History
The Tiddington Community Centre (TCC) previously known as the Alveston Parish Church Hall is situated behind the new (but more recently white) wooden fence on Main Street.
By 1963 the original Townsend Hall (put into the care of Vicar & Churchwardens in 1928) was in poor repair & found not to be meeting the needs of the various groups who wanted to meet in Tiddington. A successful Stewardship Campaign in 1964 by the Church raised enough money to replace the old wooden building with the current Hall, which has served the community well for over 40 years.
The Project
The TCC as a registered charity has the objective of restoring, repairing, maintaining & improving the Tiddington Village Hall to full use as a “Community Centreâ€ï¿½ under a new 35-year lease from the Church which was signed and became effective on the 4th July 2007. The hall had been closed for 15 months following a fire and substantial repairs and renovation were urgently required before it could be used again.
Phase 4 is now complete and the full building has been back in use since September 2006. The TCC is run by a 10-person executive who have raised and spent over £130,000 on completing Phase 1, 2, 3 and 4 of our TCC restoration program so far.
Phases 1 and 2
Briefly we have totally rewire the hall, install new heating, new lighting, replacing all the kitchen, replace/repaired all doors, fit new alarms, all new toilets whilst adding disabled facilities, re-decorate throughout, repaired and re-sanded the dance floor, replace flooring in the entrance hall, kitchen, toilets and store room. We have have replaced blinds in the hall, installed new double glazed windows throughout, had a new roof fitted, resurfaced all of the outside area plus we had removed all the overgrown vegetation, trees & bushes plus added a new secure wooden fence. We have provided disabled access to the TCC and resurfaced and secured the outside children's play area.
Phase 3
Phase 3 is now complete, having finished the main outside area, and added a new commercial cooker and commercial dishwasher. New curtains have been installed as well as new curtains and drapes for the stage and additional stage lighting. Also installed are a new PA system and loop for the hard-of-hearing plus DVD, speakers and a large screen and projector. The 40 new lightweight chairs have been delivered and it is hoped that additional lightweight tables will be purchased under Phase 4.
Phase 4
We have replace all the ageing crockery with smart quality Churchill catering crockery (we have approx 120+ of each of small plates, dinner plates and dessert/soup plates) and approx 50 new matching tea cups and saucers plus tea pot and jugs! We also added 8 round tables for use by the many functions held at the TCC. Repainting both inside and out! We changed all our standard chairs for 120 new lightweight conference chairs and recently added an dditional 24 matching armchairs which are also used in the TCC Meeting Room. We have upgraded our DVD player to allow us to use the new BlueRay DVDs required for our film nights. At the same time we have made additional adjustments to our 4 speakers which also mean that they can now all operate independently of each other plus we added a microphone stand and cordless head microphones. A standalone DVD player, tuner and speakers is now available for everyday use. we have also added additional heating both at in the entrance hall and back of stage and the meeting room. With such cold weather again this winter we still wonder if this is enough! Our bills say yes but the TCC can take some while to warm up and stay warm...
Phase 5
An outside-inside covered area for use by the many local youngsters who use the TCC is envisaged. There is also a requirement for more storage space and a study into the fesability of converting the attic into a usable room. Other thoughts are to extend at the back of the hall. We also need to ensure that we continue to spend money on keeping the whole TCC looking smart and as a community facility that we can all be proud of.
