| To preserve the long term future of the area by retaining and if possible enhancing local services, infrastructure and facilities, promoting a safe and healthy community. |
COMMUNITY FACILITIES
There are three community facilities in Holwell - the village hall, the parish church and the nursery school. Despite the limited venues, the parish has enjoyed a range of regular activities, which included annual events such as the church fete and harvest supper, and more frequent events such as bi-annual ‘Fish & Chip’ quizzes, Parish Council and Village Hall meetings and club activities. With the exception of the Youth club, all have met at the Village Hall. The Youth Club only made use of the Hall on a monthly basis for activities which could not be enjoyed at its usual venue, the Granary, which is next to the new Rectory. The village now has an open space next to the Village Hall that can be used by its residents for events and activities, and which can provide a play area for Holwell’s children.
Holwell’s last public house, The Fox Inn, burnt down in 1963, and the garage and village shop closed in 1988 and 1995 respectively. Having been reopened in 1982, and despite having 38 children attending in 1987, the village primary school closed in 1990 (the building is now used by Holwell Nursery).
In the consultation in April 2016, where residents were encouraged to say what they wanted to see in Holwell, there was strong feedback wishing for new facilities such as a community shop, pub, sports facilities, coffee shop, countered by a strong sense that these had been tried before and found unviable. A shop/bar or social club was proposed as an activity that the village hall could incorporate. Also high on the list was a recreation ground or children’s play area that could be used for village functions or sports and there is now a facility for this next to the village hall. In the October 2016 Household Questionnaire, 70% of respondents asked for recreation space with amenity use and children’s play area. A further 55% stated that they would regularly support a shop in Holwell.
VILLAGE HALL
The land on which the hall stands was given to the village in 1923 by the Digby family for the specific purpose of providing a village hall for use by the community. The building itself is an ex-army corrugated iron hut which was erected in 1924 and has since seen little change except for the addition of a kitchen area. The freehold of
the hall is held by the Official Custodian for Charities in trust for the village hall’s management committee. In 2005, a 50-year lease of the land behind and to the side of the hall was agreed with the Digby family in order to provide adequate and safe off-street parking for users of the hall.
In 2011, an informal survey of the hall was made highlighting concerns over the likely life of the hall’s structure, prompting the need to consider the long-term future of the building.
In 2014, the hall committee were approached by a local landowner who offered to transfer the freehold of some two acres of land elsewhere in the parish for the construction of a new hall in return for the committee making a joint planning application for the residential development of the adjoining land. The proposal was put before residents at the Annual General Meeting in May 2016. The majority of residents did not support the proposal, largely reflecting their opposition to the proposed residential development, and the committee withdrew from the joint application.
In 2016, a Village Hall Survey was carried out as part of Holwell’s Neighbourhood Plan process, and demonstrated that the majority of Holwell’s residents viewed the presence of a village hall as an important if not essential part of a village community. Although the majority indicated their preference for the hall remaining at or close to its current location, there was a sharp division of views as to whether the hall should be repaired or replaced.
In 2017 the Hall Committee decided to commission an independent feasibility study to investigate the various options in terms of maintaining, repairing, improving or rebuilding the Hall, and their cost and timescale. The feasibility study was presented to the village in November 2018 and included three new build options – one purpose designed and built, and two ‘off-the-shelf’ buildings, as well as three options to refurbish and repair. Detailed costings were provided for each, so that village residents could make an informed decision as to which option they wished the Committee to pursue. The majority of votes received were for the purpose designed new build option, although support was also shown for each of the three refurbishment and repair options. A 100 Club has been established specifically to raise funds for the new hall.
Various repair and maintenance works to the hall have been carried out by a group of volunteers, most recently planting the saplings donated by the Woodland Trust next to the fencing around the new recreation field adjacent to the hall that is being leased from Sherborne Castle Estates.
The hall has been regularly used – on a weekly basis by Dance Fit, Table Tennis and Circuit Training groups, and on a less regular basis by Holwell’s Youth Club, Short Mat Bowls group, a U3A art group and Holwell Women’s Institute. Regular new uses include a church group and a folk group. The Village Hall Committee have also regularly hosted two Quiz Nights a year and the annual Harvest Supper. Other fundraising events have included car boot sales, a skittles evening with BBQ using the hall’s own skittle alley (brought from its storage at Pulham Rectory) and a Winter Warmer event comprising stalls, raffle and seasonal refreshments. The hall has also been let for private parties and other community gatherings such as the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, and for all parish and general elections. While the 2020 coronavirus pandemic has adversely impacted use of the hall, it is anticipated that use will return to the same level once restrictions are lifted.
The village hall’s website is kept up-to-date with information affecting the village (see www.holwellvillagedorset.org.uk), including the charity's structure changing from a trust to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in January 2020.
