WORK has begun on building an £840,000 sports centre for Winkleigh, which received one of the largest ever lottery grants for a village community scheme three months ago.

The project, which has been five years in the making, is expected to be completed in June next year.

Builders have moved onto the site off the A3124 Winkleigh to Torrington road and work has started in earnest.

Winkleigh?s remoteness from other sporting facilities helped it win £750,000 from Sport England in the summer and this major project will host a range of sports, including tennis, bowls, baseball, football and snooker for the village and surrounding parishes.

Despite a failed lottery bid three years earlier due to competition from projects like the Millennium Dome and the Royal Opera House in London, the tenacious group of villagers behind the plans never gave up their dream and their hard work finally paid off.

Secretary of the group Tony Dickman said: ?It?s great to see the work begin and everybody is excited about the project.

?It will be the summer before the building is complete, but work began last month and seems to be on schedule bar a few hold-ups with the weather.?

Winkleigh lost its tennis club 20 years ago after the courts fell into disrepair, but a recent parish survey demonstrated massive local interest in somewhere to play the sport, especially among youngsters.

There are plans to run taster sessions in different sports to encourage as many people as possible to use the centre when it opens.