RESIDENTS in Lyneham took a few hours out of their busy weekend schedule to reflect on the history of their village hall and the 80 years it has served its community at a special commemoration event.

More than 40 residents, including members of the hall committee, which are made up of representatives from every organisation that use the hall, met on Saturday (June 11) to share their memories of the much-loved space over a cup of tea and a slice of cake.

"We are really pleased with how the event went and we had a good turnout of people coming to reminisce," Wilma Goodfellow, chair of the committee, said. "When I was reading some literature about it the other day for things to include in my speech, I discovered it was built in 1037 after the land was donated by Major Gerard Buxton of Tockenham Manor.

"Lots of people shared their memories of the hall over the course of the day but Bill Hancock, who was born and bred in Lyneham and who lit the candle and cut the cake for us, talked about how the hall was used in the Second World War, which was really interesting.

"Our hall is still well used and we are hoping to refurbish little bits of it in the near future to make it better so that it will be ready for the next 80 years."