THE residents of Banbury are being called upon to save St Mary's Church, which is still in need of £60,000 repairs.

Damage to the roof of the 18th century church was first highlighted last year, having been added to English Heritage's 'at risk' register in 2014.

The church has already received a £100,000 Listed Places of Workshop Roof Repair Grant and £23,000 from gifts, grants and fabric funds but the cost of repairing the roof has gone up.

Sir Tony Baldry, chairman of the National Church Buildings Council, said while he was pleased with how much had been donated so far, he would urge people to get behind their local church.

He said: "St Mary's received the largest possible amount under the Government's Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Scheme – £100,000 – which was great news.

"What was not such good news was that when the structural engineers carried out a survey of the roof, they found that all the principal structural timbers are unstable and without any sound bearing.

"I think it is not too much of an exaggeration to suggest that if we hadn't commenced this repair work at the time, there could have been a complete catastrophic collapse of the whole roof of St Mary's."

A temporary church roof was erected last December so the repair team could inspect the gutter linings and timberwork, with scaffolding alone costing more than £1,000 a week.

Mr Baldry said the architects and contractors have now revised the project to allow for the introduction of new steel work to the support the church roof and resolve issues with the timber.

He said: "This extra work, unsurprisingly, involves extra costs and it is estimated the project is going to cost a further £60,000.

"I hope that as many people and organisations in the town as possible will feel able to give of their means to the cost of these vital repairs to the roof of St. Mary’s.

"St. Mary’s lies at the heart of the community in Banbury and I think we would all wish to ensure that it is structurally sound for future generations and many years to come."

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