Pub crawl...

A small idyllic Public House on the corner just before you turn to Ham House; Jennie and I ventured to The Royal Oak after giving details about our event to The New Inn. We were greeted with 3 old men sat at the bar and a few young teens at the back playing darts, which I was all too quick to spot and dream dressed up in the procession. We ordered some homemade soup and a soft drink and asked the welcoming landlady if she would like to hear about our event. Lisa Pegg provided us with some key information tonight, which we were too willing to snap up as a woman who clearly knows a lot about and takes pride in her village.

Our time in Spain, Chris told us that when starting a community project you need to find out the leaders of the village. This is more than often the priests, the publicans and the school teachers. So I am taking my role very seriously as I believe speaking to the owners of all the pubs in the village can make the difference between an average project and a highly successful one. Lisa Pegg, as someone who has been to Ham House on many occasions told that Ham House does not play a significant role in the community of Ham. She feels they do not do enough with the house in the community and people are not aware of the role it could play in their society. Ham House could be used as a highly educational resource which could easily be led with the schools in the Richmond borough, but this isn't the case. They do hold a few outings for schools where they can learn about how through the periods of time they used to live in small rooms, but this could be developed so much more. Lisa told us how she only ever uses the house nowadays when she has visitors from abroad visit. How can this be when she has a beautiful house on her doorstep??

I truly believe that if we use these four months now to tap into the history and life in Ham we can make a true name for this historic building in their own village. Jennie and I later went on to see the landlady of The Fox and Duck, Priti, who has never been to Han House. She is very excited to see the celebrations in with some Thai food on the day. The pub serves Thai food 5 days a week at an excellent price. I am looking forward to having some meetings here with some discounted Thai curries! She seems like a lovely lady who is also keen to have a snooker/darts competition on the day.

I am so excited about this project now as I actually believe it is up and running. We have had so much positive feedback from everyone we've contacted and everyone is pulling their weight. We are still a long way off from secure but we have created such a fantastic team I believe we can make it work. Everyone seems to be given a role suited to them and people are taking it completely in their stride to fulfil it.

Thanks for the read xx