A fundraising project to upgrade — or even rebuild — St Andrew’s Mission Hall, Blidworth, is under way.

It aims to raise funds to at least improve the hall’s insulation, windows, roof, catering facilities and accessibility — making it a venue for all the community.

The launch included an afternoon tea, with all the food donated by BJ Bakery, when £362 was raised for the refurbishment fund.

Project manager Paul Craddock explained that the ground on which St Andrew’s stands was given to St Mary’s Church in May 1934 by the Newstead Colliery Company.

Over the years the building on The Crescent has been extended, but the original still survives with groups meeting regularly each week, providing community activities across all age ranges — from mums and toddler group Bizzy Beez to Tea and Talk, which is primarily for those who are isolated or living alone to meet up with a friendly face.

Paul said St Mary’s Church is perhaps one of the oldest in Nottinghamshire and in its graveyard is the burial ground of Will Scarlet, reported to be one of Robin Hood’s Merry Men.

St Andrew’s is used as a community hall by St Mary’s, but the church does not have the money to fund a refurbishment — leading to the launch of the appeal.

Paul added: “We will be running many more events for the community.

“In addition to our local fundraising efforts we will be applying to national funding organisations for support too.

“This is an exciting and challenging project. Not only are we looking for volunteers from the community to come on board, but donations ‘in-kind’, such as sponsoring or providing any of the items listed below, are all very welcome.

“Please join our team to make St Andrew’s Community Hall the centre of the community and meet our objective of being a welcoming place for everyone.”

Paul added that St Andrew’s needs updating” to meet the needs of modern users”.

A few examples of what he hopes to achieve are:

The walls are not insulated, making the building cold for users and expensive to run. New insulation for the walls, which contain fixed carbon, would make the building warmer and improve its energy rating. This would move St Andrew’s towards being carbon neutral by 2030.
The windows are single glass, creating heat loss issues that require urgent attention. Part of the refurbishment would replace existing windows with triple-glazed units, improving the building’s energy rating and reducing further its carbon footprint.
Although the roof was retiled in 1990 and some insulation installed, this requires renewing. This would give further improvements to the building’s energy rating and reduce its carbon footprint.
There is a kitchen that provides breakfasts once a month, but that offering could be extended if facilities were modernised.

Paul added: “The existing building has some facilities for those who are less able in our community, but again the facilities are old and do not have the wide range of facilities that a modern building would have.”

Anyone who can help the appeal should call Paul on 07860 819218 or email [email protected]