in the village as we could and we asked them what kind of activities Wootton needs. Here are the most popular responses:

The Burditch Hall will be available for all sorts of different sports clubs and activities and we really want to encourage the community to get involved and volunteer to run a club or come to a class. We plan to facilitate as many sports and community activities as possible - pilates, tennis, football, boules, Aunt Sally, darts, Youth Club and many more. 

A big thank you to all our supporters

This is a community venture and we can only do this with your help, enthusiasm and support. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated money, time and resources already, we are so grateful. So many people have been so generous already and we are asking the wider community for your support to get the hall open in September 2022.

Thank you so much, we are very conscious that this is a difficult time to ask for financial support so any contribution is welcome and very gratefully received.