Hopes are high today that a well used hall which was devastated by fire will be able to re-open to the public by Christmas.

An assessment of Trimley St Martin’s Memorial Hall yesterday indicated that the blaze, which happened in the early hours of Wednesday morning, did not cause extensive damage to the walls of the High Road facility.

It means that the building will not need to be demolished but repairs have to be made to the roof and the floors of the hall.

It is hoped that funding for the necessary repairs will come from the hall’s insurance coverage.

John Sills, a member of the hall committee and vice chairman of Trimley St Martin Parish Council, said: “We have had the assessors down and what has been agreed is the roof and the floor will be rebuilt.

“The walls are OK apparently. It will be subject to experts coming in but the loss adjustors think there is no particular problem.

“What we are hoping for is that it could be up and running by Christmas.”

The blaze took nearly three hours to bring under control.

Most of the items inside the building were destroyed.

It happened just hours after a barn building at the rear of the Three Mariners pub, in Trimley St Mary, was destroyed by fire just after midnight on Tuesday.

The landlords of the pub, Dave and Debbie Atkinson, lost 10 chickens when their coop also went up in flames.

However firefighters managed to stop the fire from spreading to the pub itself.

Meanwhile, police were last night continuing to quiz a 29-year-old man from Felixstowe in relation to the two fires.

He was arrested yesterday morning and he was also being questioned in connection with a separate wheelie bin fire in Grange Farm Avenue, Felixstowe, on Tuesday evening.

Police are appealing for any witnesses to come forward with information.

Call Suffolk Coastal CID on 101.