Virginia Woolf's great-niece and her husband have donated £250,000 to help regenerate Charleston, the farmhouse near Lewes where the great author was a frequent guest.

The donation from social historian Virginia Nicholson and her husband, the Hollywood screenwriter William Nicholson, means work can start on an £8.5 million project to restore the property including building a new art gallery.

The house in West Firle was home in the early 20th century to the Bloomsbury Group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, who turned it into a cultural hub that regularly hosted influential thinkers from Virginia Woolf to the economist John Maynard Keynes - known as the Bloomsbury Set.

Mrs Nicholson, the granddaughter of Virginia Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell, said her and her husband's donation would help "ensure the future of the place I have always loved, where I spent the happiest times of my childhood".

She added: "Our capacity to give this level of contribution to Charleston is entirely owing to Bill’s creative talent, industriously applied over 30 years.

"But we both feel that benefitting our community and helping to preserve and revitalise the inspirational and creative environment that is Charleston is an appropriate way to celebrate a lifetime’s imaginative output.”

Mr Nicholson added: "The friends of Charleston have become my friends: they’re people who love art and books, of course, but more than that, they’re people who want the world to be a kinder place. Knowing them has hugely enriched my life."

The couple's donation pushed to "tipping point" a fund of more than £5m raised by the Charleston Trust for its Centenary Project to regenerate the home, allowing work to get started, a Charleston Trust spokesman said.

The project includes a new art gallery, archive store, creative learning studio, 200-seat performance space and preservation work on its Grade II listed barns.

Alistair Burtenshaw, Charleston’s director, said the donation was extraordinarily generous and would "play a huge part in helping Charleston see its vision become reality".

She added: "The Centenary Project is the boldest undertaking the charity has embarked on since Charleston was originally saved in the 1980s, and its completion will enable us to protect this vitally important cultural landmark.”