BRADENSTOKE residents have reached the target to save their village hall with the help of a £5,000 lottery award.

The much-needed money from the National Lottery's Awards for All programme brought to £15,000 the total raised.

Spokesperson Shirley Lee said: "We are thrilled to get this award. For a group like ours this is a large part of the money we need to raise and it will allow us to help many local people.

"We have worked very hard to develop this project."

One popular fund-raiser has been a Buy A Brick campaign. Started in January last year, it brought in more than £1,110.

More than 200 bricks were sold some to supporters from as far afield as Australia.

Building work is already under way on the hall and is expected to take about four weeks.

As well as the £5,000 lottery grant and the Buy A Brick campaign, help flooded in from a range of sources.

Grants came from North Wiltshire District Council and Lloyds TSB bank. The parish church, St Mary's, assisted with fundraising and a host of local events were organised over the past year to ensure the cash was generated.

Bradenstoke locals use the hall every day of the week for a range of activities including a doctors' surgery, elderly keep fit, bingo and table tennis.

Mrs Lee said: "We have a strong community spirit here in Bradenstoke and the village hall is the focus of that.

"The residents have been fantastic and I'm delighted that we've raised so much and hit our target."