A DECADE of dedicated fundraising has paid off for a small village - which celebrated the opening of a hall this weekend.

The £200,000 Manfield Village Hall will play host to schoolchildren, a badminton club, dances and other community events as it becomes a focus point for the North Yorkshire community.

On Saturday night, the village celebrated the grand opening with a dance.

About ten years ago, the village applied for a Lottery grant to replace the old crumbling hall, which had been given to the village by the Cliffe estate.

The bid was turned down but a decade later, and after a lot of hard work, the new hall has been built thanks to the sale of the old site, £30,000 of village funds, and grants from the Government, North Yorkshire County Council and Richmondshire District Council.

Chairman of the hall, Malcolm Hird, said: "At one point I thought it would never happen, but this is fantastic.

"If it hadn't been for the Cliffe estate, we would never have succeeded."

The hall is larger than the previous one and has a full size badminton court. It was built by Best Construction. Mr Hird said the company had worked to budget, on time and he was very pleased.