Village Halls Week – Beech Village Hall

Village Halls Week (March 16-22) is a national celebration of the vital role village halls and community centres play in bringing people together.

Across Hampshire, we support a wide network of village halls and community centres. That includes help with governance, funding applications, training, policies and day-to-day operations, giving volunteers and committees the confidence and knowledge to run sustainable, welcoming spaces for their communities.

One of those centres is Beech Village Hall, just outside of Alton – a registered charity and member of Community First, run by trustees and volunteers. We spoke to Kim Eakers, one of the hall’s trustees.

What does Beech Village Hall offer the community?

“As well as being a popular location for parties and celebrations, we play host to a number of clubs, classes and regular village social events, including music, films, pub nights, summer BBQs and more.

“Our mission is to become a community hub and improve health and wellbeing for the wider community. We do this through our social, health and wellbeing, celebration and culture hubs.”

Tell us more about your mission to be a community hub.

“After the pandemic, we learnt that what people needed and wanted from a village hall had changed. It was much more about putting wellbeing first and offering a space where people could come together and socialise, which people missed out on during that time.

“As a social hub we already ran a weekly coffee and cake shop as well as a monthly supper and seasonal events, and our health and wellbeing hub offers activities such as yoga, dance and Pilates.”

“With the help of Community First, we developed our strategy to focus on two projects:

Upgrading our facilities to offer very high-quality audio-visual systems to address film and theatre, a new local Culture Hub.

Refurbishing an older part of our hall to create the ‘The Wellhouse’ a new multi-use facility for small group work or local businesses, such as classes and one to one therapy sessions, a significant enhancement to our Health and Wellbeing hub.

“Our culture hub opened in December 2024 and has welcomed more than 1,400 customers. It showcases the best of film and National Theatre and offers state of the art audio-visual equipment, cabaret-style seating, well-stocked bar, snacks and ice cream – the full experience! It’s rare to find this at your local village hall.

“After over a year of fund raising and extensive refurbishment work including full insulation and under floor heating The Wellhouse opened in January 2026 and is already hosting over 20 new Wellness practitioners and their offerings for our local community.”

What support have you received from Community First?

“When we started these projects, back in 2024, we met with Community First’s East Hampshire Community Development Worker to talk about our aspirations. She gave us a strategic focus, helped understand the why and worked with us to put together a structured plan, about what we wanted and how it could be done, and how to go after funding.

“Her willingness to sit with us for a few hours at the hall and provide us with strategic thinking and her expertise, was invaluable.”

Were your funding applications successful?

“We were supported by Community First to apply for East Hampshire District Council’s rural grant in 2024 – we were successful first time and used the grant to upgrade our audio-visual system for the cinema.

“Multiple funders helped convert an old part of the hall into a multi-use space for the health and Funding included covering the refurbishment and underfloor heating, which is very much wanted by the community! The whole project cost around £140,000 and we were able to secure grants from Veolia Environmental Trust, the National Lottery Community Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation, Beech Parish Council, Alton Town Council, East Hampshire District Council, and Enterprise Mobility, as well as donations from villagers.”

What role do volunteers play?

“The success of the hall is dependent on our 50+ volunteers who are passionate about the work they do. They run all of our events, for example, working the bar and the AV system on film nights, baking cakes and managing the coffee shop.”

“At the heart of why we do what we do is our members. They are the first to know about social events, film and theatre screenings etc and get special rates to hire the hall. They also contribute ideas and suggestions of how to improve the centre, which we always take into consideration.”

What’s next for Beech Village Hall?

“We are incredibly busy, but we hope to ramp up our offering for our health and wellbeing hub in the near future – we have a long list of changes we want to implement and may look to Community First to provide advice or help with implementation.”

If you’re doing good in your community, whether you run a village hall, lead a local group, manage a charity, or something in between, we’d love to support you. Email us at support@cfirst.org.uk so we can explore how we can help you keep making a difference and making life better for everyone.