THE Chilsworthy Village Hall committee was delighted when the hall was awarded £10,000 from the Big Lottery Fund.

The money will be put towards an extension to increase the space available for local groups within the hall.

Rob Hore and Allan Bradley set up a ‘project management team’ in order to manage fundraising and to support the trustees of the hall to take the hall extension project forward.

Mr Hore said the money is ‘so important to the community as a whole’ because the village hall provides a social hub.

He said: “We have no pub or local shop in Chilsworthy so the village hall is very important as a lot of activities are held there. We have Pilates classes, short mat bowls etc, but want to increase what is available.”

Those involved with the project believe the extension will benefit the community as it will increase the amount of facilities the hall can offer the area.

Mr Hore said: “We are going to be building an extension on the hall so its more useable and more comfortable, allowing more groups to use the space.

“We hope the new room can be used for meetings and we are looking to get a small bar in there too so we can serve refreshments during events.”

The community has been working hard to raise funding to complete this work and Mr Hore said the Lottery funding was the ‘final push’ needed to reach this goal.

He said: “This was the final funding we needed, we would probably have struggled to reach our target otherwise. We have been very fortunate however, funds have been raised by the committee and we were granted £9,500 from Torridge District Council, which has all added to the pot.”

Mr Hore said the team was hopeful that work on the extension could begin in the new year.