Morham Village Hall has served the local community for decades. Despite our widespread population, the hall provides a real heart to the parish and plays a wide range of roles, from public polling station and community council meeting place, to a venue for community clubs and private parties. It is the responsibility of the hall Trustees both to maintain it and to ensure that it remains as accessible as possible for the benefit of all in the area.
RECENT ACTIVITY
Charity Registration
The value of the hall in terms of providing a community focus has been recognised by the Office of the Scottish Charity Register and, largely thanks to the work of former Chair of the hall committee, Patrick Gammell, Morham Village Hall is now a registered charity (SC046475).
Website
The hall now has a dedicated webpage within the community website for Morham and Garvald: https://www.garvald.org.uk/morham-village-hall/. This page will offer information and regular updates, so do please keep an eye on it. There is also the noticeboard outside the hall itself, and we will be aiming to post relevant updates to the Morham – We Live Here Facebook page. Our hope is that all the community will feel they can easily access information about their hall, whether online or not.
Appointment Of New Trustees
Six new Trustees (listed below) took over responsibility for the upkeep and management of the hall last year, with – as per the charity’s constitution – two Trustees representing each of the three separate ‘constituencies’ within the parish (Main Street, Mainshill Farm and Steading, and the outlying parish).
HALL UPGRADE – WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The Trustees have instructed a comprehensive survey of the hall in order to prioritise repair works and look at improvements. This has now highlighted, amongst other things, the need for work to the roof, for the replacement of windows, door and the floor, and for a range of smaller works designed to ensure full Health and Safety compliance.
We have a fantastic opportunity to raise a significant proportion of the funds needed. However, the funding applications does require evidence of community involvement in the form of Letters of Support, or a signed petition. To which end, Trustees will soon be going door to door across the parish in the hope of gaining signatures. Do please sign if you can; it commits you to nothing but adds considerably to the application. THERE IS NO NEED TO LIVE IN THE PARISH TO REGISTER YOUR SUPPORT! Please use the contact form below to state your support, including your name and postal address .
MEMBERSHIP ROLL
Any resident of the Area of Benefit aged 18 or over is eligible to be a voting member of the hall. The Area of Benefit is defined within the hall’s constitution as “the Parish of Morham, East Lothian, comprising the farms of Northrig, Standingstone, Mainshill, Morham Mains, Rentonhall, West Morham and Morham Bank and all the houses and cottages thereon and in between and also including the adjoining farm of Whitelaw (and the houses and cottages thereon).”
We would very much like to compile as comprehensive a Membership Roll as possible to use as a centralised database for future communications. By way of example, these communications may range from updates on the planned refurbishment, to your invitation to the annual Burns Night Dinner. Please use the contact form below to be added to the database.
AGM
This year’s AGM will be at 7.30pm on Thursday 11th May in the Morham Village Hall. This will be an opportunity to learn more about the proposed improvements to the building, and to register your support for the grant funding. Do please come along if you possibly can.