The new owner of a previously derelict, 120-year-old building near Wantage has stated his intention to return it to community use in a planning application.

The Old Mission in East Challow was built in 1904 as a Baptist Church, and hosted services and non-denominational community events until it closed in 2021.

Residents campaigned to keep the religious building for the community and to prevent it being bought up by developers and demolished.

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Instead, it sold was to a local farmer on the open market earlier this year, who has now filed a planning application to build additional toilet facilities on the site.

The new owner, Mr David Alder, specified in the design and access statement of the application that he “wants to preserve the building for community use but also appreciates the building requires some improvement and modernisation before it can be used.”

It said the application would provide an “opportunity to save this historic building from further dereliction and provide a much-needed community building in this expanded village.”

District councillor for the Vale of White Horse Paul Barrow said: “We were very pleased to see this planning application come into the District Council planning department.

“This is really great news, and all sorts of things come to mind for its use – coffee shop selling papers and informal meeting place, formal meeting room and overspill from the village hall, archive for village historical documents.

“If it can be done it could become a hub for the village which, after the two pubs and shop closed, is important to help keep the village alive as a village.”

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