Chorley Village Hall

General information

Mission
To promote, encourage and support self help in the rural communities of Cheshire, Halton and Warrington.

Company Overview

Cheshire Community Action is one of 38 Rural Community Councils covering every County in England. Rural Community Councils were born out of the need to regenerate rural England in the years following the First World War. This national network of Rural Community Councils has never gone away and Cheshire Community Action is committed to developing and sustaining the County’s communities by providing
advice and access to funding which will help increase quality of life. It does this by helping local communities to identify problems and then seek solutions, whilst building self-reliance and encouraging self-help.

Cheshire Community Action provides support on a variety of projects. Some will continue year-after-year but others are time limited.

Description

To continue to make a difference, our current Corporate Objectives are:
To support, encourage and facilitate community development and empowerment
To support village halls and community buildings to run effectively
To engage, inform and challenge statutory service providers
To work in partnership with others to maximise resources
To promote and celebrate community activity to inspire others, spread good news and best practice
To build a financially resilient and sustainable organisation
To operate a quality organisation that is adaptable to an ever changing environment and be fit for purpose

General Information

Cheshire Community Council (CCC), developed from the Cheshire Rural Community Council (CRCC), which had been established in 1930. It was a voluntary body which aimed to co-ordinate a variety of statutory and voluntary organisations at national, regional and local levels, to improve the standard of life in communities throughout Cheshire (initially of the administrative county). In 2008 it changed
its name to Cheshire Community Action.

Throughout the period covered by the Council's papers (1930-1989), the Council was particularly concerned with the advancement of education; the furtherance of health; and the relief of poverty, distress and sickness. By 1938, however, the CRCC was involved in such wide ranging activities, reorganisation was necessary for greater efficiency, and to attract more funding.

In 1953 the word "rural" was dropped from the title, so the Council's work could encompass technical developments that had become part of rural life, and ties between town and country strengthened. The constitution was altered to include the geographical county ie the 4 county boroughs. In the same year the CCC moved to Bishop Lloyd's House, Watergate Street, Chester.

The Appeals Committee was established as the CCC Ball Committee, to organise fund-raising balls for the Council. The earliest record in this collection dates from 1958. In 1968 the title of the committee changed the Appeals Committee, although the work done remained the same.

The Council was based on a committee structure which comprised a Council (known as the Grand Council of the CRCC), Executive Committee, and Finance Committee (known as the Finance and General Purposes Committee by the CCC in 1959). In addition there were County Committees. Under the CRCC these were: Adult Education and Health; Juvenile Organisations; and Young Farmers Clubs.

Under the CCC, new County Committees were set up and their numbers grew. Not only did the names of the Committees change but their structure and function.

In addition, the CCC provided the Secretariat for the following autonomous organisations: Cheshire Association of Parish Councils; Cheshire Playing Fields Association; Community Council Publications Trust Ltd; (and, by 1981, also the Cheshire Voluntary Initiative Community Chest).