Our Story

The Consitution’s primary focus is on the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time activities of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances. Importance is given to inclusivity, without distinction of sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, race or political, religious or other opinions and providing facilities for the public at large in the interests of social welfare with the object of improving the conditions of life for inhabitants.

In 1970 the Charity was bequeathed approximately an acre of land to build a Village Hall and in 1975, after a long period of fund raising, the hall was opened. It was built as a memorial to the end of the Second World War and with limited funds the hall was built to a tight budget and intended as a temporary structure with an expected life of 30 years. In 2008 a subcommittee was formed to consider the building of a new hall. Different committees between 2008 to 2016 looked at various ways to fund the building and an estimate of the cost, at this time, was £1 million.

In 2016 the Trustees reassessed the task and with the backing of the village embarked on a significant fundraising effort to rebuild the hall whilst retaining the whole site for the use of the Community.

Planning permission for the site was finally granted on 20th February 2019, after making several revisions as required by Guildford Borough Council. The final permission included approval for two buildings, the new main hall and a secondary smaller building to be called Victory House.

Ripley Parish Council gifted £500,000 to the project allowing work to commence on Victory House, whilst efforts to raise funds for the building of the new main hall continued. It was agreed to provide an office for the Parish Council in perpetuity within the building of the new hall. It was also decided to include two one-bedroom flats within Victory House for young key workers within the community to help young people to live and work within Ripley.

Covid then required the closure of the old building in 2020 and caused a long delay on funding requests that were in the pipeline for approval. In addition, there was a steep increase in the costs of building materials and their transport. All these things increased the cost of the proposed building and required the trustees to obtain additional funding.

In June 2021 ground was finally broken on the building of Phase 1, Victory House. Work was finished in April 2022. Work on Phase 2, the new main hall was then started in mid-April 2023 and completed in May 2024 by J C Buchanan under the guidance of our architect Brian Hendry.

The new Hall contains three beautiful halls of differing sizes to cater for different sizes and types of events. It has been built to very high levels of insulation, resulting in an EPC rating of ‘A’. There is full underfloor heating from an air source heat pump. It has a system of rainwater recovery for brown water used within the hall, triple glazing and an air exchange / circulation within the main hall.

There is a stage within the main hall with lighting and AV for theatre productions and a fully equipped kitchen. The second and third halls have basic kitchenettes with microwaves, and tea coffee making facilities. Halls 2 and 3 have air conditioning.

The outside spaces provide a lovely garden and patio off Hall 2 and a patio and breakout area off Hall 1. These spaces can be combined if the halls are used together. Ripley Village Hall also has a major benefit of a huge car park and excellent location for those travelling to events.

The total cost of the whole development of both buildings including landscaping was £2.2 million. Due to the generous contributions from Ripley Parish Council, Your Fund Surrey, The Community Lottery, Garfield Weston, ACRE and other funders the building of the whole project was achieved through funding alone, leaving no residual debts or amounts owing.

The new Ripley Village Hall has been built with regard and emphasis on its insulation properties for reduced running costs, its longevity, and to give Ripley a central community building as a legacy for our Village for many years to come.