Johnny Thomson 00:01
Sometimes things need a little bit of a refresh, and village halls and activities that they offer are no exception. Hi everyone, I’m Johnny Thomson and welcome once again to The Village Halls Podcast sponsored by Allied Westminster, the UK’s largest specialists provider of village hall insurance and the home of VillageGuard. Every dog has its day as they say and sadly, some village halls out there are no longer the big attraction that they once were. So how can things be turned around? To help answer that question, I’ve been joined by Andrew Ayers, who is a committee member at Irby and Bratoft Village Hall in Lincolnshire. In the space of just a few years, the hall has witnessed a real rejuvenation and it is once again serving its community really well. Andrew has kindly agreed to share with us how this has all come about. Hi, Andrew. How are you today?

Andrew Ayers 00:59
Hi Johnny. Thanks for having me on. I’m very well thank you.

Johnny Thomson 01:03
Brilliant. Now, Andrew before we get on to talking about the transformation of your hall, tell me first of all about your village and the local area there?

Andrew Ayers 01:12
Yeah, sure. We’re basically a very small little village, probably smaller than a hamlet, but we’re actually maybe about seven miles from Skegness. It’s a very quiet village. We have no facilities, no amenities and the village itself actually encompasses we call it the five parishes where we have one parish council looks after five parishes. And we’re very lucky that Irby is part of that and obviously Bratoft is our next adjoining parish, which obviously is part and parcel of the village hall.

Johnny Thomson 01:50
So it’s a hall that kind of serves to two places really?

Andrew Ayers 01:53
That’s right yeah, Irby and Bratoft.

Johnny Thomson 01:55
Hence the name, yeah?

Andrew Ayers 02:00
Yeah.

Johnny Thomson 02:00
And you live in Irby yeah?

Andrew Ayers 02:02
I do, yeah.

Johnny Thomson 02:03
And how long? How long have you lived there?

Andrew Ayers 02:05
Did that move here in January of 2000. So it’s been over 22 years. And it’s a lovely place to be lovely place. Very peaceful.

Johnny Thomson 02:18
And community is really important to you as well Andrew isn’t it? Why do you have that feeling of community? Why is it important to you?

Andrew Ayers 02:27
Well, I’ve spent my life working in the NHS, and I also had my own care company for many years and everything else. And that’s when I originated from Warwick originally and I moved up here because my wife wanted the smallholding. And so basically, we got involved here, we moved here and eventually closed the business down and decided that we’d take a slower route to life. It’s just been great. You know, I’ve always been connected to the community, wherever I’ve been. I used to be a town counsellor, a school governor in Warwick, and everything else. And for me, it’s really important to me that communities are there and we get involved in them wherever we can.

Johnny Thomson 03:10
Yeah, and if you’ve got that background of the NHS and so on, as well, it’s about I guess it would be about contribution yeah?

Andrew Ayers 03:15
Absolutely, absolutely. I’ve always found it very satisfying, let’s put it like that, to be involved and play a part in the community wherever I can.

Johnny Thomson 03:27
Wonderful. Now unfortunately, your hall there kind of lost its way a little didn’t it a few years back. Is that fair?

Andrew Ayers 03:36
It is, yeah, yeah. I joined the, I originally joined the village hall committee about 20 years ago.

Johnny Thomson 03:43
And that’s when it all started to go downhill, yeah?

Andrew Ayers 03:45
No, no. It was doing really great guns, and then things change as they do, people move on and things like that. And then committee members sort of came on board. And really, there wasn’t anybody on there that had the energy and the willingness, if you like to step outside their comfort zone and make things happen. So sadly, the village hall really did decline. And many events had been cancelled and activities had been cancelled. And it was a sad sight to see.

Johnny Thomson 04:21
And once it gets like that, it’s difficult isn’t it to kind of bring things back? People in the community then lose their enthusiasm as well for the hall and everything?

Andrew Ayers 04:32
Absolutely. I mean, people, you know, obviously since we started again, I mean people obviously said to me you know, I just didn’t want to go down there. There was no atmosphere, there was no fun. You didn’t even necessarily feel that welcome, when you went in and things like that. And it’s very, very sad to see.

