FUNDING of £10,000 has been awarded to help refurbish a village hall.

The Titchfield Village Trust has been awarded a grant of £10,000 to help fund repairs and refurbishment work to the Titchfield Parish Room, the village hall in the centre of Titchfield.

The funding has been awarded by the National Lottery 'Grants for All' scheme and will now go towards the Trusts £100,000 project to rejuvenate the hall which was gifted to the village in 1895.

After 125 years, the trust says the tiles on the roof are in "urgent" need of replacement.

Having took on the Room last year the Village Trust have now embarked on a fund raising drive to complete the essential work.

Chairman of the Trust Nick Girdler said “As well as replacing the tiles we will also be installing solar panels on the roof after being given planning permission by Fareham Borough Council. This grant from the lottery will go a long way towards helping achieve our objectives of keeping the Parish Room at the heart of our community.

“We need to raise £100,000 in total in order to complete the work but this grant has taken us to the halfway point in our fundraising efforts. With the village community 100% behind us we hope to begin work on the refurbishment in the very near future”.

The building is used by many organisations both in the village and the surrounding community with over 1500 people a month attending events including Rainbows, W.I., Townswomen’s Guild, numerous arts and craft groups, fitness classes, horticulture clubs and Country Market.