The coffee and cake shop opened at the Village Show in late September and has become a weekly feature on Fridays. A team of volunteers now bakes cakes and serves coffee weekly, and around 30 people typically come along to take the opportunity to socialise during the day in an informal setting, including those who find it difficult to come to evening events.

Our second outdoor project was much bigger and was also inspired and led by Nick Sorby. We realised that 30 ash trees, mostly on the Rec but including a large one on the village green, were suffering from ash dieback disease. For safety reasons, and following a consultation with villagers, we decided that these would need to be felled. After our professional tree surgeon had done his work, an energetic band of villagers cleared the massive amount of logs and brush. Logs were made available to villagers, who were invited to make a donation.

In February, 2021, 11 families arrived in staggered Covid-compliant order to plant 110 tree saplings. A log trail and log castle were created for children. Log piles were left to nature. The copse is now a haven for wildlife, native plants and local people of all ages. It was officially opened in September 2021 by East Hampshire Councillor Tony Costigan. This expensive project needed very little funding from our reserves, thanks to very generous donations from villagers, who took the opportunity to dedicate trees to their loved ones, and a grant from East Hampshire District Council.

The hiatus in normal Hall activity during the pandemic provided us with an opportunity to prepare ourselves to take advantage of future opportunities, and to make improvements to the Hall itself. With most people now searching for venues online, we upgraded our website and put in place an online booking system so that potential hirers can see when the Hall is available and make a reservation. As site visits were impossible, local media studies student Will Fleming made a promotional video of the Hall which includes drone footage and a walk-through of the Hall’s facilities. This has proved very popular and has been a big help in securing party bookings.

To help would-be hall hirers find us, we improved our positioning on Google and on numerous wedding and venue search sites. We launched a modest paid-for advertising programme with Google, focusing on weddings and children’s parties. This is paying off very well; more than 40% of our wedding and party sales now come from Google, with most of the balance being from recommendations or people who know the Hall already.

Inside the Hall, the new oven, taps and cupboards were fitted in the kitchen. New, brighter LED lights were installed in the Main Hall. We purchased a new point of sale system to allow us to take card payments; this is also giving us helpful sales data and is making stock management much easier.

We installed a prototype digital noticeboard in the Hall, replacing a fairly chaotic set of hard-copy notices with a smart screen containing information about clubs, classes, future social events, village news and pictures. After the end of the financial year, we replaced this with a new 65in screen inside an elegant frame made from Thedden Oak. This can be taken over by hirers to show family photographs or a welcome to their guests.

For several years, the old telephone box has lain unused and unloved until one of the young villagers, Katie Smallman, suggested “doing it up” as a book exchange. Nick Sorby managed this project with a band of able volunteers.

As part of the Wellhouse project we had to radically review our storage. In the background of the photo you can see our old 10 x 20 foot shed which is quite old, dark, difficult to get into and not really fit for purpose. We took the opportunity to build a new shed on a proper concrete base with a dedicated area for hirers storage with proper shelving and mains electric lighting and power.

The project was part of our overall Wellhouse refurbishment and was funded by:

• EHDC Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) grant
• National Lottery grant

New shed, new shelves!

Many thanks to Nigel Dalton-Brown for designing and installing our new custom shelves!

In 2025 the Charity established the need and built the business case for a major upgrade to our sound and vision system in order to deliver high quality film and National Theatre screenings… bringing the West End to Beech. The gained funding from EHDC under the Rural Grant iniitative and upgrade the projection and AV systems to support Ultra High Definition and Dolby Atmos surround sound.

The epragdes were perfromed by Sound Advice AV and our first event was in December 2024.

 

The Charity now regular delivers community cinema and National Theatre Live.