Our Village Hall is run by a Trustees & Management Committee made up of 4 Trustees and representatives from each of our User Groups.

Meetings are held bi-monthly and the Annual General Meeting is held on the third Monday of March at 7.30pm in the WI Room.

User Groups who may not yet have a representative on the Management Committee are invited to send their representative along to any monthly meeting on the third Monday; we welcome all help and support.

Likewise, we invite any Sway residents who would like to be involved in what is happening at SVH to join in and help us in any way they can.

The Hall is for the residents of the Village of Sway and being part of the management team is a chance to have a say in how it is run. If you have any ideas for, or would be prepared to run a fund-raising or other event, please contact us via the Hiring Pages…

If you are thinking of using the hall for any kind of event or function do please visit our Hiring page

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

In 1921 Herbert Moser, a resident and great benefactor to the village of Sway, gave land for a meeting place for the Women’s Institute, which had been founded in 1918.

Mr Moser’s sister-in-law, Henrietta Moser, was the first President. Mr Sam Crittall advanced money to purchase an old army hut. This stood where the Village Hall car park is now situated and had a tennis court behind it.

Built of wood and corrugated iron, the building had a stage, kitchen, cloakroom and an annex held a library.

A new building was planned, but this had to be put on hold due to the start of World War II.

During the war money was raised to support a war savings campaign and the monies raised were held in trust to build the new Village Hall.

In 1963, fund-raising started with two successful “Sway Weeks”, grants were received from the Government and New Forest Rural District Council and donations came in from the public.

The Women’s Institute offered a long term lease on the use of their site to build the new hall with a peppercorn rent of £1 per annum on condition that they had their own room in the building.

Building started in 1965 and the opening ceremony was performed by two local children, Jeanette Palmer and Jonathon Gale, on the 3rd September 1966.

Since 2000 the Hall has had extensive refurbishment with a new updated kitchen, double glazing, cavity insulation, upgraded heating and lighting systems and redecorations throughout.

Friends of Sway Village Hall formed in 2016 with the aim of maintaining, updating, extending and making the Hall fully accessible.

A result of a village-wide survey in 2016 supported the aim but also found that villagers would like a Cinema. Fund-raising efforts resulted in an amount of £55,000 by January 2018. It was decided at a meeting of Trustees to spend the funds on a Cinema to operate from the Main Hall. However, leakages through the roof meant that a new roof had to be installed in August 2018. SWAY CINEMA was then launched in September 2018.

The Trustees and Friends of Sway Village Hall are extremely grateful to Sway villagers for all the support given to the Hall over recent years.

The Hall has now changed it’s charitable status to a CIO Charity which is more suited to this type of organisation and we have entered into a new 99 year lease.

Villagers seeking to join our organisation will find our team forward-looking, creative and friendly.

The future development of the Hall is currently under discussion as we look to expand our facilities to provide a home for the Scouts and more space for Little Flyers (Children’s Nursery).