IT'S not easy being in charge of a village hall. Especially when it was originally a youth club and even more especially when it is going to cost more than £100,000 to turn it into a proper village hall.

So it is a wonder that Jennie Barrie, who is in charge of the transformation of Wilmcote Village Hall, is more nervous wreck than bundle of energy, although the committee is going to need her boundless enthusiasm if the village is going to get the hall it deserves.

The story starts back in the early 70s when the village became home to a brand-spanking new, state-of-the-art youth club building.

The cash came from the young members who worked tirelessly to raise the money and were named youth club of the year for their efforts.

Just over 10 years later, membership had dwindled and the club had to be closed. The Village Hall Committee was born and members reopened the building as a fully-fledged community facility.

Now the club is flourishing, with a nursery, parent and toddler group, ballroom dancing and line dancing classes, lunch club for OAPs and is even home to the village's meals on wheels service, not to mention a new and thriving youth club.

However, as Mrs Barrie and the rest of the committee will agree, things are far from ideal.

There is little storage space and the main hall is badly in need of a facelift, no matter how much 1970s psychedelic designs come back into fashion. The floor becomes slippery after use, it is quite small for a small village and the vicious halogen lighting makes a doctor's surgery look subdued!

One of Mrs Barrie's ambitions for the hall was to create a community arts venue, which would be tricky with the facilities available, but she and other volunteers knuckled down and transformed the hall into a temporary facility to host the Wilmcote panto.

Stage blocks were brought in to create a tiny stage, scaffolding was erected to hold temporary lights and four pieces of chipboard transformed into scenery and the sell-out crowds were packed into the narrow hall.

All costumes, set and props were hand made by volunteers and the work involved meant, unfortunately, that the pantomime of 1998 was the last.

"It was a nightmare," concedes Mrs Barrie, a professional musician. "It was just two much hard work for us and we couldn't cope anymore. So, the committee took arms and for the past two years has been locked into a series of grant applications and fund-raising ventures to try and transform the hall into a youth club, arts project, community centre and meeting room all in one.

So far, the group has collected almost £40,000 in grants and pledges on its "wedding list" - a list of items needed by the hall in a wedding list style so locals can pledge what their donations buy.

"We have done so well. For example, the Carnegie Trust's £5,000 last week to pay for new stage blocks was magnificent," said Mrs Barrie.

"It is nice to know a national charity will help." However, the crunch time is yet to come.

The major part of the money, the committee hopes, will come in the shape of a grant from the landfill tax gathered by Warwickshire County Council.

Whether the grant request has been granted or not will be known any day know but a refusal, if devastating, will not be the end.

"If we don't get the money we will have to have a look at plan B!" a determined Mrs Barrie said.