HUNDREDS of people flocked to Silsden Town Hall for a jigsaw festival over the weekend.

The event, arranged by a team from Friends of Silsden Town Hall, raised more than £2,000 to help fund the building.

The festival also featured a cafe, tombola and raffle. Silsden resident Wendy Neville, who co-ordinated the team that staged the successful event, explained it had four main aims.

“We wanted people in the community to be involved in an activity at the town hall, to put the town hall on the map, raise money for the building and identify people prepared to join our pool of volunteers,” she said.

“We met all these goals. It went extremely well and there was a great atmosphere on the day. More than 300 people attended and plenty of them signed up to be volunteers.

“People admired the town hall and appreciated what a wonderful building it is.

“There are a lot of activities coming up at the hall which we want people to know about. These include an open day on the morning of Saturday April 27.”

Most of the 300 jigsaw puzzles featured at the festival were donated and they were put together by at least 60 people of all ages over the winter months.

The completed puzzles were laid out on tables over two floors of the town hall for the festival, enabling visitors to view them and buy any of the puzzles which took their fancy.

Mrs Neville said: “We had a few 3D jigsaws and even some which were illuminated with solar powered lights.

“Many were quite challenging to put together. It was very much a mixed age group which made the puzzles – it wasn’t only older people.

“Those jigsaws we didn’t sell at the festival we will try and sell on eBay, at Silsden Library or we’ll give some away to charity.

“I’d like to thank the library for supporting us during the festival. I also had a very strong group of helpers.”

She explained she first had the idea of holding a jigsaw festival several years ago, after spotting a news story in the Telegraph & Argus about a similar type of event in Brighouse.

For more details about Silsden Town Hall and further events in the building, visit silsdentownhall.org.uk/