Johnny Thomson 04:49
So what happened that began to kind of change things around?

Andrew Ayers 04:54
Well we were very fortunate there was a couple that live in the village, Billy and Wendy, and Billy had been invited onto the committee by the old committee, basically to take over running our community run village bar. And he was he’s full of enthusiasm, him and his wife are both full of enthusiasm, and bearing in mind they are probably about 70, they absolutely want to see change and everything else. So they, they sort of approached me and said look you know, we know that you were involved in the hall in the past, and you got things done, would you consider coming back on and joining us? So I said, well if they’ll have me back I will you know. And we had an AGM and things like that and didn’t go off actually that well to start with, most of the old committee resigned! Which was a bit awkward that they were left with three members of the committee. The Secretary that had remained on, she sort of contacted me and said what do we do now, you know? So I said well call an emergency AGM and we’ll get the word out to all the residents and see what we can do. So that’s what we did we had an emergency AGM, we had a full house of residents at the village hall and at that point we elected 13 committee members, which I think is the highest I’ve ever known it onto the committee. And also those being new people that only literally had just moved into the village of the beginning of July last year. And we were very fortunate that they sort of put the hand up, reluctantly, and you know what it’s like, never go to a meeting, never go to a committee meeting, because if you know a very good chance you’ll get voted on to a committee. And so that’s what we basically did and we were really, really fortunate because every single member on the committee had just this real positive attitude, you know, what can we do? What can we do to get the village hall back up and running again, you know? I was actually shocked by the positivity of so many people. And, to be honest, it really did make my day, you know, I was really really chuffed. Obviously then of course at that point, COVID hit us.

Johnny Thomson 07:14
Just just when things are starting to look good!

Andrew Ayers 07:17
Everything started to go and COVID hit so we had to close down again. And that basically put everything on hold again really for two years. But as soon as we found that we were allowed to reopen, we’d actually obviously put everything in place we needed to put in place regarding COVID, rules and regulations. And and we did and we opened up again, and it was it was initially a slow start, as you can imagine people still very, very wary about going into environments with other people and things like that. But no, it really did start to pick up and of course as restrictions lifted altogether, if you like, and, yeah, it’s been amazing, been amazing.

Johnny Thomson 07:57
And what does the hall look like now, you know, how has it been transformed? What what are the positive kind of tangible elements that are there now?

Andrew Ayers 08:06
Well, we have, we’ve actually built a stage at the village hall. We’ve obviously we had whatever you can imagine with COVID, all the necessary bits and bobs that go with that. But we’ve also managed to upgrade and improve all the equipment there. I mean, obviously, like many village halls we received the COVID grant and we used that money extremely wisely to, you know, because of many years of basically let’s mend it let’s not replace it attitude, we actually went out there and we replaced equipment that was desperate to be done. So everything is now fully working. Everything’s looking great. So that the stage, we’ve got new lighting going up, we’re actually in the process of putting up replacing the lighting with LED lighting now. Just you know, we’ve got a big notice board, a big eight by four notice board on the wall, which is where we show all our events. And that board has been full ever since.

Johnny Thomson 09:06
Fantastic. And you’ve introduced some new activities. In fact, it’s fair to say you’ve been you’ve been experimenting a bit, is that fair? It’s funny you saying it didn’t go down well, that’s kind of been the attitude hasn’t it with with these activities is you haven’t just dismissed anything at the committee stage. You’ve, whatever ideas people have come up with you thought well, okay, let’s try it, run with it, if people like it, then we’ll do it again. If people if people don’t like it, we won’t do it again, yeah?

