FOR every 1,000ft two priests dropped they raised almost £1,000.

Father Daniel Seward and Brother Oliver Craddock, both from the Oxford Oratory, jumped out of a plane at 10,000ft to raise almost £10,000 to help pay for major development work at their church.

Father Daniel, 39, who previously did a bungee jump, said: “It was marvellous. It was a wonderful experience quite like nothing else when you are hurtling through the air for 45 seconds and then the parachute opened.

“As there was slight cloud cover you had the sensation of going through clouds and then a wonderful view.”

Cash raised from the jump will go towards a £500,000 shortfall for £1.4m of work carried out at the Oxford Oratory.

The existing building was redeveloped and extended to create new community rooms, a parish centre and library.

Cash for the work has been through parishioner donations and friends of the church.

The pair did tandem skydives at Hinton in the Hedges airfield, near Brackley last month.

The new facilities at the Oratory are part of a £5m Reaffirmation and Renewal project launched in 2007 to pay for building and renovation work.

Among the other work carried out included redecorating the parish hall and installing new heating and insulation.

The Lady Chapel of the Church has been restored, 52 statues of the Reredos were cleaned and repaired, flooring replaced and energy-saving lighting installed, and the Shrine of Blessed John Henry Newman built.