A village hall won a cash prize for coming third place in a national annual award.

Great Whittington Village Hall has had an extensive refurbishment over the last few years, which has been funded by various charities and organisations.

Community Action Northumberland (CAN) suggested to the hall's committee last year it should enter the Village Halls Inspiration Awards, sponsored by the main village hall insurer, Allied Westminster.

The Inspiration Awards reward three village halls which have made considerable improvements to their halls to benefit their communities.

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Great Whittington Village Hall was awarded a prize of £1,000 for third place out of 150 national entries.

A spokesperson for Great Whittington's Village Hall said the committee submitted an entry based on what it had achieved in the last three years.

This included installing an AV system, lowering the car park to prevent damp ingress, installing PV panels, a heat pump and batteries, improving insulation and draught proofing, making the hall capable of being a warm hub in the event of future Storm Arwens, woodworm treatment to the roof, replacing flat roofs and full redecoration of both inside and outside.

They said: "This work has only been completed with the support and funding from many charities and organizations to whom we are truly grateful. Most has been done by three local companies who provided us with extremely competitive prices and the whole hall committee has worked hard to achieve it.

"It has turned the hall from one which was cold, damp and cheerless, especially in the winter to one which is warm and welcoming the whole year round and is now heated by fully sustainable green electricity. We were overjoyed to be advised that we had been awarded third prize so the hall funds are now increased by £1,000 which we hope will enable further improvements in the future.

"We believe what separated us from many other excellent entries was that following the PV panel project, we submitted a case study on it to CAN to help other halls in the area complete similar projects. As a result of that, we were asked to participate in a major work undertaken by Northumbria University producing a “process map” to help other halls nationally," they added.