Andrew Ayers 09:13
Oh, always, always. I mean, we’ve be unfortunately because I got the job as the sort of dealing with the social media and organising events and activities as a whole, which is something I’ve done in the past. And I like to try new things. I like to try out new ideas to see whether or not they’ll work. And we’ve obviously looked at the idea of having a Casino Night, which we did do a number of years ago, a James Bond theme and everybody got dressed up, it was wonderful. So we’re aiming to do that again. We have introduced, we’ve been very lucky because one of our new committee members is a crafter, Haley and her husband Trevor. They do crafts, so we’ve organised we have a regular craft event at the Hall every Tuesday evening or every other Tuesday evening. I’ve introduced a men’s mental health group. And we’ve got taekwondo going on, we’ve got yoga going on, with just about to start from the sixth of this month, weekly line dancing for beginners lessons. I did try that, it didn’t go down well, kept crashing into everybody. So I sort of said that I’m going to have another go, but you know, I’ve… oh dear, I’ve got two left feet obviously. Yeah. Well, we’ve actually said if it doesn’t go down, well, the first time we won’t dismiss it, we may leave it a year and then we’ll give it another go. You know obviously tweak how we ran the event and see if we can make it better and make it more accessible and things like that for people. I mean, we actually held our first village fete in five years and we were amazed by the amount of people that turned up. I mean, it was a really quite a small event, considering. Because we really didn’t know how it would go. But we had the village hall filled with crafters, we had obviously the usual bouncy castle, free bouncy castle for the kids, vintage games. And there was lots of things and some classic cars and things and we were really surprised on how many people came out and supported the event. Yeah we’re trying lots of new ideas and we’re not dismissing anything.

Johnny Thomson 11:52
And this wellbeing and wellness support group for men in the community, that sounds interesting. Tell me a little bit more about that.

Andrew Ayers 12:00
Yeah, well, I myself suffer with mental health. I had a breakdown in 2006 and you know, I’m obviously recovering, but I’ll never be 100%. But I find it very hard you know, communicating with other people. And…

Johnny Thomson 12:21
You’re a man!

Andrew Ayers 12:22
Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So I spoke to somebody, and he, they sort of passed me on to a very nice gentleman. And he said, we run some groups how about we help you set up your group in your village hall. So we do it twice a month, we you know, the bar is open though that’s not compulsory, we do free tea and coffee and we get the pool table out and we’ve got the dark boards out. And…

Johnny Thomson 12:53
Yhe bar was always held to loosen the tongues though I guess, yeah?

Andrew Ayers 12:56
One of my phrases, the bar’s always open. It’s actually, you know, it, it’s going we’ve had a few men in, but it’s trying to sort of explain to them that, you know, we don’t sit there talking about mental health. It’s really a way of men getting together without the wives without the partners that they may feel be able to be free and have a chat about anything. And should mental health come up in the conversation then we can direct them if needs be, to the right people to help them or support them.

Johnny Thomson 13:29
Yeah, so you’re trying to create that comfortable atmosphere which men can eventually reach together after, after a certain time has passed and various, almost pointless conversations have to take place first.

Andrew Ayers 13:44
Absolutely, yeah. Men are terrible at expressing their feelings and their emotions and things like that and I think we need to create places like this where they can feel comfortable and free to, to maybe say something or talk about something. It’s very important.

Johnny Thomson 14:05
Yeah, great initiative Andrew. And overall, what’s the reaction of the community been like to how things have transformed there?

Andrew Ayers 14:16
We’ve had so much positive feedback. We’ve done a couple of surveys with the villages to gauge their feedback and the top one being the friendliness of the committee and how nice the environment is at the village hall now and how the fact we’re putting on so many events and things. Events are getting really really busy. And yeah, it’s been absolutely brilliant. Absolutely brilliant, very, very positive with the residents. Lots of people who said they hadn’t been to the hall for years, and they’ve started coming in regularly now. So I’m just thrilled and I know the committee was thrilled as we are to see people returning to the hall and enjoying what we’ve got for them.

Johnny Thomson 15:02
So what’s the secret Andrew, for you with the change around, what’s lies behind this this new success?

