Dozens of families turned out to celebrate the reopening of the Chippenham Toy Library, which was almost forced to close during the summer.

The 34-year-old scheme, which rents out toys and games to youngsters, has moved across town from its home in Malmesbury Road to Stanley Park, where it will continue to open on the first Saturday of each month.

Banners showed members the way to the new site, where they enjoyed cakes, face painting and a raffle to help fund the moving costs.

Chairman Abby Adamczuk said: “It went really well and we’re really pleased with our new start.

“Everybody seems quite happy with the move, and although it has been quite hard work I think it has been worth it. I think we have got much more scope at Stanley Park than we had at our last premises.”

Despite the popularity of the library, which has more than 200 active members, the project was almost forced to close when Westlea Housing Association announced it was selling the Parklands sheltered housing scheme and gave the committee a month to find a new location.

Both St Andrew’s Church, in Market Place, and Stanley Park were offered as alternatives, and although the committee was worried about being out of town, they opted for the latter.

Mrs Adamczuk said: “We had some new members come along and people were still making the effort to come even though we are out of town.

“There is a lot more room for parking and we do find that a lot of our members drive because they want to take away the bigger toys.”

The library attracts around 100 members each month. It will next open between 10.30am and 12.30pm on November 6.