VOLUNTEERS in a North York Moors village have celebrated the completion of a "dream project" to provide a brand new community hub.

The Goathland Community Hub – nicknamed 'The Hut' – has been finished following four years of fundraising and 18 months of construction.

It will provide a range of facilities including a public hall, local library, changing rooms with showers for local cricket and football teams and a fully-equipped kitchen.

Keith Thompson, chairman of the Goathland Community Hub CIO, a charitable trust, said the building has added a new dimension to activities in the village.

"There’s no question about it, this is an amazing facility which will quickly become a part of village life," he said. "We have received astounding support from a number of charitable and other funding bodies as well as a huge number of individuals and local businesses.

"Their response has been incredible – and not just in donating hard cash. They have given around 1,000 hours of their time and effort to level the site, dig drainage ditches, install utilities and dig the foundations to lay 150 cubic metres of concrete.

"They have fenced and gated the site, including planting 255 tree whips provided by the Woodland Trust, and levelled and seeded the new football field. The goalposts went in a week or so ago to finish it off.

"I am so proud of what these volunteers have achieved and the finished Hut is testament to their hard graft."

Volunteers have spent the past few weeks adding the finishing touches to the 280 square metre, eco-friendly building.

It was opened last Saturday by Mr Mark Sowerby on behalf of his father Peter, patron of the Dr Peter Sowerby Foundation, a major funder of the project. The opening featured performances by the Goathland Plough Stots, the village's own traditional sword dancers.

October will see it host concerts by folk music stars Eliza and Martin Carthy and Blackbeard’s Tea Party as part of Whitby’s Musicport Festival, with more events planned next year.