Clean-up at hall

Many hands made light work on Thursday when volunteers rolled up their sleeves in the first clean and tidying-up day aimed at bringing a town's redundant church hall back into community use.

The management committee for the newly-named Gordon Barrett Memorial Hall at the top of Clubb's Lane at Wells have drawn up a long-term plans to refurbish the old Congregational Hall and make it available once again for a variety of user groups.

As work continued inside the spacious hall, there was also plenty of activity outside in the open space garden area which may eventually become a sensory garden. It was cleared of rubbish including, bottles, cans and bricks. In fact there was so much rubbish collected that several trips were made to the Wells waste recycling centre.

Guttering on the large building was repaired and several broken windows were repaired with some of them being replaced using strengthened wired glass.

Committee chairman Barry Longwell said he was pleased at the response to the clean-up event but admitted there was a long way to go, not least in raising the thousands of pounds that will be needed to be spent before the building can be used again.

“We had about 12 volunteers and a similar number of visitors, some of whom left us small cash donations. There was a good atmosphere and the weather was kind to use,” said Mr Longwell.

A second session is planned for Saturday (April 19) from about 10 am onwards and volunteers are welcome to join in.

Mr Longwell said there is a lot of excitement about the garden area and it is felt that much can be achieved in this area in a short time because it would not require so much financial investment as the interior of the hall. Two elements there include extensive repairs to the floor and a new heating system.

Among those helping were the church minister Neil Woodruff, his wife, Sue and the couple's daughter. There were also a number of young people helping out.