A FOUR-year dream and hundreds of hours of fundraising has paid off for residents of Newton-upon-Rawcliffe who have re-opened their village hall after a £90,000 facelift.

Villagers raised a massive £30,000 with functions including coffee mornings, sales and two auctions of promises which produced £7,000, thanks to the skill of auctioneer Alan Tate-Smith. He was rewarded for his help by being asked to open the hall at the celebration ceremony.

The hall was originally the village school which closed nearly 30 years ago, and the committee of the former tiny hall in Newton decided to buy the old school and convert it in an ambitious modernisation scheme, said chairman Rachel Nersessian.

“It was marvellous the way the whole village has got behind the project,” said Rachel. She added that a lot of support had come from outside the village from people who recalled living in the village as youngsters and attended the school.

“We just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped us over the past three years,” she added.

“Although we have obtained a great deal of money from our seven grant funders, the largest amount of funding has come from fundraising in the village – £30,000 – which is a staggering amount of money for a small village to raise and shows the importance of the hall to the local community.”

Rachel added: “The builders started work in mid-July and immediately got going with a dumper truck inside the hall on the first day.

“Dennis Eddon and his team worked tirelessly on the building and luckily no unforeseen issues meant that the project stuck to budget and timescale.” Now a long list of functions has been drawn up for the coming months, including concerts, lectures, games evenings, socials, domino drives and cooking demonstrations.

The committee sourced grants from Yorventure, Ryedale District Council, the Big Lottery Fund, Grassroots, North Yorkshire County Council and the North York Moors National Park Authority, through LEADER and the Sustainable Development Fund.

Treasurer Dennis Wilcock said: “We are thrilled with our new-look hall.

“Not only does it look stunning but it should be much cheaper to run due to energy efficient lighting and the building being thoroughly insulated. We also have excellent disabled access and facilities.”