Trustees Report

Sampford Courtenay Village Hall

Registered Charity Number 283279

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period 24th October 2024 to 23rd October 2025

Aim and Purposes

Sampford Courtenay Village Hall was conveyed by a deed dated 10th December 1952 by Devon County Council, held in trust “for the purposes of physical and mental training, recreation and social, moral and intellectual development through the medium of reading and recreation rooms, library lectures, classes, recreations and entertainments or otherwise as may be found expedient for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Parishes of Sampford Courtenay and Honeychurch” and its immediate vicinity without distinction of sex or political, religious or other opinions.

Objectives and Activities

The Management Committee is charged with the maintenance and control of Trust premises by means of fund-raising activities and income from the letting of the hall. Typical events during the 2024/25 financial period which have continued over the years include the annual Flower & Vegetable show, Film Night, Community Lunch, the Dog Show, a Big Breakfast, Christmas Sparkle and Quiz & Puddings. New for this past year have been our Village Fête, Band Night, Pie Night, monthly skittles evenings and our hosting of the American indie folk rock duo, Hungrytown. We also held a very successful one-off bingo event in commemoration of VE Day.

The hall is regularly let to the parish council for meetings and to private individuals for various events which this past year have included dog training, the long running table tennis evenings, a pewter workshop, a several times repeated Indonesian culinary evening and most recently a very successful Art Group.

During the 2024/25 financial year, some 154 events took place in the Hall, down a little from last year’s 176. The premises were used for one or more events over 135 days in the year, again slightly down on last year’s 144 days of use. The Hall welcomed an estimated 2,600 visitors, up from 2,300 in the previous year. Of these, we counted around 865 as first time users and 159 children.

A big focus in recent years has been to continue raising enough money through grants and income from our own activities to make major refurbishments to the hall. Many of these have now been completed. These have included replacing the roof, refurbishing the toilets and replacing all the old windows with modern, air tight windows and repainting the inside of the hall. We have installed lights outside to make it safer for hall users at night. Most recently, we have replaced our dishwasher with a high-speed commercial model, greatly easing the task of cleaning up after major events.

On top of that, we have invested in new storage facilities, a projector and large screen for showing films and presentations, an upright piano (donated) and some new tables. We also now have an annual licence permitting us to serve alcoholic beverages at our events. Our new website sampfordcourtenayvillagehall.co.uk has been helpful in showcasing the advantages of hiring the hall to those less familiar with what we can offer.

The last major project we intend to focus on during the current financial year is to replace part of the floor and insulate it to minimise wastage of energy and decrease the costs of heating the hall.

Financial Review

The accounts have been audited. We began the year with £23,253 in our bank account, the majority in an interest-bearing account.

Private hiring income, at £2,269, was down 35% from the previous year. We are using the Hall on around 40% of the days of the year, giving us plenty of room for growth; we have held the price we charge to private hirers at £9 an hour since January 2023 and plan to continue at this price for 2026. It remains lower than the price of many village halls in the region.

We have been much more successful in our hosting of a wide range of community events over the course of the year with almost every month featuring something for the community. Last November we again hosted our popular Quiz & Puddings night followed in December by Christmas Cheer. In February we put on a very successful Band Night featuring Diving for Pearls, followed by a Big Breakfast in March and a new Pie Night in April. In May Mike and Julie Carpenter hosted our annual Dog Show and we also organised a Bingo Night to celebrate VE Day. The summer fête in June was followed by our regular Flower & Vegetable Show in September and by our concert from Hungrytown later in the month.

Alongside these events we have presented eight Film Nights (up from five the previous year), seven Community Lunches (also up from five) and much more besides.

We received no grants in 2024/25, but overall income driven by our own events was up by 24% from £10,772 in 2023/24 to £13,253 in 2024/25. This generated a surplus of more than £2,800 which will go towards building a healthy financial reserve to go towards much needed capital improvements in 2026 and beyond.

We again thank Matthew Biddlecombe, who cleans the hall twice monthly and to Trevor Davey, who looks after the grass and the hedges outside.

Utility bills (electricity, water and buildings insurance) totalled £2,738, down 8% from the previous two years - doubtless thanks in some degree to the better insulation of the Hall. A number of small capital projects included installation of new outside lighting, replacement of ancient electricity meters, some new tables and purchase of a projector to go with the large screen put in in the previous year.

Sampford Courtenay Village Hall closed 2024/25 with £23,453 in reserve, representing 3.5 years of basic running costs (excluding the cost of events). We therefore consider ourselves in a strong position financially, though we have an increasingly urgent need to address the need for improvements to some parts of the floor, which will be a priority in 2026.

The Trustees plan to hold hiring rates for the Hall in 2026 at £9 an hour for the fourth consecutive year. Data from a survey carried out by Devon Communities Together suggests that around half of Devon’s Village Halls charge £15 an hour or more for a private hire.

Plans for the future

The trustees intend to continue to provide the usual activities for the benefit of the community with, we hope, an enhanced level of enjoyment in our warmer, more weather-proof environment and new equipment including a professional dishwasher, projector and screen and a piano for the use of hirers.

We are in the planning stages for a range of events including old favourites like the Dog Show, the Flower & Vegetable Show and an Open Gardens. We will also continue with our successful Film Nights

and Community Lunches, as well as the ever popular Big Breakfast. Other ideas at the planning stage include a 70s night in February and a jazz event in July. We are always open to suggestions for any other events!

Structure, governance and management

The structure, governance and management of the hall is detailed in the Constitution adopted at the AGM in December 2016 and updated as of October 2024. The committee meets on the first Wednesday of each month.

Reference and administrative details

The current contact is Mrs. Lynn Robinson, The Granary Barn, The Barton, Sampford Courtenay, Okehampton, Devon EX20 2SY Email: secretaryvhsc@gmail.com. The charity’s bank accounts are held at NatWest, Launceston.