A NEW community theatre near Oswestry is starting to take shape as construction continues.

After months of groundwork, the steels have arrived for the Holroyd Community Theatre at Moreton Hall School.

The £1.45 million arts venue will provide a flexible and exciting performance space for artists from across the region.

The installation of the steels marks the moment when the years of planning and fundraising begin to become a reality.

For drivers travelling on the A5 near the Gledrid roundabout, the impressive outline of the 290 seat auditorium is already visible as the 32 tonnes of steel which make up the columns, beams and rafters of the portal frame are put in place.

Moreton Hall facilities manager, Rob Watkinson, said: “It’s very important to us to use people from our community, building for our community."

For Chris Jones, director of Weston Rhyn’s Jones Brothers and a fourth generation builder leading on the construction of the project, the local connections are what makes the Holroyd special.

With a team of 20 builders currently involved in this stage of the construction and local subcontractors joining us the building progresses, he said the project was about “keeping it local for us as a local community, and it’s so exciting to see the project finally taking shape.”

Work on the steels is expected to take two weeks and after the substructure has been completed, work will begin on laying 42,000 bricks.

Foreman Mike Williams said: “When it’s finished, I know I’ll stand back and think, I was involved with that!”

Students from the Face2Face Academy and from Moreton Hall Drama Department were invited for their first look at their future performance space.