TWO milestone anniversaries for a West Devon village were celebrated last weekend.

The lifeline for Walkhampton is its village's memorial hall and the month of May marks the 60th anniversary of the gifting of the land by Lord Roborough for the building of the hall — and the seventh anniversary of the formation of the volunteer-run Saturday Market and Coffee Shop.

Since it was built, the hall has served the village well with several local groups using the premises — with its Saturday mornings proving the highlight for residents, continuing to be a great success, providing a regular meeting place for locals and visitors from the wider community.

Instigator of the Saturday coffee mornings was Julia Curry, who realised the village was in need of something for the community when she moved to the area.

She said: 'When we started the project our aim was to make it special, affordable and run by as many people as possible. When we started we only had 24 seats, now that has doubled and we involve around 80 people from the village.

'We have around 60 people come each week, we even had 120 at Christmas — this really is a great thing for the village especially now the pub has closed.

'It really has become a lifeline for the community — a place to meet friends and make friends and share the week's news.'