A survival fund set up to save a village hall which was being shaken to pieces by line dancing classes has topped £21,000.

Problems came to light at the 127-year-old Clayton Village Hall when line dancers took to the floor and their noise drowned out a meeting below.

But, following a huge community effort, the association which runs the hall has raised enough money to have the beams strengthened and to repair the leaking roof.

And the committee hopes all the hard work will strengthen its bid for £250,000 lottery funding to revamp the whole building.

Tom Clayton, fundraising manager, at the hall on Reva Syke Road said: "We need to bring the hall into the 21st century and we have put a lottery bid in.

"But we want to show we can do something ourselves and we aim to raise £25,000 - which would be ten per cent - by Easter."

"For the last few years we have struggled but we hope, with Lottery backing, to have a complete revamp."

Line dancing classes had to be moved downstairs after beams supporting the upstairs ballroom failed modern safety standards.

A full survey of the building, which caters for groups including mother and toddlers, a youth club and yoga classes, was carried out, and major fundraising began in September, 2000.

Ron Kelly, chairman of the hall and of Clayton Community Association, said they had a great response from the villagers, who held jumble sales, coffee mornings and sell-out video afternoons where they charted the history of Clayton.

They also commissioned a village calendar and sold specially-designed mugs of the village.

He said some of the money had been ploughed back into decorating the hall and a substantial amount had been moved to the village hall bank account but they had £13,000 in the survival fund bank account and were going ahead with urgent repairs to the roof.

He said: "Once we have fixed the roof we can do the upstairs so we can use the dance area and re-open the bar, which will bring profit in.

"It is a central meeting place for everyone in Clayton. More than 900 houses have been built in the last three years, so the need for it is even greater now."