Villagers raise £40k in 40 days

The 100-year-old building once served as the village school

Locals in a tiny Perthshire village are celebrating after raising more than £40,000 in just 40 days to save their community hall.

The ambitious campaign began after it emerged that in order to release a £176,000 lottery grant, a £40,000 funding gap must be filled by 30 June.

The campaign, which included a "buy a brick" fund, raised £40,120 one day before the 40-day deadline expired.

The hall acts as the meeting point for 30 village clubs and associations.

The hall, which was originally built as the village school 100 years ago, needs an urgent upgrade to meet modern health and safety requirements.

Had the committee not raised the cash, the facility could have faced closure.

Village School

Pierette Melville, secretary of the Glenfarg village hall committee, said she was overwhelmed by the response.

"At the start of the campaign, we could only hope that people would get behind our final fundraising push so that all the funding would be in place by our deadline at the end of June.

"Glenfarg is a fantastic community but there had already been a lot of support over the years for our regeneration plans for the hall so we were unsure how much more people would be able to give.

"So to say we were thrilled by the response is a bit of an understatement."

Initial work to update and extend the building is due to begin in the coming weeks.