Work to start this month on new Hoole Village Memorial Hall

Through a local lottery, a buy-a-brick campaign, donations, social events and money from selling land, villagers have managed to scrape together more than £380,000 for a new village hall, to replace the dilapidated 70-year-old building off Liverpool Old Road.

Although the original plans were for a £750,000 replacement, to be built on the car park, trustees have now committed to building the hall in two phases so “donation fatigue” doesn’t creep into the community.

A sod-cutting ceremony for the build will be held on Thursday, February 27 at 2.15pm, to be attended by local dignitaries and community members.

The ceremony will take place immediately after the community Locals Lunch event, which takes place two Thursdays each month.

Speaking about the fundraising last year, trustee Alan Taylor said: “Once the building starts to go up and people see something happening, then I’m hoping for more donations and we can plough on and build phase two.”

He added: “We want the new building to be golf club standard’, meaning it’s suitable for any family event such as a Christening or party, but also things like music events.

“We also want rooms for things like history clubs and photography clubs that we don’t get at the moment.”

The original building, first opened in the 1950s (pictured), will remain open until the new facility opens.

It is currently used by a range of clubs including baby and toddler groups, a dominoes club, snooker club, bingo club, and it hosts locals lunches’ every other Thursday.