PRESS RELEASE – Village Halls Week 2025

Celebrating Northamptonshire’s village halls – and the volunteers who run them

Village Halls Week 2025 will celebrate the many volunteers who help to run our rural community buildings and support local residents, groups and communities.

Halls across Northamptonshire will be taking part in the national campaign week (17-23 March) showcasing the vital work that hall volunteers do to keep these local venues running.

Aside from hosting a wide range of social and recreational activities for residents that would not otherwise exist, village hall volunteers help to run essential services such as post offices, doctors’ surgeries and convenience shops.

From grass cutters to event planners, finance managers to drain un-blockers, village hall volunteers are the lifeblood of our community buildings, keeping everything running so that local residents can enjoy a local hub.

Did you know?

• There are 80,000 volunteers helping to keep 10,000+ village halls running across England.
• 88% of our village halls are charities run almost entirely by volunteers.
• Volunteers usually live in the local community and come from all walks of life but there is a need to recruit younger volunteers to help run our village halls.*

Join in Village Halls Week 2025

Starting on Monday 17 March, open days and other activities will take place throughout the week at halls across England, supported by an engaging social media campaign that will include touching stories from village hall volunteers.

On Wednesday 19 March, as part of the Week, Northamptonshire ACRE will be holding a free in-person networking event.  Northamptonshire County Association of Local Councils will speak about how parish councils can help to support community buildings and the volunteers who run them.

In addition, throughout the Week Northamptonshire ACRE together with other ACRE Network members in the East Midlands Region is helping to run a series of free webinars.  The online training and information sessions will cover a wide variety of topics including, on Tuesday 18 March, a FREE cyber security workshop delivered by Northamptonshire Police on how to protect your community building from the threat of cyber fraud.

The annual Village Halls Week campaign is led by Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE), a national charity speaking up for and supporting rural communities, and supported locally by Northamptonshire ACRE.

Frances Harris, Northamptonshire ACRE said, “volunteers are the backbone of Northamptonshire’s village and community halls.  Without them these vital rural assets couldn’t survive.  It’s been my privilege to support the work of rural community buildings for over a decade and I’m delighted that this year the spotlight is on the wonderful people who run them.”

Find out more about the national ACRE campaign, which includes the launch of a ‘Halls for All’ book, written by Louise Beaton and David Clark, and a video of village hall volunteers reading a bespoke poem about their role and an opportunity for all of our valued committee members to be spotlighted on the Village Halls Week Volunteer Gallery.

Northamptonshire ACRE provides support and advice to community buildings across Northamptonshire, including training and resources, help with accessing funding and guidance on legal and regulatory matters such as health and fire safety. 

Deborah Clarke, ACRE’s Village Hall Manager said, "ACRE is excited about all the activity taking place and would like to thank the Village Halls Week sponsors, Hallmaster and Utility Aid, as well as the ACRE members for their commitment to supporting village hall committees all year round not just during Village Halls Week.”

Village Halls Week takes place from Monday 17 to Sunday 23 January 2025.