Work about to start on new Shilbottle hall
Work is about to start on building a new ã800,000 community centre in a former pit village whose previous meeting hall was destroyed by fire a year ago.
The old miners' welfare hall in Shilbottle, Northumberland, was reduced to a pile of blackened ash and rubble last September when the blaze broke out in the early hours of the morning.
The fire left a number of local groups and organisations without a base, and accelerated existing plans for a modern replacement for the hall, which was built in the 1950s next to the village sports field.
Now eight years of determined fundraising by villagers is about to bear fruit with the construction of Shilbottle Community Hall, a 500 sq metre building on the site of the former welfare.
An array of environmentally friendly energy technologies, including a wind turbine, ground source heat pumps and rainwater harvesting, has been incorporated into the building, which will be constructed by Stephen Easten Building, part of the Esh Group.
It will include a main hall, multi-use rooms, kitchen and Sport England-approved changing rooms for the village's football and cricket teams.
Peter Brown, who chairs the Shilbottle Community Hall fundraising committee, said: "We're delighted with the design of the building."
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