AN AGED building in Bampton that featured in popular TV series Downton Abbey has received a £20,000 grant to go towards vital roof repairs.

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

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

This is the first stage of a larger project that will involve re-installing the upper floor and staircase as both have been unusable for decades.

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

In recent years, the building has doubled up as a film location for the hospital scenes in Downton Abbey. Thanks to this it has become a popular tourist attraction, helping to bring more visitors to West Oxfordshire.

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."

At the meeting on November 11 the cabinet also awarded more than £4,000 towards a project to install an accessible toilet and access ramp to the church room in 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.

They also gave more than £12,100 to Chipping Norton Lido, as part of its refurbishment and modernisation project.

Cabinet member for leisure and communities at WODC James Mills said: "Once again, hats off to local groups and volunteers who are working so hard to raise funds for community projects. We are very happy to support these excellent grant applications."