Boy, 7, builds new village hall – entirely out of Lego

One child has brought plans for a new village hall to life using Lego.

After a three month build, seven-year-old Caleb Hill from Huddersfield unveiled his Lego model of the proposed new Bradfield Southend Village Hall at Saturday's market.

The model was on show for public viewing at the current village hall, with Caleb on hand to answer any questions. The model will return at other upcoming events organised by the village hall trustees.

Chair of the village hall trustees, Christine Evans, has been a driving force behind the real hall project for years. After being reluctant to commission a £1,500 3-D model from an architect, her grandson, Caleb offered to build one for her out of Lego. He built this to a 1:50 scale – a Lego figure is 50 times smaller than the average person.

"Caleb has been so enthusiastic about doing this," said Mrs Evans.

Caleb's mother, Karen Hill, has an engineering background and worked at Legoland Windsor for six years. She consulted existing designs for the new hall and then ordered the several thousand bricks required, altogether costing about £350, and had to source certain bricks from Norway which are less widely available in the UK.

Caleb says he has "always loved building Lego" and built almost the entire model himself, with a little help from his 11-year-old brother Elijah.

Bradfield Southend residents voted for a new village hall in 2008. Trustees called for the demolition of the old hall on Southend Road, which was deemed an inadequate and outdated venue, with a substantial redevelopment planned to take its place. The new facilities will include two halls, a new committee room, changing facilities, revised car parking, and a new play area and multi-use games area.

After repeated applications, West Berkshire Council approved the plans in 2019 and fundraising is currently under way to reach the estimated £2.2m target. The project was disrupted by the pandemic, causing most financial backers to pull out. Still, the trustees have raised more than £760,000 so far.

"Bradfield Village Hall desperately needs replacing to enable us to meet the needs of our users," said Mrs Evans. "To see the new building come to life in Lego is a really exciting step towards visualising our new hall and we can’t wait to get the real hall built.

"The original costing was £2.2m, which of course, is likely to go up, but we are working hard to cut down wherever we can.

"We've had lots of support from local people and charities like Greenham Trust, but are now looking for more donations."

Greenham Trust says it will match fund any donations. Please visit thegoodexchange.com/project/17810 to donate.

It is hoped the build will proceed within the next two years.