Andrew Ayers 15:10
I think it’s having a committee that is positive. I think it’s having people willing to do something, you know. I’ve always said that if you’re on a committee, you’re not there for yourself, you’re there for the community. And if you’re on the committee, you’ve got to be prepared to do something. If you’re prepared to do it, don’t be on the committee. And it sounds a bit harsh, but it’s true you know, you get people that come on, well it’s just a ‘oh I’m on the village hall commitee’ sort of thing you know, and that’s not what, what it’s about. You’ve got to be prepared to put the hours in and do it. You know, we’re all volunteers, none of us get paid anything at all. We do it because we want people to have a facility that they can use, and enjoy, and talk about, you know, and things. So that’s what that’s to us what it’s all about.

Johnny Thomson 16:00
I think that’s really important too Andrew, to be honest. It is that word that I use at the beginning to describe your, your kind of way of contribution, isn’t it?

Andrew Ayers 16:10
You’ve got to be prepared to give up your time, and if you can do that, that’s great. You know, it’s not a job. And, you know, sometimes committee say well, I really can’t do this event, because I’m doing something… that’s absolutely fine. You’ve got to a life outside the village hall, you know. But everybody’s just prepared to step in and do whatever they can whenever it’s needed and make an event work.

Johnny Thomson 16:35
Yeah, it’s about investing that time and time and energy. And yeah, you’re right I think from what I’ve seen from successful village halls, it all relates back to the level of activity from those sitting behind it, so terrific stuff. And with that in mind, I’m also really happy to say that the entire committee there at Irby and Bratoft Village Hall, have been nominated for our Wonderful Villages Unsung Hero Award this year, so congratulations to all of you Andrew, for that.

Andrew Ayers 17:08
Thank you very much. We really appreciate that. Really do appreciate that.

Johnny Thomson 17:12
No, I think it’s fantastic and needs to be recognised you know, when people generate that positivity for the community and invest that time and energy, I think it’s so so important and so helpful to the local community. So as I say, congratulations.

Andrew Ayers 17:28
We all need a pat on the back occasionally, don’t we you know?

Johnny Thomson 17:32
Yeah, it’s kind of, it’s not why you do it, but it’s always nice as you say to receive that every now and then, definitely. And that does, of course mean that your hall is in with a chance of winning £1,000 as well, which would help make things even better, I guess?

Andrew Ayers 17:48
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you know, we’re doing everything we can at the moment to keep the costs to a minimum. Because we know that everybody’s going through the credit crisis at the moment, money is tight, times are hard, so wherever we can, where just not putting our prices up. We’re keeping them low, we’re keeping everything affordable. And the whole committee have said that, you know, if anybody in the village feels they’d like to come to an event but they can’t afford it, they just need to speak to one of us and they’ll come free of charge. If they come on a Friday night, we do food every Friday night, you know if they want to come down, they just can’t afford it, just have quiet words when the committee you know, and we’ll make it happen for them you know, I think we’ve got to really.

Johnny Thomson 18:35
No that’s really warming tp hear and there you have it, breaking news folks, Irby and Bratoft Village Hall, the only place in Britain where the prices aren’t going up!

Andrew Ayers 18:45
Absolutely.

Johnny Thomson 18:48
That’s terrific. Well, thanks Andrew for for coming on and talking us through you know how you’ve managed to turn things around there at the hall it’s nice to hear something positive amongst all the doom and gloom.

Andrew Ayers 19:00
And thank you Johnny for having me on, I mean, you know, I just love talking about village halls.

Johnny Thomson 19:04
And good luck, good luck with the with the Award.

Andrew Ayers 19:07
Thank you ever so much, thank you.

Johnny Thomson 19:07
And that’s it everyone for this episode. Keep submitting your entries to our Wonderful Villages Awards. There’s five awards altogether, each with a prize of £1,000 for your local village, church, or community hall. You can find more information about the Awards on our website. Many thanks to our headline sponsor and specialist insurance provider Allied Westminster for making our podcast possible and whose services you can discover more about at villageguard.com and to online booking system provider Hallmaster who also sponsor our podcast and can be found at hallmaster.co.uk. You’ve been listening to The Village Halls Podcast, a unique listening community for Britain’s village church and community halls and anyone interested in the vital community services they provide We’ll be back again soon with another episode, so please visit thevillagehallspodcast.com to subscribe, sign up for updates, link through to our social media pages and to find out more. But until next time, goodbye for now.