The Armoury Hall
Dean Road, Newnham GL14 1BB
Charity no. 269054
Brief History
The hall was built as an independent chapel, but changed use in the 1870s when it became a drill hall for local volunteers and then an armoury. In 1962, when it was in use as an artist’s studio, it was bought on behalf of the people of Newnham as their village hall, and in its constitution gives ‘the inhabitants of Newnham on Severn … and the neighbourhood complete power to elect the hall’s trustees and to decide what happens to it.
The Armoury Hall is held upon trust for the purposes of a Village Hall for the use of the inhabitants of Newnham-on-Severn and the neighbourhood without distinction of sex or political religious or other opinions. It is managed by a committee which is elected annually at the Annual General Meeting – normally in April or May.
Currently it’s used by groups for yoga, the Art Group, the Friendship Club , Youth Club etc, and as a theatre for plays and the Christmas pantomime, as a polling station, for exhibitions and meetings, and for private parties and other social events.
The main hall (102 sq.m.) is on the ground floor, supported by a kitchen. The small meeting room and men’s, women’s and disabled WCs are upstairs (there is a stairlift), and there is parking in the High Street and Dean Road, and disabled parking/dropping off for 3-4 cars immediately outside the hall.
Meetings
The ManagmentCommittee meets every month (except December) on the third Wednesday of the month at 7:30 pm in the Committee room.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2012
This years AGM was on Wednesday 11th April with nearly 30 interested persons attending. Reports where received from the Chairman (Susan Faircloth) and the Treasurer (in his absence) and accepted. Susan thanked the committee members for their input in the past 12 months, Sarah Marshall for her continuing efforts to keep the Hall clean and especially to Trevor Firman (Treasurer) who stood down from the Committee a number of years ago pending replacement but chose to finally resign this year.
The main point of the Treasurer’s report was that our “reserve” remains about £5,000 with income from hire just about covering running costs with no margin for serious expenditure.
Business covered included the election the committee. With no members of the audience volunteering to join it, the existing 8 members were re-elected The Committee is effectivly made up of 5 elected members and 3 co-opted ones.
Under AOB there was an interesting discussion about the investigation into the proposals for a New Village Hall with Ray Puttock putting alternataive proposals. Any direct comment on this fell outside the remit of the AGM but the majority of attendants seemed to want to preserve the Arrmoury Hall as an ongoing facility and claimed to be motivated to input effort and fund raising to this end.
(My Comments. It was interesting in the first part of the meeting that no members of the audience were willing to join the committee and help the day-to-day management of the Hall. KOH)
The Queens Diamond Jubilee
The Armoury Hall is hosting some of the activities taking place in Celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee the draft Programme for which is as follows (note times and events may change)
Draft Programme
| Friday 1st June | Opening of History Exhibition
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The Church | 7:30 pm |
| Saturday 2nd June | Country Market | Armoury Hall | 10:30 am
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| 1st Saturday Lunch | The Church | 12 noon
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| Sunday 3rd June | Morning Service | The Church | 9:15 am |
| Village Picnic
(Bring your own picnic) With games Children’s Fancy Dress
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The Green | 2.00 until 5:00
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| Open Air Service
with Parkend Brass Band
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The Green | 5:00 pm | |
| Monday 4th June | Street Fair
With Punch & Judy, Exhibitions Stalls
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The Chains | 2:00 until 4:30 |
Country Market
What are Country Markets
Newnham has now started its own branch within the Gloucetershire Country Markets Cooperative. Markets are held regularly on Saturday mornings from 10:30 until 12:30 other events permitting.
On sale are locally produced cakes and pastries, bread, preserves, honey, cheese, craft items and locally grown vegetables. Occasionally meat is also available.
Coffee and tea are available during the market so why not come along, meet with friends and see what is available.
We already have several local producers but all are welcome whatever quantity of locally produced goods you wish to sell.
For further information please contact Pat O’Hara (516450) or Mathew Barnes(516624).
Kitchen refurbisment
Some of you will already have seen the improved kitchen facilities and layout. The task is still not quite complete tiling of the walls and other “finishig off” still to be completed and . However favourable comments have already been received from regular users.
Many thanks to Grass Roots (managed locally by the GLOUCESTERSHIRE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION) for a grant of £5,000 that allowed this work to be done.
Annual Show
The Hall is also the venue for the annual Newnham Show. Vegetables, fruit, flowers, floral art, cookery, wine, art, craft and photography … lots of children’s sections … and refreshments … raffle … auction of donated produce … prize giving … only 50p on the door (and much less to enter a potentially prize-winning item!)
Contact: Ray Puttock on 01594 516915 or armouryhall@gmail.com.
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What’s on/Availability
Please use the following link to see what’s on and check availability
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The 200 Club
The 200 Club was set up to help with hall maintenance, and is easy to join! For £1 per month (£12 payable annually) all members’ numbers are entered in the draw, with prizes every month of £50, £10 and three £5 prizes.
For more information phone Ray Puttock (01594 516915) or Anna Fedden (01594 516526) .
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Some Quick Links to other parts of the site
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CHURCH + PARISH COUNCIL + THE CLUB + SCHOOL + TREVOR’s RUMOURS