A RELENTLESS fundraising campaign by a tiny Sedgemoor village has saved its ancient church from ruin.

Parishioners from Middlezoy's Holy Cross Church may be small in number - around 30 on a weekly basis - but they have raised £50,000 to renovate their decaying place of worship.

While grants from English Heritage, Somerset Churches and Historic Churches Restoration amongst others have significantly bolstered attempts to reach the quarter of a million pound target, the money would be near useless without the efforts of the Middlezoy community.

Colin Hayman, chairman of the Holy Cross Restoration Fund, told the Mercury how a statutory inspection of the church in 2001 changed the whole focus of its congregation.

"We had been raising money to make the church more usable by installing toilets, putting in a hearing loop system and getting everything to comply with health and safety standards.

"Every five years churches have to be inspected - it's called a quinquinellium - and that uncovered a string of rather large and expensive problems."

Beams dating back hundreds of years had rotted away causing huge problems to the roof covering the south aisle, and vast amounts of stonework was also in desperate need of repair.

A giant scaffold promptly covered the grade one listed building, which can be traced back to 1268, and there it stayed for nearly two years while cash was raised to fund the work.

"The tower and the aisle cost around £87,000 each to improve but a lot of money had to be spent on inspections and reports to English Heritage," Mr Hayman continued.

"People in the village kept asking where the money was going and when work was going to start but we actually had up to 12 people at one time working in the tower - you just couldn't see them!"

At a rate of more than one fundraising event a month, Middlezoy pulled together to save the centrepiece of their village, but with only 800 people living in the community, it began to put a strain on people's finances and generosity.

Mr Hayman said: "At first everyone is very enthusiastic but, understandably, people start to think how much more they could afford to give. We now have more things we want to do to the inside of the church to make it more accessible to people.

"We want to thank everyone who had supported us and helped us get to this landmark. At least we have the building done and we can concentrate on other things."

A celebration evening will take place on June 8 and 9 to thank the village when the church will be open and displays showing the work carried out will be on show.