Life and soul of the village 
WHAT sustains village life these days? Have our lives become so fragmented that they leave no room any more for the collective community spirit which, the good-old-days brigade never tires of reminding us, existed in days gone by?
Most of mid-Norfolk's scattered settlements are small, yet in times past the chances are they were relatively self-contained, with a smithy, wheelwright, school, pub or two, shop, post office - maybe even their own railway station.
Tiny Welborne, tucked away off the road to sprawling Mattishall, and with just 90-odd households and a few hundred inhabitants, would have had most of those things at one time (trains apart) but divested itself of them one by one through the 20th century.
What it hasn't lost in the process is its soul, thanks largely to the clutch of movers and shakers there who make things happen and to the many other willing hands who pitch in when they do.
"If you cycled through Welborne on a typical day, you'd probably find it was very, very quiet," says Fred Elson, who has lived there for 27 years. "But when we switch on the lights here and get things going, we can provide a focus for the people who live here and, hopefully, generate a sense of community - a sense of identity."
He is speaking in Welborne's village hall, which on Saturday will be officially reopened after a project to bring it up to 21st century standards.
The flint-faced building has served Welborne well since it was built in 1845 by public subscription for the village poor. Step through the porch, with its ecclesiastical features borrowed from a much older building, and there's the faintest hint of the schoolroom it once was, though the cosily-painted wood-panelled walls and manorial fireplace give it a less institutional feel.
The £40,000 hall extension and improvement project, begun just after last Christmas, has provided better loos and more space and made the place much friendlier to those with disabilities.
Outside, villagers have had the ornate clock - once linked ingeniously to one over the mantelpiece - repaired. And in the hall grounds stands a striking feature and further example of community participation: a bird bath replete with gaily-coloured figures of cats, horses, butterflies and more. Villager and professional potter Ruthanne Tudball encour-aged folk to make them out of clay. They were glazed and fired and attached to the sides to produce a piece of living sculpture - a curiosity that might just tempt passers-by to linger a while.
Welborne's artistic intentions are, of course, known widely. Its annual festival, expanding from purely the visual arts to embrace music and literature, has demonstrated the village's ability to box way above its weight on that score. This year's, the sixth, was pitched head to head with the World Cup, yet 900 people still came and maybe 100 were involved in putting it together. Many were children, encouraged to take part through a photographic contest sponsored by the Dereham and Fakenham Times and an artistic trail devised with the help of the Sainsbury Centre at UEA.
More arts events are on the way. The village enjoys close ties with Creative Arts East, which brings music, dance and the spoken word to various mid-Norfolk communities.
On September 21, Island Slices, feat-uring a folk duo who regale their audience with songs and tales of places as diverse as the Channel Islands and the isles of Scotland, will be staged. Storyteller Hugh Lupton is among planned attractions in 2007, and a Flicks in the Sticks cinema screening is on the wish-list.
That doesn't mean there's no room any more for those staples of village halls: bring-and-buys, private parties, family gatherings and the like. If you want to run them, you're welcome to hire the place. Harvest suppers and New Year get-togethers, hog roasts, pub nights, even an exhibition of mementos of Far East prisoners-of-war, have been part of the fare in recent years.
And there are hopes of broadening the hall's social role still further by testing demand for a lunch club, possibly running it to coincide with mobile library visits. "There's a number of older people here, and I think they might appreciate something like this," said Fred.
With the hall refurbishment complete, the retired schoolmaster is stepping down as chairman of the hall trustees. But Fred has no doubt the momentum will continue.
"There is enormous goodwill to do things," he said. "I want to emphasise that what we do is not about, and never has been about, individual personalities. There are lots of people involved in many ways."
So, community spirit is all about inclusion, really - a feeling that you belong to a place no matter how small that dot on the map might be. Fred puts the Welborne philosophy this way: "If the hall doesn't exist and isn't active, if the church doesn't exist and isn't active, a place just becomes a conglomeration of houses where people happen to live. We believe in community here."
The opening ceremony
Trustees of Welborne Village Hall
The new Trustees of Welborne Village Hall are:
Tom Cross
Andrew Egerton Smith (Chairman)
Anne harvey
Harry Turner
Joyce Turner
Mike Webb (Treasurer)
Events Committee
The first meeting of the new Events Committee was held in the village hall on
Wednesday 1 November 2006 at 7.30 pm.
Anyone and everyone who would like to contribute to planning and organising events in the village should come along. While we are hoping that some new people will join the committee, you don't have to be a member of the committee to make suggestions or help with events.
Anyone in or outside the village is welcome to use the new improved village hall for their own purposes, (hire charges are very low @ £6/ hour and, for local people, are negotiable).
If you would like to put on an event open to the public, (fund raising, entertainment, educational etc) we will do everything possible to help you make it a success.
Please contact Fred Elson (who is now the bookings secretary) on 01362 850268 for further information about this.