Pavilion History

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Trustees speak with volunteers and users of the facilities on an ongoing basis for continuous improvement of how the community can make best use of the Pavilion facility. For many years the main focus for the use of the space was as a Café, run by amazing volunteers and bringing in much welcome income. However, there was a need to consider that the income was sporadic, there was increasing competition from other venues, there was a desire to offer volunteers more flexibility and for there to be increased community involvement.

In Autumn 2024 the focus of the Pavilion Room space shifted from a café with regular opening hours to a space which can be more widely used by individuals, the community or local businesses for social gatherings or meetings any day of the week. The AHSRA volunteers will also have their creativity unleashed as small one-off fundraising activities will be possible – it could be a pop-up café, a lunch, an afternoon tea, a Halloween or Easter celebration etc. As an income stream is needed to maintain the facilities we hope that the community will not only support these changes by attending small events or by hiring the facility, but also by being involved in running or helping with fundraising activities.

August Bank Holiday Monday, 25th August 2014, saw the launch of a brand new café in Ashton Hayes. The logo and the name of the Café were chosen from entries in a local competition. The winner, Gillian Forgrave, and her family were the first official customers of the café.

The Pavilion Café was the brainchild of a group of local people who saw it as a way of not only providing a community resource for a village which had lost its pub but also of contributing to the upkeep and improvement of the recreation field on which it is based.

It succeeded on both counts since first opening its doors in 2014 with grant aid from the Rural Support Fund, Ashton Hayes Parish Council and the Ward Councillor at the time Eleanor Johnson.

In 2017 we were delighted to be nominated for a Countryside Alliance Award which honour the skills and produce, tradition, enterprise and people who go the extra mile for their communities. Our Café’s guiding aim is to be accessible to local people of all ages.

The Café was completely staffed by a team of volunteers, some of whom formed the café committee to oversee its running. The Committee worked closely with the AHSRA trustees in working to continuously improve the facility.

ANNUAL PARISH MEETING REPORT – MARCH 2023

The café based at the Pavilion and intended to have appeal to all the local community continues to run although, as always, we struggle to maintain the rota at times due to a shortage of volunteers. A lot of effort has been put in recently to increasing the publicity around the playing field and the facilities including the café and the need for volunteer support and this does seem to have a slow but positive effect. Apart from opening on Saturday and Sunday afternoons we are open when early morning football matches are played and we also continue to run a lunch club for a group of older people supported by Timebank volunteers. In addition, and in terms of us continuing to try to reach out to the whole local community we continue to run an annual Macmillan fundraiser in late Summer and we host the bi annual Community Clean Up events. We are this year hosting the village coronation celebration and the café will play an important part in this. Income from the café supports the Playing field in providing a steady stream of income. The Café space and facilities, together with the playing field and its equipment are attractive to many looking to book children’s parties and events. Finally, I’d like to offer a very big thank you to all our volunteers including our amazing bakers. I also would like to thank the community shop for their support and a special thank you to Heather who has for the whole time the café has been operating made our well-loved tray bakes and done so whilst charging us a discount rate ….so very sorry you are leaving Heather!