Wretham Village Hall is set in picturesque surroundings and is within easy driving distance of Thetford, Attleborough and Watton.
In 1919 the village was given an old army hut which was used as a village hall until the current hall was built in the late 1960s. Some excellent fundraising, generous donations and a grant from the Norfolk Education Committee, ensured that the land could be purchased from Mr Raker and the new hall was opened on April 19th 1969. Subsequent improvements were made to the kitchen and toilets in 2002 from a grant by Keystone Trust which also enabled much improved disabled access and use. The flooring in the main hall was replaced in 2016 so is in fabulous condition and is the perfect complement to what is a fantastic usable space.
The hall is maintained to a very high standard by a small but dedicated team of committee members who are solely focused on providing the best possible facilities and service to those who wish to use it.
The Hall has very recently (Sept / Oct 2023) been transformed by considerable refurbishment works made possible through grants via Beres Construction (Mill Stone Green and funding through the Platinum Jubilee Funding.
The external walls are now fully completed, we have had them insulated and covered with fibre cement exterior wall cladding boards in black. With the new white windows, we think it looks amazing and we have received lots of positive feedback from villagers, including our very own District Councillor, Phil Cowen.
Our integrated 6.8 kwp solar panels are doing their job and we are generating our own electricity! We have an app where we can monitor usage, we are getting very high tech!
The new Worcester Bosch boiler system, replacement radiators and new water cylinder have been commissioned and upon testing, within 10 minutes the main hall was so hot we were frantically opening the windows to let the hot air out! It can all be managed remotely using the Hive app.
The CCTV is now installed with cameras all around the building and Jules is currently spending lots of time watching the videos, via an app of course (she needs to get a life!) Hopefully, this should now deter oil theft or fly tipping!
Wifi is now in the building, Superfast Fibre Enhanced, with a booster and speeds are very good! All this work completed and within budget.
Externally everything is pretty much completed, a few snagging items, but our PM is on the case. We just need to tidy up the garden and make the parking area more shipshape (lots of weeds!), so if there are any willing volunteers, your help would be really appreciated. Please feel free to contact any of us, details of the committee on the noticeboard.
Next job is internals, and we are still looking for a painter and decorator, again if there is anyone out there who wants to be involved, please contact us, more hands make light work! Or if you can recommend someone that would be helpful.
All the committee have worked tremendously hard, and we think our efforts are very much worth it. Wretham now has a refurbished village hall that in our opinion looks perfect. It is so much more cost effective to run, we are very high tech and most importantly we believe this will be a delightful place for us all to hold events and have fun as a village.
Sharron Rushbrook - Chair, Booking & Media
Jules Challenor - Vice Chair
Julie Brown - Treasurer
Sheila Mathers - Minutes Secretary
Jan Adgie - Committee Member
Sharon Ford - Committee Member
Bryan Lightbody - Committee Member
Natalie Bissessur - Committee Member
Shane Bissessur Committee Member
We are always actively seeking new members to join the committee, make a difference to our community and use the hall as much as possible.
Please feel free to contact any of us through the Hall email for any further information.