St. Mary's Church Hall was built in the 1960s and provides a much needed community function in Caterham where there is a shortage of community facilities. It was originally intended as a temporary structure with a 25-year life span, so it is now well beyond its best-before date and is becoming very dilapidated.
The church hall is used during weekdays and evenings for a variety of non church groups, ranging from painting classes to mother and toddler groups, brownies and guides. It is also often hired for one-off events such as children's parties and local meetings.
During Sunday services the Sunday School meets in the church hall and afterwards tea and coffee are served there. The hall is also used for our weekly Youth Club and Junior Church, and hosts social events for the congregation.
We could knock the hall down and build a new one, but to obtain a new hall of the same footprint and in sympathy with the church building would be prohibitively expensive.
Although many of the window frames and external wall panels have started to rot, our architect has stated that the structure is fundamentally sound and the life of the hall could be extended by around 30 years if we renewed and modernised it now. This would cost around £130,000 of which we have £50,000 available - so we need to raise another £80,000.
Our hope is that through fund-raising and grants we will be able to raise sufficient funds for this much-needed refurbishment.
If you feel able to make a donation towards this necessary work, please visit our JustGiving website, or
send your donation to the church office (see the contacts page for the address). If you are a UK tax payer, your donation will be worth 25% more to us (with no additional cost to yourself) if you Gift Aid it.
PROGRESS REPORT
We have enough funds to carry out the essential exterior works on the hall walls and roof, which will ensure it does not fall down in the near future. Work is due to start on October 3rd - lasting 2 to 3 months. However, this will only cover the external works and we still need to raise the remainder to be able to carry out the interior work that is necessary to bring the hall up to an acceptable standard for the future.
During this period, all activities that usually take place in the hall will be transferred to the St. Paul's Centre which will result in some inconvenience. We ask all users to be patient if problems do arise.
