We are a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) newly registered to replace the existing unincorporated Christian Malford Village Hall charity.

The original charity was constituted by a model village hall Trust Deed in 1960 when land, which had previously been gifted in 1925, was formally conveyed to Trustees to hold "upon trust for the purpose of a Village Hall for the use of the inhabitants of Christian Malford aforesaid and the neighbourhood".

All of our Trustees and volunteers are long term residents of this small rural village in North Wiltshire.

Our mission is to provide the Parish of Christian Malford with an enduring community hub.  The existing one, through outdated design, construction and age is no longer sustainable. Unless it is replaced now we are at risk of losing this vital asset.

The Village Hall is in a poor condition and beyond economic repair. The advice of Chartered Surveyors was to source funding to replace the building with a new one of more conventional construction using better insulation materials. A planning application to demolish the existing hall and replace it with a new building was approved by Wiltshire Council on 13 March 2024.

WHY a CIO?

Our fundraising plan includes a proposal to apply for a grant from the Community Ownership Fund. The eliligibility conditions for this grant require the charity to be incorporated. Other potential funding sources, such as some Charitable Trusts, have similar conditions.

Legal advice from both Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) and a solicitor specialising in trusts confirmed that incorporating the charity as a CIO was the best course of action to help secure funding and to then enter into contracts for the rebuild. Advantages of incorporation include legal personality (contract rights), limited liability for trustees and the ability for the charity to hold the Village Hall title in its own name. The Christian Malford Village Hall currently vests with the Official Custodian for Charities and this can now be transferred to the new CIO.

ACRE provided us with a model CIO constitution for village halls governed by the model village hall Trust Deed which had been pre approved by the Charity Commission. The trustees decided to use this model constitution due to its suitability. They also decided that the first trustees of the CIO should be chosen according to the knowledge and skills required for the fundraising and rebuild project.

Our application to register as a CIO was approved by the Charities Commission on 2 May 2024, within a week of submission. Further information about us is in the Governance section where there is  information about the Trustees, the CIO structure and sub committees along with copies of our constitution, minutes of our meetings and policies.

The following pages detail the history of the Village Hall (The Past), its current condition (The Present) and our rebuild plans (The future).