"Llangasty Village Hall is situated across Llangors Lake from the village of Llangors and is unique in that it isn't in a village.

Llangasty Village Hall was built in 1929 by the Raikes family and bequeathed to the local community. It was a popular venue for all kinds of social activities in its early years.

Pennorth residents remember young people from Llangors rowing across the Lake to come to dances at the Hall. But, as cars and television transformed our local culture, by the year 2000 Llangasty Village Hall was falling into disrepair and disuse.

Across the lake, Llangors Youth & Community Centre had created a magnificent new Hall that is consistently used for a huge range of community activities.

In the much smaller community of Llangasty/Pennorth, a group of dedicated volunteers, set out to save their Hall, renovate the building and revitalise activities to provide the Hall with a regular income and ensure its survival.

With precious little money in the kitty, fundraising activities of all sorts paid for repairs, while volunteer work days patched the roof, mended gutters and cleaned and painted the walls, inside and out.

With the help of Brecon Beacons National Park, young people from the MOSAIC project spent a weekend sanding and cleaning all the wooden panelling in the Hall. But these efforts were never sufficient and it became clear that the local community on its own could neither generate the income nor organise an adequate programme of activities.

We talked of promoting the hall as a venue for field studies - we had the ideal situation on the banks of the lake with beautiful countryside all around us but needed to do something about our sub-standard kitchen and loos.

Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations (PAVO) was promoting the Enterprising Communities Building Fund which provides grants from European funding to village halls just like ours through a series of meetings across Powys.

Schemes funded under the PAVO grant are to act as examples to other village halls to assist them to become more viable and sustainable.

I attended a meeting where it became evident our ideas might come to fruition if we could meet the criteria. Further PAVO was keen to support joint projects. So I went and introduced myself to Mike Featherstone from Llangors Youth & Community Centre.

We decided that together we really had a really good project and invited PAVO's Anne Hill to discuss it. Our application was approved and as the funding provided through this source required to be matched £ for £, we discussed the matter with Brecon Beacons National Parks (BBNP) Sustainable Development Fund's Helen Roderick, and were once again successful.

We felt that two communities working together to achieve their aims could do some real good for our locality whilst at the same time giving the halls the tangible resources they require.

For example, Llangors needed blackout curtains so that presentations could be mounted during daylight hours and a source of renewable energy to reduce their heating cost. Llangasty needed a new kitchen, disabled access and new loos.

By promoting our two halls as centres for field studies, we anticipate increased use of both Halls during the daytime which will, in time, make them sustainable and financially viable.

Llangors has a wealth of sporting activities to offer - water sports, fishing, horse riding, climbing, as well as pubs and accommodation, the Crannog Visitor Centre and lakeside café.

At Llangasty we are set at the foot of the Allt - a hill of historical and geological interest - and the lakeside meadows at Calch Ty Mawr Lime (an on-going restoration project which runs specialist courses in traditional and ecological building) which are of particular interest to conservationist for the wildlife, flora and fauna.

Set in the Brecon Beacons National Park the area is of interest to student groups studying tourism, geology, conservation and much more.

As part of our project some equipment has been bought specifically for the use of children's projects run by Brecknock Wildlife Society such as the forthcoming event to mark National Nest Box Week.

Increased visitor numbers would provide an economic boost to local businesses. We have excellent interpretation boards at each hall and way-marked footpaths round the lake creating a village hall trail between the two.

Renewable energy (at Llangors) would decrease their running costs. Increased tourism will also impact on nearby villages (Bwlch, Llanfihangel Talyllyn) and reach further afield to Brecon and Crickhowell.

As both halls complete their project funding period, we decided to invite our local community and our fund providers - PAVO and BBNP - to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude - to a celebration and official re-opening of Llangasty Village Hall on Friday, 25th January 2008.

February/March marks the end of our funding period but it is really only the beginning of what we hope will be a truly sustainable future for both halls and increased economic benefits for our lakeside community.

If you would like further information about how to hire our halls for functions, events or FIELD STUDIES please go to our website, which is listed to the right of this page, and contact us."

Article written by Frances Isaacs