THE project to create a new village hall in Whitchurch this week took a giant step closer, as construction work finally began on the new site.
Despite many setbacks and several rejected bids for Lottery funding, the bulldozers have moved on to the site, a piece of land opposite St Andrew?s Church, and contractors this week started to build the shell of the new hall.
However, the trustees of the hall still have an uphill struggle to raise the funds to complete the project.
Despite the successful sale of the old hall site for housing, and the generous support of local residents, £35,000 will still be required to finish the hall properly.
Dick Spackman, chairman of the Whitchurch Village Hall Trustees, said: ?We will be able to put a building up, in other words it will have walls, a roof, windows and doors, but it won?t be fitted out.?
Mr Spackman said the trustees were ?very confident? the remaining funds would be raised, which could mean the hall could be finished by Christmas.
?By hook or by crook we?ll do it,? he said.
He said the trustees took the decision to start the hall now, rather than wait until all the funds were in place, as costs were constantly rising faster than they could fundraise.
?I think it will be easier once people see it actually going up ? and some funding bodies will only grant applications for fittings etc once you get to a certain stage,? he said.
Mr Spackman said residents in Whitchurch had been ?incredibly generous? in backing the hall.
?We?ve actually raised over £70,000 ourselves, which has all come out of people?s pockets,? he said, adding that bids will continue to be submitted to funding bodies for the balance of the money.
The new hall is being built on the back of the existing Old Stables building opposite the church. Once complete, it will provide flexible accommodation with large and small rooms, two kitchens and new toilet facilities, all accessible for the disabled.
In addition, there will be a garden with ?superb? views over the valley.
?It?s been designed in such a way that it could be separated into three separate spaces, so we could have more than one thing going on at the same time,? said Mr Spackman.
The lower level of the new building will be built traditional, with the upper levels timber-framed. Mr Spackman said once contractors reach this stage, the project would take shape very quickly.
?I think people will be quite surprised,? he said.
The official turf cutting ceremony was performed by West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett, who lives in Whitchurch.
Mr Burnett said Whitchurch was a ?very generous? parish.
?The people of the parish are generous with time, that most valuable of commodities, they are generous with their resourcefulness and their inventiveness and they have put so much into this project ? they have long hands and short pockets,? said Mr Burnett.