The Community House was built in 1958, designed by Michael Tapper & J. Anthony Lewis with the interior by David Hicks.
It was very generously funded by Mr. & Mrs. Bryce of Moyns Park.
It was designed to be in keeping with the rest of the village with its Norfolk reed thatched roof and plastered walls, there is a modern kitchen, hall, reading room, and cloakroom facilities. There is also a flat that is currently rented out.
An investment trust was set up by the Bryce’s to fund the running and maintenance of the house. The Trust was established to run and manage the Community House for the benefit of the village and the local community. The trust fund was dissolved several years ago and the funds availed to the trustees to invest and to continue running the Community House.
The Community House is a registered charity and the audited accounts are lodged with the Charities Commission each year.
Six co-opted trustees meet regularly with minutes taken by Debbie Hilliard who is also the Parish council clerk.
Community House income comes from interest from investments, rent from the flat and hire revenue.
We applied last year to E.C.C. and were awarded a grant to help fund the Warm hub and thanks to this, we can finance the Warm Hub entirely.
During the last couple of years, the Community House has been pleased to support financially:
The Queens Platinum Jubilee.
The Warm Hub.
Birdbrook Bowls Club.
The village bowling green lays behind the house and is used and beautifully maintained by the Birdbrook Bowls Club which also rents the Community House for functions and Club days.
As well as the Bowls Club the Community House is used regularly by:
Birdbrook Parish Council
Birdbrook Warm Hub,
Birdbrook Ladies Group,
Coco Harrison-Self ( Yoga )
The Alpine Society.
Nathalie Manning (Sound and Bath Yoga)
Historically there have been many other societies that have used the Community House including:
The W.I.
Stitch & Sew.
The Birdbrook Club.
Birdbrook Happy Day.
Birdbrook Garden Club.
Birdbrook Play Group.
In addition to clubs and societies the Community House is also available for private parties and functions.
The Community House is a wonderful facility that has plenty of capacity to host more clubs and societies; we would be pleased to discuss club rates with any club or society wishing to use the facilities.
Looking to the future we are hopefully going to reintroduce social events during the year, historically there have been Cheese and Wine evenings, Anniversary Parties, and Children in Need fundraisers. It would be great to have these again.
To do this we are looking to form a new general committee to run alongside the trustees, ideally comprising of people from the village and members from each of the clubs using the Community House.
The Community House committee:
Steve Filbey, Matt Unwin, Jonathan Suckling, Liz Filbey, Peter Unwin, John Weeks & Katie Gentry.
Should anybody have any questions about the Community House please don’t hesitate in contacting either Matt, Katie or myself.
Stephen Filbey steve.filbey@gmail.com
Matt Unwin matt@unwinestates.co.uk
Katie Gentry katie_owner@hotmail.com
Steve Filbey
Chair.