CHURCH
The Church of St Laurence is in the Diocese of Salisbury and has been a site of Christian worship for over 700 years. It is the only Grade I-listed building in the parish and the grandeur of its composition illustrates the great wealth that existed in this area during the 15th century due largely to the importance of the local wool trade. It stands in its churchyard in the conservation area of The Borough, one of the earliest hamlets in the parish.
Robert Le Brett donated the land for the church to the abbots of Abbotsbury in 1322 and most of the current church was largely the result of a rebuilding in the early part of the 15th century using coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings of the same material, probably from the Marnhull quarries. Although the major part of the church dates back to the 15th century, a gallery was erected in front of the west tower in 1734, and the chancel was rebuilt in 1770 and again in 1885 at a cost of about £1,400, when the organ chamber was added. The church is unusual in that the tower was built some years before the nave.
St Laurence consists of chancel, nave of four bays and aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with pinnacles. The nave has an early 15th-century barrel-vaulted ceiling and the north chapel a fine 17th-century wooden ceiling with moulded beams and bosses. There are simple late Victorian pews throughout except for the north aisle where a number have been removed, and a late 17th-century pulpit with reeded lower panels. There are memorial windows to members of the Warry family and to Mr Robert English, many years churchwarden, and three medieval sun dials on the south side.
In 2001, the nave roof was discovered to be defective and the church was closed for five years while a new steel roof structure was erected above the existing timbers and the whole extensively restored along with the interior. During this major restoration some of the timbers were found to date back to the 1190’s. While the church was closed, services were held in a neighbouring church or in Holwell village hall, before the church was rededicated in September 2007.
St Laurence is one of the churches covered by the Three Valleys Team and is the biggest parish in the White Hart Vale benefice, having the largest population and covering some 2400 acres. The parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials began in 1653, and the original register books have been digitised and are deposited with the Dorset Archives Service. The church holds two services per month, one Communion and one Evensong. The congregation averages around 10, the Communion service being more popular than Evensong. The peal of five bells is a ground floor ring, made by Gillet and Johnston in 1911, the tenor weighing over 14cwt; the bells are in good order and rung regularly by a local team with ringers occasionally visiting from other parts of the country.
NURSERY/SCHOOL
The village school closed in 1990 and the building now houses Holwell Nursery, a registered charity which is run by a management committee comprising parents of past and present users as well as members of the community. It is affiliated to the Pre-School Learning Alliance and is registered with OFSTED.
The Nursery provides care for pre-school children from 3 months to 4 years of age and is open five days a week (excluding Bank Holidays), for 50 weeks of the year from 8.00am to 5.30pm, closing at Christmas for two weeks. It also provides a Holiday Club for children aged from 5 to 12 years during all school holidays except Christmas, although limitations on places were put in place during the coronavirus outbreak.
In light of the persistent problems experienced by users and employees of the Nursery with on-street parking and vehicles dropping-off/picking-up, provision has been made in the Crouch Lane development of affordable housing for additional parking spaces to the rear of the Nursery together with ancillary recreation space.
The following policy seeks to protect the facilities that we currently enjoy, and allow them to expand. It makes specific provision for improvements to the village hall including a much wanted recreation area. It also recognises that there is no ‘village centre’ where community facilities are clustered, and although it may be beneficial to locate community facilities within easy walking distance of one another and to the main populated area around Fosters Hill, Crouch Hill, Pleck and Gunville, this may not be feasible and it would be unfortunate if restricting development to this specific area meant that such facilities in other areas of the parish were refused. As such, the policy for the provision of new facilities isn’t limited to any one location, but recognises the need to consider the locational impacts in terms of environmental, amenity and road safety concerns. Holwell is also committed to working with adjoining communities to provide better services locally.
Policy C1: Important Community Facilities
Community facilities listed below should be retained where possible, and every effort should be made to work with the local community to investigate potential solutions to avoid any unnecessary loss of these valued facilities and services. Proposals that would allow such facilities to modernise and adapt for future needs, including complementary facilities that would support their long-term viability, are encouraged.
In addition to those listed above, proposals for new facilities will be supported, provided the site is within or on the edge of the built-up area of Holwell, which includes The Borough, subject to consideration of environmental, road safety and amenity concerns.
In the absence of public parks and recreation areas, the main outdoor recreation opportunities in Holwell are reliant on the use of the extensive network of public rights of way. In the Household Questionnaire responses, from December 2016, the options that most people thought may enhance and protect our local area included better access to footpaths/bridleways with more than 100 comments made about the quality of countryside being the reason that people love living in Holwell.
A map showing footpaths, rights of way and bridleways is shown at Appendix P9 and the latest version of the Footpaths etc. listing received from Dorset County Council, dated 29 September 1989 with later updates 14 September 2017, is attached at Appendix P10.
Policy C2: Public Rights of Way
The network of public rights of way will be safeguarded, and improvements to provide safer and more accessible routes will be supported.
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