VILLAGERS who raised the funds to buy a former Methodist chapel are proving the potential of people power by running it as a thriving community hub.

Homeowners in Horspath raised £275,000 in grants and donations to buy their former Methodist chapel in 2013.

In November they reopened the village post office there and are now using it to host an increasing number of classes, parties and meetings.

They have just started £50,000 works to install new roof insulation, double glazing and new doors to make it more energy efficient.

The works, which started this month, have been funded by a grant from Wren, which awards charitable grants from landfill tax.

Horspath Community Hub trustee Rebecca Brown said: “It’s wonderful.

“The post office is open just one morning a week but we combine that with a community coffee morning which brings together all sorts of people who haven’t met.

“People keep saying they have met more people from the village in the past year than in the past 10 years.”

The hall also provides a space for village events, children’s and family parties and a venue for painting classes, two pilates classes and a gardening club.

A new youth club for children with learning disabilities is being planned and the trustees are also hoping to market it for corporate events.

Horspath post office closed four years ago after the owner of the shop in which it was based admitted fraud.

Then, in January 2013, Oxford Methodist Circuit decided to move out of the chapel in the village and put it on the market.

The church won planning permission to convert the chapel into a four-bedroom family home, but villagers saw that with its two halls, meeting room, kitchen, toilets and a garden already in place, it would make an ideal home for the community.

The Friends of Horspath then managed to get the chapel declared an “asset of community value”.

Introduced under the 2011 Localism Act, this obliges the person or group selling the building to put the process on hold for up to six months, to give residents time to raise money for a bid.

The Friends of Horspath secured a £25,000 grant from the Weston Foundation, £100,000 from South Oxfordshire District Council and about £150,000 from residents through loans and donations ranging from £5 to £1,000.

They raised a total of £275,000 and in August 2013 they offered the funds to the church.

Within weeks the group was told their bid was successful and they reopened the building, introducing activities such as yoga, tai chi, a painting group and a coffee morning.

The post office reopened a part-time office in the building at the end of 2014.