A photo competition has been launched to support isolated, rural village halls .

Insurance company Allied Westminster is setting up a ‘Wonderful Villages’ to mark 100 years of the first village halls advisory service.

The competition is intended to help out cash-strapped village halls throughout the UK's rural areas.

A spokesman said: "Most community halls are small charities which struggle with finances yet provide a vital service in their rural communities. The competition aims to highlight their marvellous contribution to village and community well-being with the theme: 'Village Life - a photo which characterises the value of community in your village'."

Village halls are invited to submit photographs to the competition, with the chance to win funding to help with their finances.

The winning hall will receive a top prize of £1,000 to help finance the village hall, as well as a £500 award to the photographer themselves. Other cash prizes will also be on offer.

The competition will commence on Saturday, December 15 and will run on for the next few months. Village halls are welcome to put forward as many entries to the competition as they please.

A spokesman added: "This is a non-commercial initiative and no entrance fee or purchase is necessary for halls to take part. Its aim is to encourage community spirit and reward it.

"ACRE (Action for Communities in Rural England) is publicising the event, as are more than thirty of the Rural Community Councils (RCCs) which care for community halls throughout Britain. We hope that their publicity efforts, together with our own, will spread the news to several thousand halls but would welcome further assistance in getting word to more isolated halls, especially those without websites or social media connections. A proportion of the 10,000 village halls in Britain have no direct connections through support networks and are left to fend for themselves financially. All are small charities."

To find out more about the competition, visit villagehallsurvey.com/survey/photo-competition