A clergyman is spearheading the campaign to raise £85,000 to boost community facilities.

Canon Gordon Dey, vicar of Tong and Holme Wood parish, hopes to raise enough cash with his parishioners to modernise Tong Schoolroom and build a second floor in the vestry of St James' Church in the village for a children's centre.

The schoolroom was built by Sir George Tempest in 1936 to educate the poor children of Tong. It continued to house the village school until 1933, when children were taught by the postmistress who lived next door.

Tong and Holme Wood parish adopted the building as a community centre but now the listed building is in need of refurbishment to rescue it from wear and tear.

"We have to redo the floor inside, reshape the kitchen with better facilities and install secondary glazing in the windows," said Canon Dey. "We also want to put in a suspended ceiling to cut down on heat loss as well as new heating. The ground around the outside of the building must be lowered to allow ventilation underneath it."

The Transform project, which has already raised £15,000, also hopes to build a small extension to the building to accommodate storage areas for furniture and more toilets.

"It was only about 20 years ago when the first sewers were put in the village," said Canon Dey. "Before then the village was serviced by chemical toilets. We put a toilet in the schoolroom to bring it up to decent standards but now is the time to be doing more with the hall and make a bit more of it."

The centre is already home to Tong Women's Fellowship and parents and toddlers group Tiddlywinks and hosts supper evenings but the canon is convinced the makeover will attract even more people.

The ambitious Transform project also hopes to create a new heated room for children's Sunday school in the vestry of ancient St James church, which dates back to Saxon times and was rebuilt in 1727.

Youngsters currently meet in the vestry every week but the room, which measures just three metres by 4.5 metres, is proving too small.