November 1998 - Editorial
PROJECTS IN THE VILLAGE HALL
Following on from my last article, when I mentioned a couple of painting projects that had been completed in the Hall, I am happy to tell you about another project that has just been finished in the main room, which will improve the facilities offered by the Hall quite considerably and provide another high class option for our Users.
You will recall that during the summer, which is our close season and the opportunity to undertake our biggest refurbishment exercises, we managed to arrange for the Marigold Room and the exterior of the Hall to have a clean coat of paint. This was part of the regular cycle of painting that we do annually, and made the Hall look very smart.
As I promised, we also provided new letters on the front of the Hall to replace ones that had, over time, become broken and damaged. The new ones are in black metal and were put up by a group of volunteers from the Executive Committee. I think they already add to the look of the Hall.
Our latest offering is new lighting in the Main Room of the Hall. We have replaced the old eight foot tubes with twin five foot fittings with several improvements over the old units. The most significant improvement is the provision of a dimmable facility to the lights. This enables all or some of the lights to be dimmed through a wide range of light, creating a nice cosy feel to the room.
There are various options to the lights, as we have two new dimming switches and master switches added to the existing switches controlling pairs of lights. As you can imagine, this gives us quite a number of permutations to the lighting effects that we can create. We hope it will improve the ambience of the main room, and help particularly those people wanting to use the room for a dance, or some other event where you want to take the sharpness out of the lighting in the room. I hope it will be useful to the Players when they put on their plays.
The project was carried out by Boulting Group Plc, and we are very grateful to them and to Ross Stubbings for his help and patience throughout the work. As you can imagine for a group of non-expert volunteers, we wanted to go through and consider all the angles, before we committed to the substantial sum of money that we spent. Inevitably, this took perhaps a little longer than a full time team would have taken, and Mr Stubbings was able to persuade his Group that they should freeze the price for longer than normal to help us out.
The new lights have some better safety features, which will all add to the improvements and upgrade the facilities that we continue to provide in the Hall. I have to say that we cannot complain about the other lights, which have lasted since the Hall was built, some fourteen years ago. As long as the new ones last another fourteen years…….
My thanks to the Hall Users who were inconvenienced by the work in replacing the lights. We felt that we had to effectively close the Hall down for safety reasons for a few days. Although it was half term, the Hall is never empty, and we are grateful for the co-operation of the many people involved.
‘SUTTON SIX’ DAY
For those of you who went along on 20th September, you will not need me to tell you what a glorious day it was. It was also a very successful race day for the ‘Sutton Six’, with a higher entry this year, just over 200 in all. It was decided to draw up a new route this year to minimise disturbance to people on a Sunday morning. All the runners from whom we had feedback appreciated the new course, and car parking around the village by runners was probably less than in previous years.
The Fun Run, on the short course around Oaklands, attracted a good entry, with 56 finishers of whom nearly half were from the village school. The enthusiasm and effort put in by the younger runners was brilliant to see. It is still an event that the village turns out for in large numbers.
Next year, the race will go ahead again, but definitely not on the third Sunday in September. It would clash with the Lake Vyrnwy Half Marathon, if it were to be run on that day, and this would damage both races. It will probably go a week ahead, or a week behind its usual slot, which the Association is happy to agree to. This is a delightful event, and the longer we can keep it going in the village, the better.
My thanks to Richard Batterham, and his family, as well as the helpers and race marshals from West Cheshire AC, and from the village, who made sure it was a safe and well organised race.
VILLAGE QUIZ
Don’t forget to reserve Saturday 27th February in your diary for next year as the next Annual Village Quiz, which will be held as usual in the Village Hall. Al Christmas will be the question master, and there will be the traditional first class supper, along with good wine and beer. Not to be missed.
HALL BOOKING ARRANGEMENTS
If you would like to book the Village Hall for an event, please contact Judith or Alan on 301835, on a Monday or Thursday evening between 7pm and 8pm.
