The Official Wickhambrook Village Website - homepage
BOOKMARK
Please read the Disclaimer for this Website
Homepage
Use the site map to see all the pages on this website
page updated 4 May, 2009 Wickhambrook Village Sign
Wickhambrook Village Sign
Wickhambrook Memorial Social Centre (MSC)
Wickhambrook Village Sign
The Memorial Social Centre is part of a complex of local facilities comprising a tennis court and a bowling green together with a Skate/BMX/Sports Park and children’s play area.
Wickhambrook has some of the best recreational facilities in the area and the village hall is second to none

FOR SAT NAV USERS - the postcode for the MSC is CB8 8XR

 

The next MSC Management Meeting date is to be agreed
The next MSC Trustee Meeting date is to be agreed

Public are welcome to sit in on either, or both (MSC Pavilion lounge from 7.30pm - free tea and biscuits), and everyone is invited to offer any items beforehand for those agendas. Minutes of all MSC meetings are routinely posted in the MSC foyer for a few weeks. >> Agenda (available shortly before the meeting date)

The Memorial Social Centre (MSC) is at the heart of Wickhambrook and provides a venue for many of the clubs and societies to hold their meetings and events. The Centre is made up of a Foyer, The Dulcie Smith Room which has two snooker tables, the Main Hall with a stage, a Club Room with a bar, Pavilion with bar together with toilet and kitchen facilities. The local football pitch, play area, tennis courts, bowls green, skatepark and recreation ground are all located near to the MSC.

With the W.I. Hall located on the opposite side of the car park, Wickhambrook has excellent facilities for the many events that take place throughout the year.

View the latest :-
>> Booking Form
>> Conditions of hire
>> Hire Agreement
>> NEWS AND PROJECT LISTS for improvements and updates to the MSC - updated 04.05.09
>>View the latest Meeting Agenda, Minutes of Meetings and Reports
>>Summary of Charges - updated June 2007
>>VIEW FULL LIST OF DIARY DATES updated REGULARLY - if you cannot view this file download the free Adobe Reader - Click here to download Adobe Reader
All MSC Booking Diary entries are now displayed on the hall Notice Board and updated almost daily.
 
MSC Bookings  - Each time it is updated the listing of the MSC booking diary is emailed to committee members and to both regular and casual hirers so that they can check that their hirings are correctly noted and to see what future dates are available. If anyone would like to be included in these emailings, please send an email with 'diary dates' in the subject line, to the booking manager
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Chairman
Patrick Colvill
Vice Chairman
Steve Taylor
Treasurer
Margaret Colvill
Secretary
VACANCY
Booking Manager
Steve Taylor
The Memorial Social Centre
HOW TO FIND US > map

Licensing Act 2003
The Memorial Social Centre's new licence to operate as a village hall with 'public entertainments', 'stage shows', private and club hire etc until midnight on most days (11.30pm Sundays) was granted with effect from 24th November 2005. The new all-encompassing licence now includes an 'on licence' for the sale of alcohol until 11.30pm (10.30pm Sundays). The official Licence Summary (all 3 pages of it), is on permanent display on the hall's notice board.

Hall users may note that, thanks to our bar service provider Chris Gray, Greene King have renewed and upgraded the bar equipment.

Notice from the MSC: "Dogs are now permitted on the recreation field, provided they are kept under close control (on a lead) and are not taken onto the grassed sports and play area. Please keep to the perimeter of the field."
The MSC is available for hire for weddings, dances, private parties, etc. As you can see from the above photo, there is ample parking available. The Centre is currently used for the following:
Monday (alternate) evening Wic-Kids Main Hall & Club Room
Tuesday morning Bowls Club Bowls Green
  evening Carpet Bowls Club Main Hall
Wednesday evening Badminton Main Hall
  evening Bowls Club Bowls Green
Thursday morning Daycentre Dulcie Smith Room & Club Room
  afternoon Carpet Bowls Club Main Hall
  evening Body Rock Dance Main Hall
Friday evening Dog Training (see below) Main Hall
Saturday afternoon Football Club Pavilion
Sunday morning Body Rock Dance Main Hall
  morning Tennis Club Tennis Courts
 
