RESIDENTS raised their glasses to toast King’s Somborne’s new-look village hall after its £200,000 makeover.

Villagers flocked into the Romsey Road venue on Saturday to celebrate the long-awaited completion of its upgrade.

Lady Appleyard led a toast during the celebrations which included a slide show featuring before and after images of the hall.

The work included installing a new kitchen, upgrading changing rooms, completely redesigning the main hall and converting two store rooms into a small meeting room – named the Jubilee Room as the work was completed in 2012, the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Village hall chairman Terry Mackintosh said: “Because of the cost, the work has been carried out in stages but at last the renovation of the interior has been completed.”

Explaining how it all came about, Mr Mackintosh said: “Six years ago it was recognised that the hall was very run down and needed more work to be done that could be achieved from the normal hiring income. It was decided that a development committee should be set up in order to study the feasibility of refurbishing the hall as well as working out how to raise the money.”

He added that the top priority in the lengthy revamp project was replacing the hall’s outdated kitchen.

“The final phase was to upgrade the very tired main hall which was completely redesigned to make it more user-friendly with beautiful new curtains and magnificent lighting both on the stage and in the hall itself,” commented Mr Mackintosh.

He said that villagers had raised most of the £200,000 for the work by staging small social events like coffee mornings. However, larger events, particularly the annual charity Test Valley Clay Pigeon Shoot on the Compton Manor Estate, had been major money spinners.

“This has proved to be extremely popular with the shooting fraternity and this year the village hall benefited by £14,000 from the event,” said Mr Mackintosh.

“We have also been generously supported by grants and we would like to express our thanks to the King’s Somborne Parish Council, TVBC, HCC and the Football Foundation.”