AMBERLEY SOCIETY
Conserving and Improving Amberley West Sussex

St Michael’s Church Hall Upgrade Project

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Melanie Edge, in her role as Churchwarden of St Michael’s Church in Amberley, set up the Hallraisers in 2023, to raise money to fund the refurbishment of the Church Hall.   The core group consists of Mel, with Michael Donovan, Sheena Skinner and Susan Watson, who are all Amberley residents, with many friends and supporters. 

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We work together collaboratively but have assigned broad leads to each of the main areas of work:

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• Decision making and liaising with the PCC – Mel Edge

• Design and project managing the work – Michael Donovan

• Fundraising events – Sheena Skinner

• Community survey, grant applications and communications – Susan Watson

 

Our ambition is:

To create a modern, welcoming and comfortable Hall that is financially sustainable and sits at the heart of the community.

St Michael’s Church Hall provides an important community meeting place in Amberley village.  It was built in the 1960s and whilst it has been well maintained over the years, it now needs significant capital work to ensure it continues to be welcoming and accessible to all villagers. 

The first part of 2023 was taken up with benchmarking visits – we visited Bury, Coldwaltham, Pulborough, Rackham, Storrington and West Chiltington Village Halls to see their facilities and learn how they maintained and replaced them.  

Next, we ran a survey, to understand the Amberley community’s priorities for the Hall refurbishment – you can see the results of the survey here.

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Community feedback identified four priorities and we divided the work into two phases:

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Church Hall Upgrade - Phase 1

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Unblocking the drains

After several decades, Michael Donovan and the clever people from Coastal Drains solved the mystery of the blocked kitchen drains.   They found a hidden pipe buried underground and extracted a calcified sausage of soap and calcium deposits that measured over 12 inches long.  It is believed that it took over 30 years to build to its megalithic proportions.

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The kitchen sink now flows freely and the issue, now that it has been identified, will be easy to remedy in the future.   The work was funded through a grant by Amberley Parish Council and The Hallraisers thank them for their support, which is much appreciated

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Upgrading the toilets

Our work to upgrade the toilets was completed in December 2023 – and we held a ‘grand opening’ at the Christmas Village Lunch, where villagers had the opportunity to see the work – and perhaps even use the new toilets themselves.

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To fund this work, we won £10,000 in grants from Amberley Parish Council, Horsham District Council and the National Lottery.   Our fundraising events, together with donations, raised the remaining £7,000.

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• Guided Tree walk (Pam Keeble)

• Wellbeing Fair (Sheena Skinner)

• Michael Blencoe nature talk (Mel Edge)

• Roving Supper (Dave & Lynne Curry and Mandy Fay)

• Scent Soiree (Michael Donovan)

• Eurochristmas Open Doors (Susan Watson and Drewitt’s Farm)

• Christmas in the Square (Mel Edge)

• Knock!  Knock! Christmas Theatre Production (Suzie Coates and Chalkpath Theatre Group

 

See the buttons at the top of the screen to see photos and information of many of these events

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If you would like to support the team or donate to a Hallraiser's event, please contact us:

Mel Edge - amberleystmichael@gmail.com

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Church Hall Upgrade – Phase 2

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March 2025 - Kitchen Upgrade Completed

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                               Before                                                             After

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After a second year of fundraising, we are delighted to report that St Michael's Church Hall now has a new kitchen!  The old, tired cupboards and failed appliances have gone and in their place we have an enlarged, modern workspace with hygienic surfaces, a large oven and a hob, a fridge freezer and a Quooker tap that produces boiling water for hot drinks.

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Again, our fundraising was through a mix of grants, community events and individual donations, with some particularly enjoyable fundraising events:

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Our community fundraising events:

 

-  Sound Bath (Sheena Skinner)

-  Burns Supper & Ceilidh (Susan Watson and Claire Bruce)

-  Wellness talk by Gemma Ogston (Sheena Skinner)

-  Scent Soirée II - The Darling Buds of May (Michael Donovan)

-  A Midsummer Celebration (Don Gallagher, Jeff Feakins, Sarah Wheeler and Susan Watson)

-  Bastille Day Lunch (Catherine Cunningham, Alistair Sherwood, Sarah Wheeler, Susan Watson and                Michael Donovan)

- The Sound of Painting (Michael Joseph and Michael Donovan)

- Christmas Fair (Mel Edge and Sheena Skinner)

- Joy Cameron's Christmas cards (Mike Toynbee and Susan Watson)

- A Christmas Cracker - Chalkpath Theatre Group (Suzie Coates)

- Tunics Galore (Stella Kemp and Susan Watson)

- Drewitt's Farm Christmas Around The World (Susan Watson, Sheena Skinner and Drewitt's Farm)

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Thank you to everyone who has supported us on our fundraising journey so far, which has enabled us to refurbish both the Church Hall bathrooms and kitchen.

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Church Hall Upgrade - Phase 3​​, The Main Hall

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The final part of our refurbishment project is the main hall itself.  Many of us enjoy the space and opportunity that the Church Hall offers to connect with others -  but the decrepit heating, poor acoustics, grimy floor (despite regular mopping) and the bottleneck created by the dividing doors during events limits the enjoyment and the hall's potential.

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We started the design process at an open day in April 2025, where people were invited to discuss their ideas for how the space could be improved.  To start phase 3, Churchwarden Mel Edge is putting together a design group who will prepare a design plan and costs for the main hall refurbishment, drawing on the many ideas that were submitted on the open day.

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Some sad news, though: two of the original Hallraisers, Sheena Skinner and Michael Donovan are moving away from the village and have decided to give up their Hallraisers work.  It's been a special experience working with them.  We thank them for their friendship and the enormous creativity, fun and drive that they brought to the project.

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Next Event:

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​SAVE THE DATE! 

28th June, 2025, Back by popular demand... Amberley's Second Roving Supper

Watch this space for details!

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We hope to see you at our next event – so why not note it in your diary today?   More details will follow in Wildbrooks and on Gaggle.

 

 

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