New £450,000 village hall officially opened in Ellingham

A ceremony held on Saturday was attended by almost 100 local residents.

Guest of honour was Lady Belinda Gadsden, who unveiled a plaque in recognition of those who had kindly supported the project and planted a tree to commemorate the event.

Village hall committee chairman Gus MacLeod said: “We set out to do this four years ago when we realised the old hut wasn't in a fit state to serve the growing community.”

"We were blown away by the generosity of so many people" added vice chairman Chris Stevenson. "We had help from so many, but we must call out the National Lottery for their incredible support and Ellingham Estates were also instrumental in granting us the lease and loaning us money to help us get the funding over the line.”

The hall has been hosting a regular events, monthly quizzes, film nights and coffee mornings, and there are weekly exercise classes and plans to launch a village toddler group.

“In times like this, it's rewarding to see a whole community come together to achieve something and what we have here is a real community asset,” said Mr Macleod.

“In fact, we are only now beginning to explore the kind of things we can do for the community. We couldn't have conceived doing things like that in our old hut, so kudos to everybody who has helped.”

A cream tea was served to parishioners and guests watched a video celebrating the build of the new hall.