A 700-year-old church which has not had a vicar in two years, has spent £190,000 reinventing itself as a village hall.

Churchwardens at St Blaise in Milton, near Didcot, have led a massive refurbishment project giving the 14th century building its first ever toilet and kitchen.

They even pulled up centuries-old flagstones to install underfloor heating.

They have become the latest Oxfordshire church with a dwindling congregation to re-invent themselves as a community hub to pull the punters back in.

Now they are hoping to host craft fairs, concerts, art exhibitions, yoga classes and Shakespearian plays alongside religious services.

Churchwarden Joy Browning, who has been helping to look after the beloved building since the last vicar left, said: "It's been a very exciting experience, now we are just about there and it's revolutionised our use of the church – or soon will do."

The massive overhaul is set to make everyone's lives easier.

The congregation at St Blaise has been dwindling for decades, and the building is empty for most of a year.

Partly because of this vacancy, in the past ten years thieves have been able to steal lead roofing on five separate occasion, costing thousands of pounds to replace.

Having regular events in the church throughout the week will hopefully deter would-be thieves.

But it is also set to benefit entirely non-religious villagers: Milton does not have a village hall, and the church was the perfect venue.

Like other village churches across the county who have been refurbishing to join the 21st century, St Blaise sold off many of its Victorian wooden pews.

It now has individual chairs which are much easier to move around to adapt the space for dance classes or theatrical performances.

Mrs Browning explained that this refurbishment has actually been in the planning for the past 25 years, but only really started moving in 2016.

The church itself was able to put up some of the money, and supportive villagers raised more than £8,000, but they were also able to tap several rich veins of funding.

Vale of White Horse District Council started the fundraising off with a £20,000 grant, landfill tax redistribution charity WREN donated £40,000 and the Historic Churches Trust gave £16,000.

The refurb started at the beginning of March and was finished just four months later.

The first event after the church reopened was a funeral, where they were able to have chairs on one side of the hall and tables on the other.

That was followed by the first services in July and then a wedding for 150 people at the beginning of August, which Mrs Browning said worked 'beautifully'.

She went on: "I think everyone that works here thinks it is a big improvement, which is a relief.

"The bellringers finally have a loo to go to!

"It feels like the village owns it more now: there are people who don't come to church religiously but are very happy to come for something else, so we're hoping to have craft fairs and film nights - the things that village halls have."

The facilities will also benefit the people who travel from far and wide to view the church's historic architecture and stained glass windows.

The wardens even hope that the revamp might help them finally attract a vicar, keen to join a very 21st century church.

Mrs Browning added: "The Oxford diocese are really keen to get these buildings used.

"The more people know it's happened and see that it can be done, the better."