We turned the village hall into a family home
When the village hall came up for sale the same year, they immediately saw its potential, but another buyer pipped them to the post.
Yet not long after, that sale fell through, and they quickly swooped.
'We were so lucky. It was a little gem and so rare to find anything like it in the area,' remembers Catherine. 'We knew it was where we wanted to have our home.'
Getting the neighbours on board
While it might seem sacrilegious to convert a village hall into a private home, Catherine and Ollie came to it with the community's blessing. The previous owner had done much of the hard work in obtaining planning permission and appeasing the locals.
'There had been huge protests initially because it was an important part of the village,' Catherine explains.
'Half the people wanted it to happen because they thought it was really nice that the hall could have a new life, but the other half didn't, because the hall had so much history, having originally been gifted as a reading room to the village by a local landowner in 1906.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
8 minutes ago
- BBC News
Monksfield Hexham children's respite closure 'devastating'
The "devastating" closure of a children's respite care service has left a mother fearing it could take a year to find a replacement facility for her and her Wilkinson said 12-year-old Sarah, who has severe mental and physical disabilities, had "absolutely loved" attending Monksfield House in Hexham, Northumberland, every the charity Action For Children has said it was closing its short break service because of difficulties recruiting and retaining County Council, who had referred families to the charity, said it was "working on personalised plans of support with those who have been affected". For more than 20 years, staff at Monksfield would take disabled children for days out and overnight stays to provide respite for their families and help the youngsters experience new activities and make For Children said it was closing the service from September, but Miss Wilkinson said it was shut at the end of July."The staff there were absolutely amazing with her," she said."They would do her hair, paint her nails, them sort of things." 'Such hard work' Sarah was born with atypical Rett syndrome, a rare genetic neurological disorder which affects her speech and limits her Wilkinson has three more of her children living at home and said the help from Monksfield had been "extremely valuable".Sarah used to be collected from her school in Ashington on a Friday and went to Monksfield for the weekend, before being taken back to school on Monday Wilkinson said: "It's such hard work, you don't know how hard it is when you've got a child with special needs."She thinks the impact on her daughter will be "devastating" because Sarah was "not going to be able to experience the things she was experiencing, and go out and do things".Ms Wilkinson was told it could take a year to get Sarah a place at a replacement service and could be with an operator based an hour away. Action For Children said the residential children's home, also at Monksfield, was unaffected and would remain would also run a partial short break service through the summer Conservative-led local authority added it was working with the charity to "continue to review options". Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
TTG
18 minutes ago
- TTG
Alaska Airlines to make UK debut next spring with London-Seattle flights
To continue reading this article you must log in. If you've never set a password you may need to register for free here and get unlimited access. For assistance contact support@
Times
31 minutes ago
- Times
Online Muslim preacher who ‘whipped up mob' loses libel claim
Act now to keep your subscription We've tried to contact you several times as we haven't been able to take payment. You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription.
