Pennoyers - the heart of Pulham St Mary

The Pennoyer's Village Centre project is restoring and extending the redundant Pennoyer's School building into a centre for education, recreation, business and community activities. This will provide a financially viable future for a building with a rich and fascinating history and enable new generations to come to enjoy the history associated with Pennoyer's.

The Centre's future role is vital to the community not only because of the rich variety of facilities and services it will provide in this rural area, but also because the only other community building in Pulham St Mary, the current Village Hall, will close in two years' time.

From a heritage perspective, Pennoyer's offers a great opportunity to engage a large number of people, including those who ordinarily would not participate in heritage events, but who will use the Village Centre's facilities and learn more about their heritage in the course of their visit.

The long-term financial viability of the building is assured through its intended use. Demand for the services has been extensively researched, and is high. Income from business use of the building will provide the necessary funds not only to run a successful centre, but, equally importantly, to finance educational services for children and adults alike, and to maintain and preserve the building and its interpretation.

The major risks facing the project are relatively few. The most critical was the availability of funding. To meet user groups' needs, and therefore to ensure the financial viability of the centre, the development costs are high, and were dependent on securing funding from several sources. However, the project is responding to strong demand, delivers significant benefits in a rural area, can show a sustainable future, and is therefore an attractive funding proposition, as proved by the number of major grants awarded.

The risk facing Pennoyer's School were great. After nearly 20 vacant years, it was deteriorating rapidly. Only urgent action, coupled with a strong, sound business proposal, could save it. The Pennoyer's Village Centre project offers exactly what it needed.