#VillageHallsWeek Fun Facts!

As #VillageHallsWeek draws to a close, we’d like to share with you some fun facts* about England’s village halls and community buildings.

Did you know that…

• There are 10,000 village halls and other community buildings in England’s rural
  communities.
• More than 90,000 individuals, small businesses and professionals use
  England’s village halls to earn their living, or part of it, during the year.
• Around 1,000 village halls, or 10%, host a community enterprise such as post
  office, community shop, coffee shop, library, cinema or farmers’ market.
  However, almost a quarter of all halls don’t derive any financial benefit from
  this activity.
• Nearly a quarter of halls were built before World War I, while an estimated 600 were built to commemorate World War I or individuals who perished during that conflict.
• The average age of a village hall committee member is 58 – the age range stretches from 18 to 98.
• Each village hall hosts an average of nine life events, such as weddings, christening parties or wakes each year – a grand total of 90,000 gatherings.
• Village hall users and volunteers munch their way through a total of 47,500 packets of biscuits each week – washed down by 743,000 cups of tea. That’s nearly 2.5 million packets of biscuits and 38.6 million cups of tea each year – or 9.6 million litres (2.1 million gallons).
• The most popular uses for village halls are preschool and nursery groups; fitness
  classes; dance classes; clubs and groups for older people including luncheon clubs, retirement clubs, the University of the Third Age; and organisations for young people – including Scouts and Guides, youth clubs, and Girls’ and Boys’ Brigades.
• Some of the more unusual activities at halls include Appalachian clog dancing,
  calligraphy,

*complied from ACRE research 2014