The Village Hall is an instance of a ‘Faraday Cage’. Although the building is basically a large wooden shed, the walls and roof are covered with earthed corrugated iron. This acts as a barrier to electromagnetic radiation including mobile phone and wi-fi signals. Until now it has not been possible to take a laptop or tablet into the hall and use it to connect to the internet.

Owners of metal caravans face the same problem and the solution they employ is to install a wi-fi repeater inside the caravan and connect it to an access point plus antenna outside. This is the solution that has now been adopted for Fulking Village Hall. The good news is that it works. The bad news is that the user interface is dire. The installation is likely to find its first role during Fulking Parish Council planning meetings.