In December 1972, the Five Ashes Memorial Playing Field Committee invited residents to a meeting in the Women’s Institute hall to approve the plans of the proposed new village hall on its present-day site attached to what was then the cricket Pavilion. Although approved by the residents the report to the committee in February 1974 reported that they were not acceptable to the Architects who advised the Sussex Rural Community Council (who had been approached to help fund the build costs). Eventually the obstacles were overcome to enable a building to be constructed albeit without any financial help from any local government bodies.

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Built by voluntary effort, the first development of the village hall was largely completed prior to the official opening in September 1976 after the original appeal to raise funds was launched in November 1975. The raising of funds to build the hall was the result of much effort on the part of the committee of the day led by Roy Eastwood (the first chairman of the hall committee). Roy was responsible for many money-making activities to pay for the hall and probably most noteworthy were the horse shows which he ran on fields owned by himself. 

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As part of fundraising activity, the Woman’s Institute based in their own building in the village, on what is now the corner of the entrance to Westfield Close agreed to sell their building for development and contribute the proceeds of the sale to the funds to finance the building of the new hall. Initially the Charity Commission Commissioners would not allow the proceeds to be applied to the cost of the new village hall until the village hall was held on a suitable charitable trust basis and the WI had secured terms for the use of the new hall. The sum involved was £6524.10. Eventually an acceptable  deal was struck with the WI and an offer made to the Trustees through the then secretary (Mrs Colebrooke) The outcome of the offer was that the WI would have the use of the Village Hall including the kitchen, cloakroom and toilets on the first Tuesday of each month during the hours of 11.00 to 18.00 and the use of the pavilion as a committee room on the last Tuesday of each month between 14.00 and 17.00 for an initial period of 5 years. At the end of the 5 year period the terms would be reviewed.

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By 2003 the hall was beginning to look past its best and deemed to be beyond economic repair and a new initiative was launched to raise funds to build a completely new hall on the playing field. The new hall would be an increase in the overall footprint to accommodate perceived future demand from user groups as well as the inevitable demand for extra storage space. Part of the plan was to demolish the existing hall once the new one had been built to make extra car parking space. Funding for the new hall was secured from many different sources on a promissory basis. 

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All sponsors were advised that should the project not start any money donated would be returned.

A substantial amount of funding was hoped for from the National Lottery Board, which, whilst in its infancy, had supported a number of new builds for village halls. Unfortunately, Five Ashes was not to find favour with the Lottery Board and the significant hard work put in by the committee came to nothing. Clearly the hall was still in need of some form of renovation or the asset would be lost completely.The generosity of many of the sponsors (who did not want their money back) meant that there was a residue of money available to do some improvement to the Northern end of the hall and this took the form of new double glazed UPVC units to replace all the rotten wood panelling in 2009. 

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Grant success from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) in 2010 made funds available for the installation of a grid-based ceiling with insulation, hot air heating system and recessed lighting in the northern hall.

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A matched funding grant from Wealden in 2012 provided an opportunity to install a drainage scheme in the playing field. This has enabled an extended period of time for use whereas previously even during the summer months, a heavy rain storm would prevent use for a number of days afterwards and use during the Winter months almost impossible.  

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The next major change in the life of the hall came in 2013 when a Big Lottery application was successful and provided a grant of £500,000 to renovate the existing building. A successful bid was also made to Wealden to complement the package.  This windfall enabled the complete upgrading of the existing areas, the removal of the pavilion and a second hall to be built on the Southern side and an extension to the existing car park. Also, included within the package was an upgrade to the play area for the preschool.The building was officially opened by Jayne Torvill in March 2015. 

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Ongoing development saw a grant from the LUND fund to develop a sensory garden in 2017.This was followed up in 2018 with an award to plant a number of indigenous trees on the Northern boundary with signage to explain their value to wildlife. The local school and others use this learning walk to increase their knowledge of their natural environment. 

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The village hall is now home to a number of organisations who meet on a regular basis and enjoy the benefits of some forward-thinking people back in 1972 who recognised that a community needs to have a focal point to gather, learn new skills, compete in a chosen discipline or meet for a cup of tea and a chat. 

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