A HISTORIC building in Bampton that has been the star of popular TV series Downton Abbey has received a £20,000 grant to go towards vital roof repairs.

The money has been donated by West Oxfordshire District Council to help restore the 17th century Grade II listed Old Grammar School in the village.

The building is well-used by the community, as it houses the village library and archive. It also has a small shop selling tourism memorabilia.

In recent years, it has doubled up as a film location for the hospital scenes in the long-running ITV costume drama, which has just finished its final series, helping to bring more visitors to West Oxfordshire.

The £20,000 grant award by the council’s cabinet will go towards the £110,000 cost of repairing the roof.

It will be the first stage of a larger project that will involve restoring the upper floor and staircase, as both have been unusable for decades.

Chairman of Bampton Community Archive Robin Shuckburgh said: “As well as being one of the best examples of a 17th century boy’s school in the county, this unique and now famous building has always played an important role in village life.

“The project to restore the upper floor to public use is of the very best kind of charitable endeavour in that any donations go towards the extremely worthy initial aim of restoring a lovely old building, but at the same time enabling a substantial tourism income, entirely for the benefit of the village charities and other organisations, for many years to come.”

The grant follows the Downton Mile appeal launched earlier this year and backed by stars of Downton Abbey including Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael and Samantha Bond.

It aims to collect the same number of £1 coins as would be needed to cover the one-mile tour of Downton attractions in Bampton – the equivalent of £70,000.

At a meeting on November 11, the council’s cabinet also awarded more than £4,000 towards a project to install an accessible toilet and access ramp at St Martin’s Church, Bladon.

Members also agreed to give nearly £17,000 towards the £75,000 cost of replacing playground equipment at Bampton Recreation Ground and £1,625 towards the costs of installing an artificial cricket wicket at Chipping Norton and District Cricket Club.

Chipping Norton Lido received more than £12,100 to help refurbish and modernise the open-air swimming pool.