Five things you may not know about our Community Centre

We get asked so many questions about our lovely Community Centre: Is it owned by the Council? Or perhaps it is part of  Locks Heath Shopping Village?  We love sharing our story, so here is a little more about us, some of which you may not know…

Our grand opening

The opening ceremony of Lockswood Community Centre took place 35 years ago in 1984.  Here are some clues to who officially opened the Centre…

• He fought against Muhammad Ali twice
• British, European and Commonwealth champion
• Known as ‘our Enry’
• His catch phrase was: “Splash it all over – Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!”

That’s right, the late Sir Henry Cooper OBE!

Did you know that Ghostbusters was number one in 1984?

Finding the right owners

The Community Centre was previously run by Hampshire County Council and was part of the Western Wards Community Campus – linked to Brookfield Community School (anyone remember that?).  Fareham Borough Council temporarily took over the managing as the Centre was unfortunately running at a loss.

Fast forward to 2012, and the Centre was under threat of closure.  Knowing that this would have a negative impact on our community, a group of six volunteers stepped forward and agreed to form a Community Association to prevent this.

Our original 6 trustees were affectionately known as ‘The Lockswood Six’! 

They were: Raymond Randall, Geoff Eales, Peter Coates, David Grindey, Dee Readhead and Jacqueline Palmer

Without this huge commitment from these six people, we would not have our thriving and lively Community Centre – it is thanks to them along with the support of Fareham Borough Council that we are going from strength to strength and growing the services we offer Locks Heath.  The Centre employs: two Admin staff – Office Manager Beverley Colborne and Office Administrator Katrina West whose friendly faces you may recognise, along with Nikola our casual member of the team and two lovely cleaners.

The hub of the community

We are proud to be a community hub for so many different people – from grandchild to grandparent, we bring people together – whether it be playgroups or pilates.  Did you know inside our Community Centre the facilities include

• One of the busiest libraries (per square foot) in Hampshire, which has just had a fantastic new refurbishment and is run by Hampshire County Council.
• A large Sports and Events Hall – perfect for various sports activities or birthday party hires!
• Fully refurbished mirrored ‘Studio 6’ (aptly named after our original trustees).
• Fully equipped Meeting Room.
• Treatment Room.
• Kitchen facilities

To view our timetable of classes, groups and activities, click here!

VIP support

We would like to give a special mention to The Worshipful Mayor of Fareham, Councillor Susan Bayford, who from the start of our journey has been our active and supportive Fareham Borough Council representative.

What’s next?

You have hopefully noticed the extensive refurbishments and improvements that we have been investing in recently.  This is to help improve the look and feel, and enhance the experience of our Hirers, Users and Visitors.

As we are a registered charity we are a totally non profit organisation and rely on fundraising and hire charges to keep our Centre running.

From all of the team, we hope you have enjoyed getting to know a little more about us and  hope to continue our journey and success story for many years to come!

We would love to hear from you if you would like to know more about our Centre, activities or to make a booking – you can get in touch with us here!

Don’t forget – we are also on Facebook so give our page a like if you don’t already, to keep up to date with everything we have planned!