Honiton gymnastics club moves to new building after years of struggle

Watch Honiton Gymnastics Club preparing for their big move

Honiton Gymnastics Club has celebrated its 40th anniversary by packing up its old home and moving to a new permanent facility.

On Saturday 3 February morning parents and club members gathered for the final session and to prepare for the big move.

Founder James Reddy said: "It's very difficult to find a building that can house so many gymnasts and so many coaches as well. We are moving to a building that will be more than big enough to suit our needs.

"It's got enough room for recreational gymnastics, it's got enough room for our competitive gymnasts, which we've got more than 200.

"It's got enough room for all of the extra community activity that we do as well.

"We have gymnasts who stack on top of each other, they throw each other for somersaults, so we need a high ceiling.

"It's such a big move for us. We're very excited about it."

The group were given notice to leave their current space two years ago, and since then have been trying to find a replacement.James said: "We're used to late nights and early mornings, but when we've been doing this move it's been particularly tiring.

"We've had work going on for the last four weeks over there, we've had heating installed, we've had walls taken down, walls put up, kitchens put in. We've had builders over there working for four weeks. So it really has been a big effort."