Built in 1939, the Village Hall in Burtle has always been a centre for community activity and social contact. Outdated and worn out, the Hall was in desperate need of replacement, and to this end, a committed band of local people put a huge amount of work into a bid for Lottery funding.
Through into the final round, great hopes for the application were dashed at the last, as the bid was finally rejected.
Would this mean that the Village Hall was doomed to continue an inevitable descent into disrepair and decay?
No, not at all! The scheme, known as 'Plan B' was born!
With lots of local skills and talent, readily available local materials and resources, a friendly, cuddly, quite 'green' community-involvement project emerged in the mind of the subsequently appointed Project Manager, Robin Howell. An experienced retired builder, enthusiastic practical problem solver and general fan of Burtle's terrific community spirit, Robin managed to salvage the County and District grants with an alternative refurbishment scheme put together in record time, and which they felt confident the village could deliver.
Plan B involved erecting an agricultural building right over the existing Hall, creating additional outer walls of insulating straw bales, sitting on top of glass bottle filled bases, and covered with a straw/clay render. The space between the old and new roofs was filled with highly-insulating natural sheep fleeces stuffed into abandoned tents form the Glastonbury festival site. The outer shell of the building, which the Planners required to look as much like the original as possible, was timber clad. This will mature naturally and need no further maintenance.
