20 Aug 2026
Latest four-figure OnPath Energy grant floors Sadberge Village Hall
The management team at a thriving Darlington village hall has been...
The management team at a thriving Darlington village hall has been floored by their latest four-figure grant from a North East renewable energy developer.
Sadberge Village Hall hosts a wide range of community events and activities in its events space, from pilates, keep fit and dance classes through to a badminton club, chat & craft group, art class and twice-weekly Post Office outreach visits.
Over the last few years, the hall’s 30-year-old concrete floor has started to show signs of ageing, with paint beginning to wear away and cracks appearing that have had to be repaired on a regular basis.
But now, thanks to a £7,000 grant from the community fund linked to OnPath Energy’s nearby Moor House Wind Farm, the Village Hall Association has been able to recover the whole 124sq metre space with a modern, hard-wearing, low maintenance vinyl floor that is fit for all its users.
The installation was carried out by local contractor Steve Hall – and the feedback from the first hall visitors to step foot on it, including its first wedding reception party, has been universally positive.
The Association is now hoping that the new floor will encourage more people to book the venue for their different activities and functions.
It’s the latest in a series of grants that the village hall has received from the Moor House Wind Farm fund, with a £3,843 grant provided two years ago supporting the purchase of 150 new padded stacking chairs and a £6,600 grant given in 2019 allowing for the installation of a new LED lighting system.
A further £3,000 grant helped to fund the refurbishment of its popular coffee lounge, which welcomes dozens of local residents and passing walkers and cyclists every morning, and which offers panoramic views across the surrounding countryside, including of the wind farm.
Sadberge Village Hall will be celebrating its 60th anniversary next year and welcomes around 1,000 visitors every month.
Village Hall Association secretary Ray Murphy says: “The hall is very much the focal point for village life and is always well used, but the issues we’ve been having with the floor have become more of a pressing issue for lots of our groups.
“Our keep fit and dance class members have found it increasingly uncomfortable to use, while the cracks have impacted on the quality of the overall environment that we can offer.
Replacing it would have been a significant challenge to the finances for a small community organisation like ours and would have required a great deal of fundraising work, so we’re very grateful to OnPath Energy for stepping up to help us once again.”
Ray Murphy, Village Hall Association secretary
“The new floor has made such a difference to the feeling in the room, with everyone that’s been in there saying how much more comfortable it is to be in there, and we hoping that this word of mouth will encourage even more local people and groups to make use of what we have to offer.
“The Moor House Wind Farm fund has been instrumental in a number of important projects in and around the village over the last few years, as well as within the village hall itself, and the positive impact that they’ve made through our building will be felt for many years to come.”
Other local beneficiaries from the Moor House Wind Farm community fund include Age UK North Yorkshire & Darlington, Bishopton and Sadberge Parish Councils, Great Stainton Parish Meeting, food redistribution charity The Bread and Butter Thing and Firthmoor & District Community Association.
Tom Chaplin, partnership and community manager at OnPath Energy, adds: “The hall is at the heart of community life in Sadberge, and its trustees do everything they can to deliver the best possible facilities for local residents and visitors.
“The turbines of the Moor House Wind Farm that can be seen from the village hall are directly responsible for generating revenues that have supported lots of different local projects and has created considerable community value that will last for decades.”
Environmental and community projects in the vicinity of the Moor House Wind Farm which are interested in applying to its community fund should first contact the fund manager on 0191 378 6342 or via apply@onpathcommunityfund.co.uk to confirm that their group or project is eligible.
