Norfolk Community Fund has provided £500 of match funding
Save Felbrigg Village Hall
Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom
Aim
We are in the process of refurbishing our village hall, doing some much needed improvements for Health, Safety, Fire & Hygiene reasons.
THE VISION
Felbrigg Village Hall was gifted by Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer, Felbrigg Hall estate owner, who died in 1969. He gifted the freehold land and property to establish a village hall for the benefit of the Felbrigg and Metton residents. The Trustees are responsible for complying with his wishes of keeping the building in good repair. This is set out in our governing document and is most important to uphold. As a registered charity, our charitable purposes include activities that benefit the public. To be able to do this, the hall needs bringing up to the standard and regulations that are expected today.
ABOUT US
The village hall is the only facility in the two villages, we do not have a shop, pub or other meeting place. It is the place where residents of Felbrigg and Metton and the wider community can find some friendly faces and a warm space to meet up and socialise, combat loneliness and look after their mental well-being.
Some of our residents don’t get out of their houses very often to socialise because of disability, mental health or other chronic conditions. They tell us it is so good to be able to come along to the village hall to have a natter and a laugh with neighbours and friends over a coffee and cake at our Community Café and events.
Something we are also working on is advertising and inviting businesses and groups to our village hall. Ideally, we would like others to hold events, classes etc. so there are more regular things for the villagers to be able to participate in other than our Community Café events
THE PROJECT
Last year we had a Building Survey, Fire Risk Assessment and Health & Safety appraisal completed. Following on from these we temporarily closed and are using the above documents to plan and implement their recommendations.
Since February 2025, we have completely refurbished the whole kitchen with new units, worktops, cooker, fridge freezer and microwave, an extra sink installed, renewed all the kitchen wiring, electrics and plumbing, now comply with all regulations and await our rating from NNDC.
The main hall area, toilets and entrance have been refreshed and the entrance threshold made more wheelchair friendly and reduced the trip hazard risk to ambulant disabled users.
Our long term plans are to put in a ramp and pathway from the kitchen fire exit. As well as outside lighting and signage for the fire escape route from the back of the hall building and a more accessible ramp to the front entrance. These are all needed to meet current regulations for wheelchair users.
We desperately need to insulate the main hall area, as currently there is no insulation at all and the heat disappears very quickly.
We need To upgrade the lighting, heating and sockets in the main hall area as these are all very dated.
The village hall is set within beautiful woodland, surrounded by trees. As a consequence of this, we need a management programme for the village hall roofs, gutters and drainage plus trees, woodland grounds and car park area. This would enable us to continually assess any damage to the fabric of the building, manage the grounds and implement a regular maintenance programme.
FUNDING
So far we have paid for all the work ourselves, but with only enough funds left in the bank for our annual running costs, we now need to raise more funds and apply for grants to be able to continue the required work laid out above, throughout the whole of the hall, internal and externally.
The £500 pledged by our local Councillor will allow us to complete another small part of the above project. Any further donations from the public would be most welcome and help us to achieve the much needed refurbishments to our lovely village hall for future generations.
This project successfully funded on 13th January 2026