The car park
Overton Community Centre has a small private car park with 12 spaces, one of which is a disabled bay.
The car park is available free of charge to anyone using the centre at the time of use – for example, if you’re attending a class, hiring a room, visiting the library, or coming to an event here.
| The playground before it was a car park
The car park sits on what was once the playground of Overton’s National School. The school itself opened on this site on Winchester Street in 1868, funded by local solicitor George Lamb on the site of the old Poyntz Arms coaching inn. Girls were taught in what is now our library, boys in what’s now the Club Room – and generations of Overton children would have spent their breaktimes on this same patch of ground, playing the games of their day: hopscotch, marbles, skipping games, hoop and stick, conkers in the autumn, and games of tag and leapfrog across the yard.
The school closed in 1978, when the building became Overton Community Centre – and the old playground became the car park you see today.
This ground has never been open to the public. It was restricted to school pupils and staff when it was a playground, and it has been restricted to centre users ever since it became a car park. It has never, at any point, been a public car park.
| Free for centre users, while you're here
The car park remains private land, provided for centre users only, and only while you’re using the centre. It always has been, and it’s not public parking for the village. We know it’s tempting to nip in for a quick errand elsewhere – but every space taken this way is one that’s not available to someone attending a class, hiring a room, or visiting the library, which causes real problems for the groups and events that rely on it.
As per signage on site, vehicles are parked entirely at the owner’s own risk. OCA accepts no liability for any loss, theft, or damage to vehicles or their contents while using the car park, however caused.
| A charity run car park, with no outside funding
Overton Community Centre is run entirely by OCA, a registered charity (no. 1171431), not the council. That means the car park – its surface, drainage, lighting, line markings and general upkeep – is maintained solely out of our own funds. It costs us several thousand pounds a year to keep it safe and usable, and we receive no external funding or contribution towards this cost.
Help us keep it free
We’re glad to offer free parking to everyone who uses the centre. If you’ve used a space and would like to help us keep it that way – or if you’ve popped in and used a space without visiting us – a small donation towards its upkeep would be very welcome.
[Donate towards the car park – insert donation link/QR code]
Every contribution, large or small, helps us keep this piece of Overton’s history open, safe and free for the people who use it.