A GROUP of community-minded volunteers has been thanked by Horrabridge for restoring a community school hall floor which was in need of work to continue to be used for sports.

An SOS call made by the community association to repair Horrabridge Community School Hall generated a good response from a disparate group of skilled and not so skilled people.

They joined forces, including a supervising builder who waived his fee, and spent the equivalent of eight working days to level the wooden floor which had developed an uneven surface.

The uneven floor, which is laid out with sports courts, made one play area unsafe for three months for the many villagers who used it for a wide range of sports and other activities. However, they were able to use another court in the hall. The village primary school also uses the hall, but was able to use the outdoors to continue its PE classes uninterrupted.

Mike King, chairman of Horrabridge Community Association, led the project. Initially the work was carried out by him and a builder to make a small area flat.

He said: ‘It was very hard work but happily no underlying problems under the floor. On the second Sunday we had six more volunteers, one was another competent builder, three were office workers, one was a housewife and two, including myself are retired. We did another 50 man-hours, between us, that day working on the floor. So a total of 64 man hours to do the work.

‘I’d like to thank them all. All volunteers are connected to the groups using the community hall. They helped because they are good people and because it was for our and the school’s benefit to get the problem sorted.’

He added: ‘There are a small number of people who get involved in village life and without those people many activities would grind to a halt. The school has always been supportive and to save time I suggested to the headmaster the community association take on the initial work at our expense and we’d pay the builder for his time. The community agreed and generously, the supervising builder said he didn’t want any payment for his work and expertise.’

John Clarke, headteacher of Horrabridge Primary & Nursery School, said: ‘We’re very grateful for the generous time and effort freely given by Mike King and members of the community groups in rectifying the uneven nature of our hall floor. Whilst we have been able to continue with our PE curriculum, by using our outdoor facilities, it is fantastic to now have the floor back to being fully usable by the school and the local community.’