'Rectory Farm Fun Day' will celebrate opening of new community hall named after long lost pub

A 'fun day' will take place in Rectory Farm this weekend to mark the official opening of the community centre's newly refurbished hall.

The 'Rectory Farm Fun Day' will take place on Saturday, September 25 from 11am to 3pm at the Rectory Farm Community Centre. There will plenty of activities for residents to enjoy throughout the day including garden games, a bouncy castle, live performances, arts and crafts, refreshments and even rescue animals.

The new community hall will be officially opened by MP for Northampton South, Andrew Lewer, and the Mayor of Northampton, Councillor Rufia Ashraf (Lab, St James). It will be named 'The Barn Owl Hall' as a fitting tribute to a former pub in the area, which was replaced by a Co op store in 2016.Councillor James Hill (Con, Rectory Farm) said: "The pub was going to be bought by the Co op and the pub had been there for 40 odd years and this was not long after I had been elected. Obviously, residents were not very happy with that and we did run a campaign to try and save the pub and, unfortunately, we were not successful in that and the pub did eventually become a co op but what we were able to do was get the £100,000 out of the developers and this was paid towards the council."

A part of that money as well as money from the Northampton Town Council's Councillors' Community Fund was used to fund the extension and refurbishment of the Rectory Farm Community Centre so that a new spacious hall could be added and the kitchen as well as the toilets and the rest of the centre could be refurbished with more up to date facilities.

This work - costing just under £300,000 - finished shortly before the first national lockdown in March 2020 but, sadly because of the timing of this, the official opening of the new community hall could not go ahead until now.

Councillor Hill added: "We are going to have a bouncy castle, all sorts of activities going on and hopefully it will be a really good event and we will have some nice weather, of course. Everyone is welcome to attend and, hopefully it will be a big event and just a way of celebrating the fact that we are able to get this new facility that will hopefully be a benefit to everyone for years to come."

West Northamptonshire Council, in 'phase two' of this development, are currently looking to work with Community Spaces Northampton to refurbish the car park around the Community Centre. Community Spaces Northampton manage the Rectory Farm community centre as well as a range of other centres across the town.

For more information about the Rectory Farm Community Centre renovation, visit the West Northamptonshire Council website.