The History of Rock Village Hall
Shortly after the Second World War, villagers in Rock arranged to construct a village hall. The Nott (farming) family was heavily involved and the Booton family from Lower Snead donated the land. It was located up the Greenway and is now reconstructed as Chepstow Cottage.
Just prior to the Millennium the Government made grants available for communities to develop new open spaces to be known as Millennium Greens. Rock was successful in creating what is now Rock Millennium Green on 5 acres in the village. The land was purchased from the Booton family and the Millennium Green opened in 2001. The Booton family generously donated an additional acre for construction of a new village hall.
The original village hall on the Greenway had been giving problems for several years and repair or replacement was going to cost around £200-300,000 and the hall would still be outside the village and have no parking.It was therefore decided in the early noughties to try to build a new modern hall and a programme of fund raising followed, alongside working with the architect to create a fully environmental building. This involved high levels of insulation, ground source heat pump energy, rainwater harvesting for toilets and use of recycled materials where possible. 100 solar panels followed a few years later. Capital costs rose significantly but future running costs would be minimised, a fairly new concept at the time. The building would not use any fossil fuels for heating.
A National Lottery grant was obtained for £232 000, roughly half the construction cost. The environmental agenda made it possible to obtain other grants from a number of environmental sources, including Severn Waste, Biffa and DEFRA. The sale of the old hall was the village’s main contribution and the total costs came to around £750 000. Construction started in 2005 and the new hall was opened by the Secretary for the Environment in 2007.
The village hall remains a facility to benefit the local community with many local villagers being part of the committee over the years. Several members of the original hall committee remain on the committee today but are now gradually handing over to the next generation. In any event the future for our wonderful and popular village hall seems assured.
Rock Village Hall Committee
The committee is made up of volunteers who live in and around the village of Rock. The volunteers work together to ensure that the Rock Village Hall and Millennium green is a superb facility for the local community to use.
The committee has various functions but the main aim is to ensure that the hall is maintained to a good standard and there are sufficient funds to enable them to do this. We are always looking for new members of the committee who can bring further support of the hall to the table and welcome any amount of support that can be offered to us. Whether it joining the committee, helping with maintenance of the hall or grounds or offering an occasional hour to volunteer at events. Without this support we wouldn't be able to continue to put on all the events that we currently do.
The committee meets the last Monday of each month at 7.30pm at the village hall and the Annual General Meeting is held around November each year and is combined with an open forum for anyone to attend to share their comments and ideas.
Please do get in touch if you can support your village hall in any way!
Volunteers on a very cold tree planting day!
