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This is a text-only version of an article first published on Tuesday, 16 October 2018. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
TWO weeks of celebrations marked the opening of Burford's super-modern £3.7m new Warwick Hall to the public. Currently the biggest church hall building project in Oxfordshire, the facility has taken seven years to come to fruition.
The two-storey renovation has seen the original medieval building near to St John the Baptist Church more than triple in size.
It will be used for church and community activities and is much-needed as Burford does not have a town hall or community centre. The planning started back in 2009 when, at a church weekend away, the Rt Revd Paul Williams, then Bishop of Kensington, had challenged the congregation to have 'a big, bold, scary vision that without God's help was bound to fail. ' As they planned and prayed about the Warwick Hall the vision got bigger and bolder and scarier as they realised that they needed a hall that was going to cost £3.7m if it was going to serve the church and community for the next 100 years. The church office has moved to the new hall, which is transforming what the church can offer, from a marriage course to lots of space for children in the lively Sunday club, to quiet rooms for counselling to a community Christmas lunch.
The Warwick Cafe is open daily as a meeting place for the local community and visitors, not just hirers of the hall.
The new building will also be heavily used by the community and there are already bookings for ballet and exercise classes, local society meetings, AGMs and private parties. David Findlay from Acanthus Clews is the architect responsible for the design.
The building is inkeeping with the Cotswold stone of the historic town and individual rooms will be named after the major benefactors.
The Greening Room will honour the late Olive Greening, whose legacy funded a huge amount of the scheme.
Olive and her husband Herbert lived in Burford all of their lives and worshipped at St John the Baptist's.
The Gauntlett Room remembers Liz Gauntlett, a churchwarden who died in her mid 40s who left her estate to the project, and Audrey Tremaine's legacy is marked with The Tremaine Room. The Revd Richard Coombs, the Vicar, said: "We want visitors to experience warm hospitality, food and drink at every event.
We want to tell the story of God's love and generosity. "Our vision is that the new Warwick Hall will be 'the heart of our church's ministry and the heart of our community's life.'".