Since we began looking into the possibilities of bringing Hough End Hall into community use at the beginning of January, a lot has happened.

Peter and Carolyn have worked hard to produce leaflets and posters about the campaign, and have begun to distribute these.  (Unfortunately we have had a lot of these printed with the wrong date for Hough End Hall – we have made it a decade older than it is!) We have made  a Facebook Group with now has 417 members.  Andrew Simpson has promoted the project on his blog, drawing attention to the rich history of the Hall http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/lab el/Hough%20End%20Hall .

We have mounted an on-line survey for people to send in their ideas about how best to use the Hall if we are successful in acquiring it. If you haven’t seen this, find it at: www.gladtobe.in/survey.html . There is also a copy of the survey  on the back of the leaflets which will be widely available shortly.

We have met with groups of residents, with local councillors Joanna and Ian, with our local regeneration officer, Dawn,  and with Jo from the Architectural Heritage Fund, a body which helps bring heritage buildings into community use. We have raised the issue at a meeting of  Chorlton Civic Society and attended one of the committee meetings to explain the project further. The Chorlton Civic Society is backing the project. We have discussed the project with Chorlton High School Governors, - the school is the immediate neighbour of the hall.

Short pieces about the campaign will shortly appear in the Chorlton Community Index and the Chorlton Civic Society newsletter, and

hopefully it will appear in the Didsbury and Withington Civic Societies’ newsletters too. We have completed a proposal to the City Council to name Hough End Hall as a community asset of value to the local community for cultural and recreational purposes which, if approved will give us 6 months to raise the money to buy the property.  We have been in touch with the selling agents and viewed the Hall, which looks to be in not too bad a condition given it has been empty for well over a year. We have already had some offers of donations and are setting up a bank account so that we have a way of banking people’s offers.

What next?

• We need to spread the word about the campaign.
• We need to have meetings and find other ways to tap into the creativity of local people in developing the project.
• We need to apply for funding to get surveys done and get advice on the feasibility of the project.
• We need to open a bank account and move to get the group incorporated so we can apply for some grants to undertake surveys and feasibility studies.
• We need to use lots of different ways to raise money beyond the initial stages.
• We need to find people who have the time to help us get this campaign off the ground.  For this we will need legal advice and people who would like to take on particular tasks, such as fund-raising. And of course we will need a treasurer.

A Chorlton Civic Society project in conjunction with Three’s Company

For more information contact Carolyn Kagan

37 Chandos Road South,

Chorlton-cum-Hardy, M21 0TH

Telephone: 0161 881 6887

Email: houghendhall@gmail.com

So, if you would like to get involved in any way, please get in touch by email or phone (see details below).