Urgent repair work costing £30,000 could be completed at the Church of St Philip and St James, Tarrington, by Easter next year.

A recent Lottery grant put £18,000 into the kitty and parishioners are to launch a fundraising drive to find the balance.

Tarrington vicar, the Rev Peter Hammersley, said that work could start by the late summer, even without all the funding in place. He welcomed the Lottery windfall, calling it "a wonderful help".

He said that the fundraising drive would take the form of fetes and other events.

The church is in the middle of a sloping churchyard on Tarrington's southern edge. Built of sandstone, its nave and chancel date back to the 12th Century, although extensions came in both the 15th Century and in Victorian times. The tower is 16th Century and needs re-roofing.

Churchwarden Maurice Smith said that the problem was its pitched oak pyramid roof, which is suffering from water penetration.

The northern flank of the north aisle also needs re-roofing. It is shedding clay tiles and repairs are also needed for the church's deteriorating rainwater disposal system.