FIRE service and police investigators will spend today searching the wreckage of a derelict working men's club that burned down yesterday.

People in Oakenshaw, near Willington, looked on as seven fire crews fought the blaze in the centre of the village.

The club closed in August 2001, despite a rescue campaign by villagers who put £25,000 of their own money into repairs and furnishings.

In the early 1990s, the building had been taken over by the Federation Brewery, which wrote off a £40,000 debt in exchange for the deeds.

It is believed to have been recently sold to a property developer which planned to build homes on the site.

In the past few months youngsters have been seen playing in the building.

Firefighters noticed signs of forced entry when they answered yesterday's emergency call.

A fire brigade spokesman said the blaze had probably been started deliberately.

He said: "Children have been going in to the building and we have been called out to a number of small fires there."

Although the club was gutted, no other buildings in the village were affected.