Every day various Snooker Club Dulcie Smith Room
Fridays from 2nd September, 7pm to 9pm in the main hall, Dog Training.
Farmers Markets
The Farmers Market is back > details
Only parts of the Hall are used for some of the above and so please feel free to enquire of the Booking Manager whether arrangements can be made to accommodate your function

Documents for Hirers of the Hall
> hirers timesheet

> notes accompanying hirers timesheet

Booking Manager
01440 820520
Previous reports that have been listed on this website and reported by various means throughout the village, mainly The Scene and What's-On, are listed below in date order - click on the report you are interested in to read more about it:
    Minutes - February 2009
Booking Manager's Report November 2008   Minutes - January 2009
Minutes - October 2008   2008 AGM Minutes
Minutes - August 2008   Booking Manager's Report October 2008
Booking Manager's Report June 2008   Minutes - June 2008
Minutes - April 2008   Minutes - March 2008
Minutes - February 2008   Minutes - December 2007
Booking Manager's Report - October 2007   Minutes - October 2007
Minutes - September 2007   Minutes - August 2007
Booking Manager's Report - August 2007   Scene Report - July 2007
Minutes - June 2007   Minutes - May 2007
Chairman's Report - June 2007   Minutes - February 2007
Booking Manager's Report - June 2007   Minutes - February 2007
This is a useful website reference for anyone involved in or interested in village halls. www.defra.gov.uk/rural/communities/halls/ There is information on funding sources, advice and support, contacts for regulations, news and updates

The Memorial Social Centre
The MSC

The Tennis Courts - Photo by Steve Sumner
The Tennis Courts

The Playground - Photo by Steve Sumner
The Playground

The History of the Memorial Social Centre

It all began on 27th November 1944. A public meeting was called, the venue unknown, the W.I. Hall perhaps. The instigator of this meeting was William Underwood ably assisted by Leonard Harbutt. It was decided that a village hall was needed and that it should be called the MEMORIAL Hall in memory of those that had died in the First World War and for those still giving their lives in the Second. The aid of the Suffolk Rural Community Council was sought. A second meeting was held on the 22nd January 1945, a committee was formed and the planning of the Memorial Hall began. Unfortunately there are no members of that committee alive today.

A further meeting chose the site, the corner of the recreation ground, it also chose the format of the committee. It was decided that every organisation in the village should be represented on it; this with slight adjustment still exists today. Fundraising began and grants were obtained. It took five years to raise the funds and construct the building. It was formally opened on 13th April 1951 by its Chairman Mr Griffiths Woollard. They were obviously not superstitious! We can be proud of their achievements.

Since those early days much has changed. The Hall and Recreation Ground Committees have amalgamated to become the Memorial Social Centre.

However all was not easy in the early sixties monetary crisis loomed and there was talk of ‘putting the hall on rates’ or even closing it and using it as a barn to store corn.

The Community Council was formed in 1966 with the intention of saving the building, modernising and extending it. Once again the fundraising began and grants were obtained. The building as it is seen today is the end result. It gained a refurbished kitchen, a clubroom, a snooker room and a front foyer with modern toilets. It was formally opened in May 1972 by Mrs Eldon Griffiths the wife of the local Member of Parliament.

The pavilion at the rear of the building was added at a later stage, being built mostly by the local football club assisted by other sports clubs.

The Memorial Social Centre is part of an excellent leisure complex which comprises a tennis court, and a bowling green together with a Teen Project Skate/BMX/Sports Park and a children’s play area. Wickhambrook has some of the best recreational facilities in the area and the village hall is second to none.

We can be proud of our Memorial Social Centre and thank those far sighted villages who, in 1944 during the dark days of the war decided that Wickhambrook should remember its fallen heroes with a living reminder of their deeds. Let us hope the complex continues to thrive and to serve future generations a fitting memorial to those who gave their lives for our freedom.