Why Do We Need a Hall?
It is not a secret in Blandford that the Town lacks places for people to meet! Surveys suggest that there is a need for places for people of all ages to meet for all sorts of purposes - parties, exhibitions, film shows, meetings ... the list is endless. At present, there are few facilities in Blandford which are able to meet this need and the one which could do so - the church hall - is not able to do so because of it's state. The vision that the Church has is for a hall which will be available to the whole community for the use of the whole community.
What's Wrong With The Hall?
The Church Hall was built in the 1880s in the garden of the old Rectory in the Tabernacle. It is constructed of four ironwork kits (hence the pillar in the middle of it!) and clad in corrugated iron. As a good example of a Victorian "tin hut", it has faithfully served the community well over the years but in recent decades has shown signs of wear. Many people remember using the hall thirty years ago and saying the same thing. Whilst efforts have been made by the church to maintain the hall, a survey by an independent structural engineer in 2005 stated that the hall had "exceeded its reasonable life expectancy". In other words, the cost and benefit of rebuilding the existing hall outweighs that of building a new one.